A pretty accurate assessment! Turned out to be the passenger side wiper drive shaft had seized solid in the sleeve that locates it in the bulkhead. No amount of penetrating oil would free it off and using HD stilsons risked damaging the bulkhead so in the end I had to cut it out. I didn't fancy...

Sounds like a washer motor, anyway. I've just replaced the entire front wiper system ('orrible job access wise) and upon stuffing all the wiring back behind the dash I thought I'd best carry out a few checks before finally tightening the screws. Since I'd had the instrument cluster out I...

No, no, and no (within reason).

It seems there are only supposed to be 3 wires on this model! Once the motor is removed you can see that though there are 5 contacts to the socket on it, only 3 of them are used. So I'm left guessing this is something that was done at the factory?? Seems **** poor for a factory mod, though; just...

Hi all, Well, after my wipers packed up I determined by various means that the problem was the wiper motor. And indeed there is a serious fault with that motor, so buying a new one was not a waste of money. But it's clearly not the whole story, since the wipers are still frozen in position and...

Hi all, I need a new front wiper motor for my TD5 and was wondering if anyone can recommend a decent by-post parts supplier they have had a good experience with? Or failing that a decent parts supplier in central London as I have to go there next week anyway. I did check out the forum...

Well there may damage of some sort in the motor, but it's not manifesting during this test. I jumped a thick wire from the motor casing direct to the battery ground terminal and *nothing* happened (this is with the ignition on and the wiper stalk in the normal 'on' position) and the fuse didn't...

No, it's all still connected to its linkages at present. And with that, I'm off to bed! I'll report back tomorrow....

The wipers have always been immovable by hand so that doesn't tell us anything. Certainly if I ground the motor casing tomorrow and the thing still won't work, I'll have to remove the main dash and replace the motor (and solenoid just to be on the safe side).

If I understand your question correctly, yes, there is power present at those wires with the wiper stalk in the correct position (enough to blow a 15A fuse when deliberately shorted to ground - just to be totally sure!).

Does seem a bit odd on reflection. Getting a bit late here now so I'll try it tomorrow...

Not quite sure what you mean by that. The motor casing is not grounded to the vehicle. There is 80 ohms between the motor case and the battery neg terminal (and the rest of the chassis of course). The motor has it's own ground feed which comes in via the plug in the picture (the black wire) so...

Thanks for that! Well, I made good again with the plug but the damn wiper motor still won't work. There's power to it now from the relay but it still seems as dead as a dodo. I wonder what the typical failure mode of one of these motors is - and whether the wiper motor from the rear door is...

Hi all, I finally got around to trying to find out why my Defender's wipers have packed up. On removing the top panel, I was able to spot a problem immediately, although I'm not sure if this is definitely the cause, it's certainly highly likely. At the point where the wiring from the wiper...

Actually you're spot-on. That's where it turned out to be in the end. Mine must be one of the first made after that year change...

Excellent work there, AM. Just what I needed to know; many thanks indeed for that. :)

Hi all, My wipers just suddenly packed up. Thought it might have been a blown fuse but it isn't. So next thing to check is the front wiper relay. Er, anyone know where it is? This is a 2003 TD5 station wagon if that makes any difference. cheers,

Let's try this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/128859641@N02/

It's representative of the worst bits, yes. Trouble is, they're not all confined to the underside of the doors! Damn nuisance not being able to upload the other pix.:(

I'd like to do something about my rusty doors. I won't waste time describing the degree of rust beyond saying they've rotted through to holes you can stick 3 fingers into in places but are totally fine elsewhere. So complete door replacement would be overkill IMV. At this point I would have...