It’s been about 15 years since I last towed a caravan and we had our first outing in our new van just a few weeks ago. My stress level was slightly higher than usual when towing and went up a few notches when we encountered heavy rain. Imagine then my situation when on our journey home the sky opened up and we drove into torrential rain – and the windscreen wipers stopped in mid wipe!
We were on a secondary A road that we know very well and fortunately on a straight stretch with little traffic. Visibility was down to a watery zero so we slowed right down and knew that there was a layby just ahead. Of course we couldn’t see if there was any room for us but we made it in.
So, what options do we have. Neither of us fancied being strapped to the bonnet so after pushing every conceivable control to do with wipers and knowing that these days everything has to have a computer to make it work I rebooted the engine and the wipers sprang into life. We cautiously drove on and made it home.
The dilemma then was what to do since we had another two trips planned in just a few days time, one being a very important family get together – the first in 18months.
It seemed likely that the problem was either with the wiper motor or linkages causing a stall condition which the silicon brain detected and then shut down. A few hits on the internet seemed to confirm this might be the case. It was unlikely that a garage would be able to fix it within a couple of days so I took the wiper assembly out and yes the motor was giving the problem. The drive shaft had so much play on it, it was binding and causing the stall.
I ordered a new motor but it never arrived in time before our next trip so I just packed as much grease as possible into the old motor and refitted it. It worked and we had good service from it on our next very wet trip. BUT…on the way home and in a light shower it died completely and couldn’t be brought back to life. Fortunately we drove out of the shower and made it home.
The new motor had been delivered but not the right one. The online supplier I used wanted my registration number and then gave the recommended part. Unfortunately it couldn’t work out that I had a RHD drive motor and so it sent me one for a LHD version.
With time ticking away for our next important outing I turned to Amazon which had plenty in stock for next day delivery. I chose one with the least stupid name – such as Ladieshow or Sanon or Shigi or iFCOW. Etc. It arrived the following day – I fitted it – it works.
Typically our last outing to see the family was in fantastic weather and we never had to use the wipers once.
We were on a secondary A road that we know very well and fortunately on a straight stretch with little traffic. Visibility was down to a watery zero so we slowed right down and knew that there was a layby just ahead. Of course we couldn’t see if there was any room for us but we made it in.
So, what options do we have. Neither of us fancied being strapped to the bonnet so after pushing every conceivable control to do with wipers and knowing that these days everything has to have a computer to make it work I rebooted the engine and the wipers sprang into life. We cautiously drove on and made it home.
The dilemma then was what to do since we had another two trips planned in just a few days time, one being a very important family get together – the first in 18months.
It seemed likely that the problem was either with the wiper motor or linkages causing a stall condition which the silicon brain detected and then shut down. A few hits on the internet seemed to confirm this might be the case. It was unlikely that a garage would be able to fix it within a couple of days so I took the wiper assembly out and yes the motor was giving the problem. The drive shaft had so much play on it, it was binding and causing the stall.
I ordered a new motor but it never arrived in time before our next trip so I just packed as much grease as possible into the old motor and refitted it. It worked and we had good service from it on our next very wet trip. BUT…on the way home and in a light shower it died completely and couldn’t be brought back to life. Fortunately we drove out of the shower and made it home.
The new motor had been delivered but not the right one. The online supplier I used wanted my registration number and then gave the recommended part. Unfortunately it couldn’t work out that I had a RHD drive motor and so it sent me one for a LHD version.
With time ticking away for our next important outing I turned to Amazon which had plenty in stock for next day delivery. I chose one with the least stupid name – such as Ladieshow or Sanon or Shigi or iFCOW. Etc. It arrived the following day – I fitted it – it works.
Typically our last outing to see the family was in fantastic weather and we never had to use the wipers once.