'95 - '99 SW Rear Wiper/Washer: Complete Repair Guide
 

This comprehensive giude will tell you everything you need to know to fix the rear wiper and/or washer on a second gen Saturn SW wagon. Relax, gentle Googler, your problems are over.

Let us begin with the theory of operation. It's really quite simple.

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Power flow begins at the battery and passes through the PWR CONVCE fuse. It then passes through the WINDOW relay and the SUN fuse. It then forks to the switch on the wiper stalk and the A terminal on the motor. The wiper stalk switch completes a 12v circuit to the B terminal on the motor. These two terminals are connected to a park switch, which is simply a switch that directs power to the motor depending on the position of the wiper arm. When the wiper arm is parked, the switch is connected to terminal B. When this terminal gets power, the arm moves and knocks the switch into terminal A. The constant 12v on terminal A ensures the motor will continue to run until the arm gets back to the park position, where it knocks the switch back into terminal B. If terminal B still has power from the wiper switch, the process repeats and the motor continues to run. Else, it stops in the parked position. A rather elegant bit of mechanical logic, don't you think?

The washer pump is much simpler. Moving the wiper switch forward closes a momentary swith that sends power to the pump. The pump and wiper motor share a ground. That's about it.

Now that you understand the theory of operation, let's begin troubleshooting. Don't start by going out and buying a pump or a motor expecting that to fix it. With a little diagnosis, you can probably save yourself some time and money and misery.

Does either your wiper or washer work? If one works and not the other, that means the fuses, relay, and ground connection are good because they share them. Proceed to checking the switch on the stalk by skipping to below the next image.

If neither works, begin by testing the fuses. The PWR CONVCE fuse is located under the hood inside the fuse and relay box, just in front of the driver's strut tower. It's one of the big green 30 amp fuses along the right side of the box, the one on top of the stack. The underside of the lid has a diagram. You should be able to see if it's cooked without pulling it. Next, check the SUN fuse. It's in the cabin fuse box located under your passenger's left knee. It's the blue 15 amp fuse in the upper left. Again, there's a diagram on the panel cover. Finally, check the WINDOW relay. It's in the same fuse panel on the bottom left. If your rear defroster works, just swap it with the rear defroster relay right next to it and if the defroster still works, you're golden. You can also swap it with the relays in the under hood fuse box if necessary.

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If the fuses and relays are good, access the wiper switch on the stalk by removing the upper cover surrounding the steering column. There are three 5mm hex screws holding it on. You'll find them on the bottom of the shroud. With that removed, you have access to the wiper switch connector and the two broken wires which are meant to connect the switch to the plug. They are soldered on initially, but the motion of the wiper stalk fatigues them off. Solder one or both back on. Green goes on bottom, black on top. You can verify the functionality of the switch with a multimeter. Check for continuity between the solder points of the black and green wires and the brown wire above them. If you can toggle continuity by moving the switch, it's good. Also be sure you have continuity between the black and green wires and the corresponding prongs on the wiper switch connector, noted below. Black is for the motor, green is for the pump.

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At this point, if either your pump or motor still don't work, verify that they are getting power to their respective connectors. The pump can be found behind the panel housing the rear washer bottle. Its connector is two pronged. Check for 12v when the switch is closed. If power is reaching the pump and it's not spinning, replace it. The motor is behind the plastic panel covering the rear door. Check the orange and black wire terminals (A and C on the above diagram) for 12v with the key on, and check the middle wire and ground for 12v when the wiper switch is on. If you get all this, and the motor still doesn't work, the motor is bad. Replace it. If you replaced the motor before you did any of this and it still isn't working, that means Autozone gave you a defective motor and you just wasted 85 DOLLARS AND THREE DAYS TEARING YOUR HAIR OUT TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHY IT WASN'T WORKING AND YOU CAN'T GET A REFUND BECAUSE YOU ALREADY GAVE THEM YOUR OLD PERFECTLY GOOD MOTOR AS A CORE AND THEY SENT IT TO TULSA ARRRRGGHHHHHHHH

Thank you for joining me on this learning journey. I hope it helped you as much as it would have helped me a week ago.