Defender 90 XS 2012 - Wipers stopped vertical. Where should I start to diagnose?

Hi all Landy experts!!!

I wonder if anyone can give me an idea of what to check and in what order to help diagnose this problem.

I was driving the vehicle a few days ago in the rain, no problems. I stopped car (turned off). I started the car again, turned on the wipers, and they made about half a sweep before stopping in the vertical position.

I don't hear any noise from the motor or anything, not like it's trying to work, but I don't know if I would expect to hear a noise if that was the case.
The wipers are completely solid if I tried to move them by hand from the outside.
Operating the wiper switch makes no difference, they just won't budge.

Any help much appreciated
Cheer folks
Dave

Any movement in the wiper spindle shaft where it enters bulk head? Partial seizure can result in fuse blowing, this is a good thing as prevents wiring melt down. There is usually a bit of movement to be had if you wiggle wipers by hand.

Thanks for the clue about the fuses. I checked the fuses and they are all good.

I then turned on the wipers and gave them a helping hand, and they started moving again as normal, just with a bit of a 'knock' or judder at one end of the movement. And now when parked the drivers wiper blade is a little lower than it should be.
I'm guessing this means that some teeth have broken off the crown wheel on the back of the wiper spindle, and that means I need to get behind the dashboard and replace it.

Does that sound like a reasonable diagnosis?

I have heard that this requires a full dashboard removal. Can anyone confirm that?

I also heard there may be a short-cut/workaround for this, whereby one can do this:
- Remove the wiper arms from the shafts
- Remove the screws from and then pull forward only the left/passenger (UK) side dashboard
- Partially dismantle the wiper motor assembly to be able to access the long spring/toothed flex shaft (sorry, I dont know thyme correct name for this)
- Pull out the flexi shaft just enough to clear the drivers-side shaft crown wheel (so the shaft can be freely turned)
- Rotate the drivers-side shaft by 180 degrees
- Carefully push the flexi-shaft back in
- Reassemble

The idea is that if some of the teeth are stripped on the crown wheel, it can be rotated 180° so as to engage with the unbroken teeth.

Has anyone heard of this and had any experience of doing it, and could it work (to save me dismantling the whole dashboard)?

The above is doable sort of I think and if you are lucky the " worm drive cable" will find its way back.
I do know removal of the later model dash is a right pita. I have only fixed older models, thing is with dash out you can renew/lubricate all items.
Someone who has done later model may be able to give more info..

I don't know what wiper mechanism is like on the later models but on my 2006 model the motor pushes a 'rack' back and forth (which is actually a braided steel cable with a spiral wrapped round it) and this engages with gear wheels on the back of the wiper spindles to make the wipers go. Sometimes this mechanism tries to jump a tooth which makes the wipers jam. The teeth don't strip as such, it's just that with a tiny bit of wear, they can try to jump. Even if you turn the wipers off, there's still current going through the motor because as a result of the park switch, it's trying to park the wipers. This can burn the motor out, or blow the fuse. I've had at least one motor over the years that appeared to have some sort of thermal cut out too, as after it had cooled down, could be persuaded to work again, but I don't know whether all motors have this, because I've also burned one out permanently. A new wheelbox/spindle assembly is indicated. Alternatively, it's possible to bend the little tabs on the wheelbox a bit closer to the gear wheel, so the rack can't jump, or as you say move the spindle round so the maximum force is on another part of the gear wheel that isn't so worn. It's not a technically difficult mechanism to repair, it's just a lot of fiddle getting all the fascia and dash components out of the way, probably more so on the later ones with the moulded dash.

Replace the whole lot and don't worry about them failing in a tricky situation.
New parts are available for this replacement task.

Removing the dash (mine's an 03) is not that big of a deal once you decide to do it, maybe an hour. All the components will be of a certain age so if you don't want to do it twice have a good look at all the bits. After 21 years mine is on it's second motor cable assy and second set of wheel boxes. I went OEM on those, didn't want to risk the blue box.