[Hank McCartin]

My windshield wipers stop my engine when they are turned on. But if I pull them away from the windshield the engine keeps going. So...when they need just the amount of extra power to overcome the windshield's friction,... ****. Any theory about what is going on?

 

[Lloyd]

Im not sure for certain but all these really odd problems like this tend to be grounding issues, check and clean all your ground points and replace any coroded or damaged wires and see how that goes

 

[eggsngrits]

Hank:


Looking at the Bentley wiring diagram, I wonder: Do the wipers work on the intermittent setting? That is, do they actually pulse-rest-pulse-rest, etc? If so, do they kill the engine in that mode?

I'm trying to eliminate the wiper relay as a bad actor with this line of testing.

Let us know.

 

[saab90089]

only time i heard of a problem like this was in a friends subaru SVX. Which he said once the alturnator died and was replaced it stopped. We both agreed that was an odd thing to kill an engine when the alturnator is about to die, but he said that did seem to fix the problem.

kinda a strange/long shot but might be worth checking the charging system .

ian

 

[eggsngrits]

Looking at the Bentley wiring diagram, I wonder: Do the wipers work on the intermittent setting? That is, do they actually pulse-rest-pulse-rest, etc? If so, do they kill the engine in that mode?

I'll be unable to post for a few days, so here's my reasoning:

If the wipers work on the intermittent setting and still kill the engine, then pursue the remedies as described above -- look at grounds, alternator/voltage regulator issues, etc.

If the wipers work on intermittent and don't kill the engine, your relay is probably ok, pursue the other remedies and replace the relay if those things don't improve the situation.

If the wipers don't work at all on intermittent, then I would say that the relay should be the first thing to replace.