1999 Jeep Cherokee Sport
~220,000 miles
Only driven when it snows
Last drive, last February
Battery completely dead. Replaced with a new Die Hard last week, and ran engine for a while.
I decided it would be a good idea to drive it. With the new battery, it started right up. Lights came on. Wipers… In-op. They worked last year! I’m guessing that the fuse mysteriously blew when I replaced the battery. No reason for it to, but that’s my guess. What’s yours? Loose wire? Motor conked out with no warning?
Check the fuse first. But you could also have an issue with the gearbox on the motor. The grease inside might have solidified over the last year and the motor doesn’t have the torque to break it free.
I think the fault lies with it being a Cherokee rather than a Wrangler. Call it prejudice, or call it ignorance, but whatever you call it, the simple fact of the matter is that Cherokees receive fewer Jeep waves than Wranglers, which leads to part depression, particularly when combined with seasonal affective disorder. Sometimes all a wiper needs to get it up and squirt is a bit of TLC, but with few Jeep waves, that love ain’t shown’ so the wiper ain’t goin’.
Did the wipers freeze to the window? Mrs. Geek burnt out a wiper motor in her minivan that way.
Any of the other mechanical faults mentioned that would prevent the motor from moving could also cause it to burn out.
First thing I would check is to see if there is voltage at the motor when it is supposed to be on. That would tell you if the motor is shot or if it’s a fuse or some other type of wiring problem.
Is there a relay that turns the motor on? Could be a stuck relay if there is. A little bit of percussive maintenance (i.e. giving the relay a good solid whack) will usually unstick it.
I don’t know exactly where my owner’s manual is, so I don’t have a diagramme handy of what fuse does what. So I pulled all of the smaller fuses (10, 15, 20 amp) figuring the larger ones were for heavier-duty accessories. (I pulled a few of those too, anyway.) None of them are fried. It occurs to me that since the rear wiper works, maybe it isn’t a fuse – assuming both motors are on the same circuit. The wiper motor is hidden somewhere, and I didn’t see anything handily labeled ‘Wiper Motor Access Hatch’. Looks like I’ll have to take it to the shop.
They certainly don’t make it easy to find the ‘fuse box’! They call it a ‘junction box’ (pg. 8W-12-2). Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like mine. Mine is rectangular. In any case, I did check the smaller fuses and they were all OK.
Turns out there are two fuse panels. There’s one on the inside (passenger foot well) too. According to this there is a ‘circuit breaker’ in position 30. Only there are no circuit breakers; only fuses. And nothing I can see labeled ‘30’.
Also, the radio is out. I should just take the thing to the shop and have them fix it, and give it a tune-up and oil change at the same time.
Just a shot in the dark, but here is a link to the diagrams for 1999 Grand Cherokee (I don’t know if the Grand and the Sport have the same basic wiring – have a look at the relay pic to locate the two wiper relays).
