Cold weather causes windshield wipers to turn on

[tommyturbo]

On my 95, lately when starting the car when it's cold out (think below 45) the windshield wipers run 3 times and then park, as they do if you were to run the washer. I'm guessing it's something in the multi-function switch is making contact when cold. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions on cleaning or adjusting contacts. Or should I just replace it.

 

[rubydist]

I would just replace it since the switch is the same as virtually every Taurus/Sable from that era, they are easy to find at the jy or new.

 

[sperold]

One last thing to try before replacing it.
Pop off the end cap on the stalk (may need a knife blade to get in the crack) and take out the phillips screw. Set the wiper stalk rotary apparatus on a setting you will remember and lift the unit out, nice and slow. There is a little spring loaded pin part way down that pops out as soon as it is clear of the outer housing, so just be ready to grab it; it is usually just the bottom pin (2 pins with a spring in the middle) that falls out.
Shine up the contacts at the bottom after you have taken off the gob of grease that ends up down there. Re-bend the springy things with tips on them, so that they make better contact.
Then put it back together, using the same orientation that you set when you removed it, and try it. If it does not fix it, then you can replace it.

 

[tommyturbo]

so figured that a new unit would be the better way to go, but after taking everything apart found that the unit rock auto sent has different plugs. SO cleaned out the contacts, played with the contact points and reinstalled everything. It all works ok, just waiting for it to get cold and see what happens then. Now to see how hard it is to exchange or return the wrong part.

 

[rubydist]

they are really good about exchanging stuff if they do it wrong, never had any problems.

 

[tommyturbo]

waiting for correct part, my fix didn't work as they still did their magic when it got cold overnight.

 

[tommyturbo]

Installed the new multi function switch the other day, but this am when it was cold and frost the wipers did their thing still. Pulled the module out, all the solder joints looked good, but there was corriosion in a few spots by some of the components on the board. carefully cleaned it off with electrical cleaner, and noticed two solder joints that looked like they were very close together, but tried to carefully make the space between them a bit bigger. Put it all back together, will wait until it's cold later tonight and try again. Figure that if they do it again it must be more than what I can see on the module boards (maybe something inside one of the black box relays or chips, although not sure what they are on that board) and just buy a new module.

 

[tommyturbo]

well my module must have been bad, even after cleaning it and looking it over good. got a new module and all seems good now.