The windshield wiper on driver’s side of my car is limp. When I turn on the wipers, the passenger-side wiper works just fine. So much so, that it sort of crashes into the limp (and non-moving, but figitty) wiper.
Obviously, the wiper motor works just fine, since the passenger-side wiper moves. Even the driver-side wiper – while limp – does show some very minor signs of life. It doesn’t actually make it up on its own, but it does sort of move a few inches before getting rammed by the other wiper.
I noticed that there is a screw near the base of the limp wiper. Before taking my toolbox to my parked car down the street (it’s cold where I live), do you think the problem could as simple as a loose screw?
Most likely it is, although there is always the possibility that the ridges and grooves on the axle or the wiper have been stripped. (Did you have the wipers on when you parked one night so that they had to break out of some ice in the morning?)
Even with the pieces stripped, tightening the screw should probably hold it together long enough to buy replacements.
Less likely, though possible, is that the arm from the wiper motor extending left (if you have a single motor) has broken free inside the hood or that the motor on the left (if you have a one-motor-per-wiper arrangement) has either burned out or come unplugged.
Where the wiper arm attaches to the arm on the wiper motor, there should be a stud with a nut on it (or a set screw). That nut has probably come loose. Like ** tomndebb** said, it may be stripped. You`ll have to drag the tools down to the car and have a look-see.
UPDATE: I tightened the nut (no jokes please) and the limp wiper worked again! Now my gf thinks I am a real handyman!