![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My 2001 Saturn SL2 has treated me very well over the last 13 years. As she ages, though, she's inevitably developing some issues. This is expected and not terribly surprising, but a bit annoying and inconvenient.
The current issue is the windshield wipers are not working. They started randomly giving me trouble about a year ago when, on the slow setting, they would randomly stop wiping, then start back up again as normal. My solution was to go to setting three on the intermittent setting, which was almost as fast as slow wipe mode, then switch back to slow wipe mode after a few minutes. No big whoop, figured since it was so random and relatively rare in its occurrence that I still had plenty of life in the wiper motor/switches...
About a month ago, I noticed the wipers arms were moving a bit slower than normal on all settings upon initial start-up, then after they worked for a little while the speed would go to normal and all would be well. That has since turned to them *always* moving with very little oomph across the windshield, then finally this past weekend, to virtually nothing. In fact, on Saturday afternoon when I attempted to use them they stopped a quarter of the way up my windshield and it took forever fiddling with the control arm to get them to cycle and settle again at the bottom of the windshield. Thank Gods I was only trying to clear my windshield of dusty build-up and it was NOT precipitating, and that I was in town on my way home from a nearby local eatery and not on the tollway!
J suspects, as I do, that the motor on the mechanism is barely hanging on and about to give up the ghost. He's checked all the Saturn forums online to see if it's just a glitch with my model that might be able to be fixed with some tweaking/tightening/minor repair, but found nothing. Which is a bummer, because working windshield wipers are kind of mandatory for driving here in the Midwest where the weather can get wet and nasty at the drop of a hat.
I called my trusty mechanic this morning and I explained what was going on; he asked me some questions I think wherein he was trying to determine whether it was a bad switch or a bad motor. After answering same, we both agreed it was probably a bad motor. He priced me a new motor at $206 plus tax without labor. Ugh, that's pretty steep, but with Saturn not being in production at all for several years now, plus being a 13 year old car...yeah, parts like that are going to be expensive. I just pray that the labor isn't too terribly extensive on this sort of repair. Let's also hope he doesn't find anything else wrong with her while he's got her; Bill always does a cursory complimentary check over of major systems (brakes, steering, suspension, battery, etc) when he does any repair work on our cars, so...yeah...please pray/chant/light a candle/send good car vibes my way...
I would've brought her in today, Get 'Er Done and all that rot, but it's been precipitating and getting to mechanic is a bit of a ride on the freeway--the last place I want to be without working windshield wipers. :/ So, since it's supposed to be clear tomorrow, I'll be taking her down to Bill tomorrow for the necessaries. As I requested--best wishes are more than welcome! :/
The current issue is the windshield wipers are not working. They started randomly giving me trouble about a year ago when, on the slow setting, they would randomly stop wiping, then start back up again as normal. My solution was to go to setting three on the intermittent setting, which was almost as fast as slow wipe mode, then switch back to slow wipe mode after a few minutes. No big whoop, figured since it was so random and relatively rare in its occurrence that I still had plenty of life in the wiper motor/switches...
About a month ago, I noticed the wipers arms were moving a bit slower than normal on all settings upon initial start-up, then after they worked for a little while the speed would go to normal and all would be well. That has since turned to them *always* moving with very little oomph across the windshield, then finally this past weekend, to virtually nothing. In fact, on Saturday afternoon when I attempted to use them they stopped a quarter of the way up my windshield and it took forever fiddling with the control arm to get them to cycle and settle again at the bottom of the windshield. Thank Gods I was only trying to clear my windshield of dusty build-up and it was NOT precipitating, and that I was in town on my way home from a nearby local eatery and not on the tollway!
J suspects, as I do, that the motor on the mechanism is barely hanging on and about to give up the ghost. He's checked all the Saturn forums online to see if it's just a glitch with my model that might be able to be fixed with some tweaking/tightening/minor repair, but found nothing. Which is a bummer, because working windshield wipers are kind of mandatory for driving here in the Midwest where the weather can get wet and nasty at the drop of a hat.
I called my trusty mechanic this morning and I explained what was going on; he asked me some questions I think wherein he was trying to determine whether it was a bad switch or a bad motor. After answering same, we both agreed it was probably a bad motor. He priced me a new motor at $206 plus tax without labor. Ugh, that's pretty steep, but with Saturn not being in production at all for several years now, plus being a 13 year old car...yeah, parts like that are going to be expensive. I just pray that the labor isn't too terribly extensive on this sort of repair. Let's also hope he doesn't find anything else wrong with her while he's got her; Bill always does a cursory complimentary check over of major systems (brakes, steering, suspension, battery, etc) when he does any repair work on our cars, so...yeah...please pray/chant/light a candle/send good car vibes my way...
I would've brought her in today, Get 'Er Done and all that rot, but it's been precipitating and getting to mechanic is a bit of a ride on the freeway--the last place I want to be without working windshield wipers. :/ So, since it's supposed to be clear tomorrow, I'll be taking her down to Bill tomorrow for the necessaries. As I requested--best wishes are more than welcome! :/
