I’ve had a slew of electrical problems with my '00 Elantra. For example, one headlight is dimmer than the other and sometimes turns off by itself, and the passenger can only put their window down, not up.
A few weeks ago, I noticed that the wipers were moving slower than usual. I made a note to get the battery checked. I let the car sit for a few weeks and when I went to drive it again, the wipers didn’t budge at all. Today, I noticed that the wiper fluid does nothing when the wand is pulled.
When you move the wand, there’s a delayed ‘click’ in the steering column, like a relay that takes a second to switch. It’s done this for years, so I don’t know if that’s related or if all Elantras do that. Also, the car starts with no delay or sputtering.
So is it the battery, the fuse, the wiper motor, or something in the steering column? If it’s the motor, would you recommend trying to replace it myself? I don’t know much about cars, but I’m not afraid to attack it with a screwdriver.
Wipers slower than usual, with no other electrical devices (e.g. turn signals, headlights, blower motor) similarly affected suggests a problem with the wiper motor (or it’s wiring, but that’s rare). Total loss of wiper and washer operation could be due to the fuse, the switch, or on some designs the motor. I think the most likely scenario is that the motor is failing in such a way that it blew the fuse. If replacing the fuse restores washer operation, but the motor operates slowly and/or blows the fuse, that would confirm it.
My info doesn’t give details of wiper motor replacement, but the labor time suggests it’s fairly easy and straighforward. If you try replacing it, pay careful attention to how the linkage arm is positioned when the wipers are parked. Getting that misaligned will result in some wackiness.
Dim headlights are almost always caused by poor ground connections. A window that operates in one direction but not the other is likely suffering from a faulty switch or a broken wire in the door hinge area. If it goes up with the master switch on the driver’s side, almost certainly a faulty passenger side switch.
I turned the key on but didn’t start the engine and I heard a quiet humming noise from the wiper motor, suggesting to me that the fuse is fine and the motor is getting power. But I don’t know what exactly causes the hum, so I don’t know if that means that the motor is operational or if it could still be broken.
Also, since you brought up the headlight, lemme tell you more about that. Sometimes it’ll be on regular brightness and then, for no reason, go almost completely off. When that happens, the high-beam light on the dashboard faintly illuminates, as if the headlamp and the high-beam signal were sharing a current. Do you still think it’s a grounding problem? If so, how can I fix that? If not…well, how do I fix that?
I assume this is what your window switches look like. The master driver panel is pictured, the passenger/rear control panels are just smaller versions with the same switch. This is a fairly common part used in lots of cars.
You can pry the rocker switch itself off with a small screwdriver. It only takes a bit of force so if it’s not coming off with gentle prying you are probably prying from the wrong place. Once it’s off you will see that the rocker switch itself has a set of “teeth” that push another switch on the control panel itself up and down. When one of these teeth break, for they are quite small and delicate, the rocker switch will only push the control panel switch in one direction but not the other, resulting in your symptoms. Replace the rocker switch.
If the motor indeed hums, it’s either a faulty motor or jammed linkage. The motor and linkage may need to be disconnected from each other to determine which. I would not expect this to affect the washers, though.
It’s certainly a poor connection, and most likely on the ground side of the circuit. When it loses good ground, it gets partial ground going “backwards” in the circuit through the other filament in the bulb and the high-beam indicator. You have to trace the circuit and test as needed to locate the problem area. The place to start is checking any relevant electircal connectors you can get to (e.g. where the wiring harness plugs into the headlight bulb). With the headlights turned on, wiggle any circuit component (including wires) you can put your hands on, see if you can get it to go on/off that way. Beyond that, I can’t really teach the troubleshooting through a message board.