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Windshield wipers will are not working there is no power going to the fuse or the motor

Tiny
GREENCHEVYMALIBU
  • MEMBER
  • 1997 CHEVROLET CAVALIER
Four cylinder two wheel drive automatic 190,000 miles

One day my wipers stopped working. I took the motor off and jumped it to the battery and it moves fine. I checked the fuse in the fuse panel and there is no power going to it. I took the panel out and tested the two wires going to the fuse and still it did not show power going to it. I took out the wiper switch on the steering column. I not sure how to test it. I took it apart and it looked fine. The resisters were showing voltage but I have no idea what the voltage should of been, but they still looked good none looked burned. I put a piece of wire where the fuse goes to see if that did anything but still nothing. I tested for power at the wiper motor plug and I was getting nothing. So I am getting no power at the fuse or the motor. I am lost at this point. Are there any other ways of testing more things?
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Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 AT 8:31 PM

30 Replies

Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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You should be getting power at the fuse if the key is in the "on" position.

Give me a couple of hours and I will dig up the schematics for your car.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 3:43 PM
Tiny
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Yes that is what I mean. I am not getting power at the fuse or anywhere else.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 6:20 PM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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Do you have a factory radio and does it work?

If you have a remote control, can you lock and unlock the doors with it.

Power runs from the ignition switch through a brown wire to the fuse box.

Then inside the fusebox, it splits to a ten amp fuse for the radio
and a twenty five amp fuse for the wipers.

Before that, it has a fifty amp fuse in the box under the hood, with a red wire running to the ignition switch.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 6:25 PM
Tiny
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I have an aftermarket radio. The lines to the fuse were warn so the fuse would turn the radio on and off when the car moved. I cut the radio wires out and put an aftermarket fuse line. The radio works fine. The wipers work after I did this. The locks are manual and so are the windows. The car starts up fine and runs. I looked in the manual at the relay box but could not find the fuse. What is the name of it? So you are telling me that the ignition and wipers work off the same power source? I wonder why one works and the other does not since it is the same power source. Thanks for the information. If you have more I would appreciate it.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 7:11 PM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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We know the fifty amp fuse in the under hood box is good, because a lot of stuff in your car would not work if it was bad.

Check for power on the brown wire coming out of the ignition switch with the key on. (Or you could check at the brown wire at the fuse box).

Also, check for power on the factory radio fuse,
since the wipers and radio fuse are tied, it should be hot,
if not then we will know we have a problem in the switch or in with that brown wire somewhere.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 7:20 PM
Tiny
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Yes, I checked the radio fuse and it is hot. If the wiper switch on the steering column was bad would I still get power at the fuse or wiper motor? What else does the brown wire power since I know the ignition is working but not the wipers. I will check the brown wire coming out if the ignition right know and tell you if it is hot. I figured it would since the ignition works.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 7:29 PM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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Yes, there is one wire that is hot at the motor when the key is turned on.

And then there are three more wires that are hot depending on what speed you have the wipers on.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 7:32 PM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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Do you know how to read schematics?
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 7:34 PM
Tiny
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Okay, I just checked the the wires coming from the wiper switch wire harness to the ignition and there is no brown wire it is one yellow, one black and one off white. I tested these three wires just now and none of them show any signs of power. I figure that yellow is power, white is common, and black is ground. The thing that gets me is that it plugs into the ignition but the car starts and runs unless power only flows through the ignition wires when you start it up and stops when the car starts?
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 7:49 PM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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If you have power on one of the connectors for the radio fuse, but do not have it on one of the wipers connectors in the fuse box, then there is a problem inside the fuse box.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 8:05 PM
Tiny
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Yes, power for radio fuse connector, but not for wiper fuse connector. So since I have no power to the wiper fuse how do I fix my problem in the fuse box? Cut the wires and put a fuse line in, like I did for the radio fuse? I cannot see the brown wire from the ignition switch. Like I said there is a plug underneath the ignition switch with a plug coming from the ignition which plugs into the off white, black, and yellow wires that come from the same wire loom as the wiper switch wires. It is not from the same wires for the wiper switch just there tape in the same loom.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 8:44 PM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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This is how I would handle it.

Use a jumper wire with a twenty five amp fuse inline to go from the hot side of the radio fuse hole to the output side of the wiper fuse hole.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 8:56 PM
Tiny
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So cut the two wires going to the wiper fuse and mirage those wires with the radio wires? So keep the fuse at twenty five amp? Why not go higher? What is the output side of the wiper? The hot side? So hot to hot and cold to cold? So I am just taking power from another power source? I was thinking to do that but wasn't sure from where I would get the power from.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 11:07 PM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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No, you misunderstood me.

Do you have any way of taking a picture of your fuse box and sending it to me?
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 AT 11:18 PM
Tiny
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Yes I can get a picture tomorrow. Let me take a stab at it again. You want me to just test jump the fuses? Take the fuse out of the radio and take a wire with a twenty five amp fuse and jump it to the wiper fuse?
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Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 AT 12:31 AM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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We are not understanding each other.

Please take a picture of the fuse box
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Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 AT 12:37 AM
Tiny
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https://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/376352_brown_wire_radio_2.jpg



https://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/376352_radio_wiper_1.jpg



https://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/376352_the_three_wires_2.jpg



https://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/376352_two_yellow_1.jpg



https://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/376352_wiper_fuse_1.jpg



https://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/376352_wiper_switch_and_ignition_1.jpg

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Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 AT 2:13 PM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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Is that add on fuse for your radio?


https://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/376352_brown_wire_radio_2.jpg



.
.
.
.
but back to your problem.
I was going to draw lines and fuses and stuff on the picture of your fuse box, but I see that you have really good access to the back of the fuse box.

Use one of those add on fuses to go from the brown wire to the yellow wiper wires. And all should be right with the world.
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Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 AT 2:37 PM
Tiny
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So just get another add a fuse and add it to where I spliced brown and connect the other side to the yellow wires and put in a twenty five amp fuse. I will do that tomorrow and tell you the results thanks for the help.
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Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 AT 11:06 PM
Tiny
BUDDYCRAIGG
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That is exactly what I suggest you do.

Let me know how it turns out.
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Friday, July 3rd, 2009 AT 12:09 AM

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