[b.christian]

Read up on a problem I'm having with the wipers on my 99 Taurus. It only works on high.

Saw several postings about replacing the relays in the mysterious box next to the battery. Went to the local salvage yard and pulled all 7 relays out of an old Taurus and replaced them one by one. After each replacement, I'd check the wipers again and if there was no difference, I'd put the original relay back in. After replacing all relays one by one, and seeing no difference, I replaced them all with the salvage relays. Again no difference.

Decided to go the route of the Wiper motor and began the task of removing it. Here's where it gets interesting.

As I was removing the cowl, I noticed that there was a very small hose attached to the clips that held the cowl in place. I also noticed that it was in several pieces, and clearly wasn't doing whatever it was supposed to be doing.

Can anyone tell me what this is, or what it does? It looks like a very small vacuum hose, running from one side of the engine compartment to the other. It attaches to a small square device on the driver's side that looks like something to do with the A/C. On the other side it attaches to a round component on the top of the passenger side firewall.

Anyone? I was going to take pictures, but the daughter has the camera.

 

[sheila]

It's the vacuum supply line for evap. emissions.

 

[sheila]

If not the motor, i would turn my attention to the mfs (multi-function switch, aka, turn signal stalk).

 

[b.christian]

I replaced the MFS 2 weeks ago trying to get the turn signals working. It ended up being the flasher relay, but it's a brand new MFS, and everything else associated with it seems to be working.

Put a new Wiper motor on and I've still only got wipers on high.

Any other suggestions for the wipers? I've checked all the fuses, got a new MFS and now a new wiper motor?

p.s. I've replaced what I assume to be the vacuum hose I mentioned. (Attempting to attach pics.). I'll investigate what happens when I disconnect it later. I was mainly curious, because I hadn't noticed anything not working right.

 

[JW657]

/off topic

I bet those coolant hoses will be rusted out in a year or two.

 

[paker]

1) Can you check if the motor gets 12V at low setting?
2) My 2005 owner's manual has Relay 25 as the wiper speed relay. Did you check it?

 

[sheila]

B.christian, you switched out all the relays in the box between the battery and l.f. fender? Vac. line looks like it runs from the vac. box tree from the drivers side to the evap. emissions on the pass. side.

 

[sheila]

If you look closely at the vac. box tree on the drivers side, youll see it marked a/c (air cond.), b/b (brake booster), a/i (air intake) and s (evap. emissions supply).

 

[b.christian]

1) Can you check if the motor gets 12V at low setting?
2) My 2005 owner's manual has Relay 25 as the wiper speed relay. Did you check it?

I don't really have any way to check the voltage, but it looks like I'm going to have to get something. Any recommendations? I was at an auto parts store and saw just a basic 6/12 volt tester and a multimeter. Is one of these what I need? Electrical work isn't something I've done a lot of, but I can usually figure stuff out without too much trouble.

wrt Relay 25, I've scoured the owners manual and fuse diagrams, and can't put my finger on one that sounds like a wiper speed relay.

As an aside, when I run the windshield washers, the wipers run at the low/normal speed for several cycles like you'd expect. In my view, this tells me the motor isn't the problem, but there's obviously an issue somewhere else up the line. Later today, I may take pictures of the fuze diagram and Power Distribution Box (Relays) diagrams and post them here. Maybe someone can look at it and give me a clue.

 

[b.christian]

B.christian, you switched out all the relays in the box between the battery and l.f. fender? Vac. line looks like it runs from the vac. box tree from the drivers side to the supplemental air pot on the pass. side.

Yep. Switched 'em all out with relays I picked up at a salvage yard, one at a time, rechecking the wipers after each one. After each test, since it didn't fix the problem, I put the original relay back in and went on to the next one. Note: I bought 7 relays, and tested each one in at least one of the spots.

After testing each one individually, I swapped them all out for the salvage relays and retested. Still no change.

My owners manual doesn't have a map of this box, so it's impossible to tell which relay is which. I've got a chilton's manual, but it covers 99-2005, and describes this box as a CCM. It includes a picture that looks nothing like the box on my car.

Anyone have a map of this box?

 

[sheila]

^ Ive searched online, checked with a couple of dealership service and parts depts. (who could not or would not id the relays, checked the owners manual and haynes and chiltons with no success. My prob. on 1 99 was the wipers would stall midsweep. On another 99, they would continually jump from low or a preselected intermittent setting to high (sounds alot like your prob.). Initially, i changed out the mfs, then the wiper motor with no success. Only when reading some old threads on here did i discover (read) that the wiper park and the wiper hi-lo relays were contained in that box. So out of desperation, i changed out all relays in said box. Lo and behold, it solved both problems on both cars. Its been 2-3 yrs. now and still fine on each. Edit: Starting at the front of the car (99), 1st relay in said box is the wiper park relay. 2nd relay back is the wiper high/low relay.

 

[b.christian]

I think it's time to pull the plug on this. It's mostly an annoyance, especially not having intermittents, but if the wipers didn't work at all, I'd be more concerned.

If and when that happens, I guess I'll start checking voltages.

:angry:

 

[DuraTec Wagon]

^ Ive searched online, checked with a couple of dealership service and parts depts. (who could not or would not id the relays, checked the owners manual and haynes and chiltons with no success. My prob. on 1 99 was the wipers would stall midsweep. On another 99, they would continually jump from a preselected intermittent setting to high (sounds alot like your prob.). Initially, i changed out the mfs, then the wiper motor with no success. Only when reading some old threads on here did i discover (read) that the wiper park and the wiper hi-lo relays were contained in that box. So out of desperation, i changed out all relays in said box. Lo and behold, it solved both problems on both cars. Its been 2-3 yrs. now and still fine on each?

Which box are we talking about here, I have the exact same issue(wipers work on high only, when shut off they stay wherever power is lost, really annoying) and would love to get it fixed asap.

 

[sheila]

Taped black plastic relay box between the battery and left front fender on 98-99s. Dunno about gen4s (2000 and up). Box was called ccrm (constant control relay module) on 96-97 and was not serviceable. Prior to that, called ircm (integrated relay control module).

 

[sheila]

B.christian, that cowl-attached vac. line you replaced ran from the vac. manifold on the drivers side firewall to the canister purge valve (evap. emissions) on the pass. firewall.

 

[jadillon]

Ever figure this one out? I had the exact same problem as you described in another post: my turn signals and hazards stopped working with no clear cause. I installed a new multifunction switch, but in the end found that the $13 electronic flasher module was at fault. Signals and hazard lights worked again, but then my wipers stopped working at all settings except for HI. I'm at a loss, personally.

 

[b.christian]

Update on wipers working on High only

Have an update to this problem.

Recently had my 99 in to the Ford dealer and asked them to help me with this problem. They recommended an electrical diagnostic, which set me back 50 bucks, but I decided if it would help me fix this problem, fine.

Don't know how much stock I can put into this, but they informed me that my GEM (General Electric Module?) was at fault. That was the good news.

The bad news is that they said they are no longer able to get a replacement, and that my best option was to try and find one at a salvage yard.

So now I may (stress MAY) have the problem identified, but no real solution in site. I'm not sure I want to go pull a GEM out of some random Taurus sitting in a field. I've tried to do some searching online, but haven't come up with any other options for replacement parts.

Anyone have a 99 Tuarus that doesn't need a GEM module?

 

[soundu]

you have two relays. the motor itself does not adjust speed or delay. the MFS that controls the wipers attaches to the GEM module, which controls the relays that control the wiper motors operations. you might pull the wires off the GEM module and see if there corroded or loose. you might have a bad gem module, wires/connectors going to it email my profile and i will send you a schematic

 

[Sable96]

'96 Sable wipers not working at all

My wipers in my '96 Sable now won't work. I checked the fuses under the dash. I even switched the modules in the power distribution box under the hood to test them. I switched module that was in the wiper relay with the head lamp module. The head lamps worked with the wiper relay module. Then I switched the intermittent wiper module with the blower motor module and the blower motor worked okay.

I did the cleaning of the elements at the outer end of the turn signal arm.

My turn signals and high beam switch work fine. Just no wiper action at any setting. The washer fluid button does not give fluid, but before the wipers stopped working, washer fluid action was sporadic at best. Sometimes my keyless remote does not work, that's on and off. ( I did check the two 3V batteries and they are good. And today, I narrowed the prongs that hold the batteries in their spaces, to be sure that there was a good connection, so we'll see if I have any further keyless entry problems).

I have an inexpensive volt meter that I got at Harbor Freight awhile back.

I would like to check to see if there is voltage coming from the electrical connector to the wiper motor, but, I am inexperienced at this, and I would like someone to instruct me step by step as to exactly what to do to test the connector to the wiper motor.

It may be that I need a new wiper motor, but, I'd just like to check that that I'm getting proper voltage first.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

[behlinla]

Okay, here's the wiring diagram for you to study: http://www.revbase.com/BBBMOTOR/Wd/DownloadPdf?id=3d31c60e-2a8f-44ac-876e-37c681e8c14d

When you want a wipe, the GEM sends power that closes the wiper park relay, which sends power through the high/low relay to the high or low motor feed.

So to test this, you would put you switch on the low setting (continuous), look for the white wire, and make sure you have 12 volts to ground. On high, you should see 12 volts on the dark blue w/ orange stripe wire, etc.

Honestly, it sounds like possibly a bad GEM because you are also having issues with the keyless entry.