VAZ-2109: wipers do not work. Possible causes of problems

Windshield wipers (wiper blades) are designed to keep your windshield and rear windows properly clean. In good condition, with the support of washers, they can easily cope with dirt, snow and water. But if the wipers stop working, it is not recommended to continue driving in bad weather conditions. Your safety depends on it. It's better to stop and try to repair them.

In this article we will talk about why the wipers on the VAZ-2109 do not work. We will look at the main causes of this problem, as well as how to fix it.

How does a windshield wiper work?

At the front end of the electric motor rotor, a worm is cut, which engages and drives the main gear of the gearbox. When the windshield wiper is turned on, voltage from the vehicle's on-board circuit is supplied to the electric motor. At the same time, its shaft begins to rotate, driving the gearbox. He, in turn, moves the levers, the ends of which are brought to the surface of the underhood panel of the body and connected to the wiper housings. One of the ends of the gearbox shaft is equipped with a special cam that controls the moving contact for stopping the wipers in the extreme position.

Wiper control

The windshield wiper is controlled using a special switch mounted on the steering column of the car. With its help, the wipers not only turn on and off, but can also operate in different modes. This allows you to adjust the speed of the windshield wiper blades depending on weather conditions. VAZ-2109 cars have three modes:

intermittent;
constant with low speed of movement of the wipers;
constant with high speed of movement of the wipers.

It often happens that the wipers on a VAZ-2109 do not work in only one of the modes, so it is important to know not only the design features of the windshield wiper, but also the mechanism for controlling its operation.

The intermittent operation mode of the wipers is activated in the first (working) and second positions of the switch lever. Its operation is ensured by relay type 526.3747. It is located in the vehicle’s mounting block and is designated on the electronic circuit as “K3”. This relay also turns on the wipers when the windshield and rear window washers are activated.

In the third position, the purifier operates in constant mode at low speed. To switch to constant operation of the wipers at high speed, a fourth position of the lever is provided.

Repair

To troubleshoot problems with the wipers on your VAZ 2109, it is not at all necessary to contact a service station. The work can be done with your own hands, saving a decent amount of money.

Repair consists of performing several operations:

Disassembling the unit;
Troubleshooting;
Eliminating the causes of purifier failures;
Reassembly.

Dismantling

The first step is to learn how to remove windshield wipers. This will give you access to the device and all its components.

Dismantling by a wiper is carried out for their repair, replacement, modernization or when working with other components of your car.

It is enough to follow the specified sequence of actions and first familiarize yourself with the wiper diagram in order to do everything correctly.

First, disconnect the negative terminal of the battery to de-energize the car.
Remove the brush arms by moving them to a vertical position and unscrewing the fastening nuts. Unscrew the nuts carefully so as not to push the lever out. Otherwise, under the action of the spring, it will fly into the glass and break it.
By unscrewing the fasteners, the levers can be removed. It is not always possible to do this manually, so arm yourself with pliers. Be careful not to damage the threaded area. To avoid this, screw the nut back onto the splines, but not completely.
Remove the protective caps made of plastic from the slots on each side.
Unscrew the upper mounting nuts with the bracket and remove them. Under them there are rubber washers, which are also dismantled.
Lift the hood and disconnect the wiring harness that powers the wiper motor.

Unscrew the heater fan mounting screws and move it slightly to the side. This way, when dismantling the purifier, it will not interfere with you.
Remove the cover from the relay and fuse box. You need to remove not only the wiper relay, but also everything else. Otherwise, they will interfere with your further processes.
Unscrew the lower fastening nut of the mechanism, remove the plastic holder of the wiring harness from the electric motor from the hole in the car body. Now you can remove the holder so that it does not get lost during the repair.
All that remains is to push the mechanism roller inside, then lift the electric motor and the windshield wiper mechanism slightly up and to the side. This way you can easily remove the node.

After completely disassembling the unit, you can check the condition of each wiper mechanism and determine the cause of any malfunctions.

Checking the status of elements

By disassembling the design of the wipers on your VAZ 2109, you can identify the damaged components that led to the problem. We will tell you exactly how to find the culprits.

Electric motor housing, stator windings and armature shaft

These elements need to be checked for mechanical damage on the surfaces. The stator should not have any traces of contact with the armature, and vice versa. If defects or scratches are found on the surfaces, try sanding them. If this measure does not help, the components must be replaced

Springs may become damaged and lose their elasticity as they are used. The brushes themselves suffer from this and do not work properly. The presence of wear on the springs indicates the need to replace them.

Check how freely the brushes move in the holders. If there are any jams, try sanding the assembly. The presence of chips, cracks and signs of wear requires replacement of brushes

It is not uncommon for traces of soot and brush friction to appear on the surface of the commutator. Polishing paste will help to cope with the problem. The anchor must be clamped in the drill chuck, which will increase the efficiency of polishing. There should be no scratches, chips or other damage on the collector. Again, if you have them, try sanding them. Otherwise, the anchor is changed to a new one

Reducer drive gear

Check for mechanical damage and chipped teeth. If some teeth are missing, the brushes may work slowly or the intermittent operation may be disrupted. It's best to replace the gear. When replacing, treat the new gear with plastic grease and lubricate the gear housing, having first cleaned it of traces of old lubricant

Wiper drive rods

Make sure they are not bent. If there are slight deformations, you can try to align the rods manually or with tools. If alignment cannot be achieved, replace

Threaded part of lever rollers

Threads and splines are often damaged. If this happens, you will have to replace the entire linkage assembly.

Fuses and relays

Quite often, the cause of a wiper failure is a relay or a blown fuse. The fuse for the glass washer motor is element F7, and the relay responsible for the unit of interest to us is indicated in the mounting block K3.

If the windshield wiper fails, first check to see if the fuse has blown and if everything is in order with the relays that are responsible for the operation of this unit. Often complex repairs are not required; it is enough to simply remove the burnt-out fuse element and replace it with a new one.

In some cases, a blown fuse indicates something more than just a broken fuse. What exactly causes the fuse to break is an important question. Therefore, it is recommended to disassemble the wipers, check the condition of all components and figure out what was the real reason for the failure of the brushes on the VAZ 2109.

Symptoms of a problem

To understand the breakdown of the windshield wiper, let's look at what signs it may have.

Symptoms of a malfunction may be the following:

when turned on, the device does not react at all (the relay does not click, the electric motor does not work);
the relay is triggered, but the electric motor does not turn on;
both the relay and motor work, but the brushes do not move or move in the wrong direction;
The intermittent mode of the VAZ-2109 wipers does not work;
the electric motor does not stop in intermittent mode;
The wipers are slow.

Now let’s look at each of the signs separately in the context of probable malfunctions and ways to eliminate them.

Verdict

On a VAZ 2109 car, the electric motor and wipers do not work at the same time for the following reasons:

frozen brushes;
incorrect location of brush holders in extreme positions and defects in geometry;
oxidized/burnt contact connectors and defective wires;
defective relay;
wear of the brush-collector unit in the gearmotor;
faulty limit switch.

A properly functioning gear motor may not transmit torque to the wipers in the following cases:

the nuts securing the levers on the axis of the driven shafts of the trapezoid are loosened;
the nut pressing the trapezoid crank to the driven gear of the gearbox is unscrewed;
The teeth on the gears of the gearbox are chipped.

During the day it rained intermittently. In the morning, when I took my wife to work, the wipers worked perfectly, but when I got ready to go in the evening and pick her up from work, I discovered that the wipers were standing still and showed no signs of life. All other equipment seemed to work. I checked fuses F4 (10A) and F5 (15A) - they turned out to be intact. I immediately thought that apparently there was a bad contact in the steering column switches (since I removed them not long ago when I disassembled the entire panel). I removed the switch and checked the contact - the contact is normal. In short, then I disassembled the switch:

After cleaning the contacts in the steering column switch with a file, I put it in place.

I started the car, clicked it... only the reverse wiper works, the front ones don’t “breathe.” I checked whether the time relay was clicking, but I couldn’t hear it working.

In general, if the relay fails, the wipers should still work in the very last position. But I also disassembled the relay and tested the resistance of the relay coil with a multimeter.

I found a diagram for connecting wipers from a VAZ 2108, but they should be similar to 2109.

I also found a wiring diagram for a VAZ 2109

I started calling the wires from the relay socket to the steering column switch. Everything is whole. I checked the contacts leading to the wiper motor, everything is fine. But damn they don’t work. (I read that if the relay does not make noise and the fuses do not light, then you need to look at the wiper motor, the brushes could be worn out or jammed. By the way, when you turn on the ignition + 12V came to the engine as expected

. Today I removed and disassembled the engine (no photo, because the camera was not nearby), I didn’t find anything strange, everything was working, the contacts and brushes were normal. I installed a working engine, decided to check everything again, took a multimeter, a pen and a notebook to write down what I checked so as not to get confused.

In the process, purely by accident, I touched the connector (see photo) and, lo and behold, the wipers started working. When I rang the wiring, +12V came right through this connector to the engine, i.e. Apparently the connector contact was not complete.

Bottom line, a lot of wasted time (about 4-6 hours in total), the wipers are working again, not a penny was spent on repairs ps for the last 2 hours they tried to persuade me to go to an auto electrician, and for me, a person with an electronics education, this is an insult))

Issue price: 0 ₽ Mileage: 19724 km

The windshield wiper does not respond to turning on or switching modes

If you are trying to turn on the windshield wiper, but the wipers on your VAZ-2109 do not work, and when you switch the lever you do not hear the relay clicks or the sound of the electric motor running, the reason may lie either in the switch, or in the relay, or in the fuses.

In this case, you must first check the integrity of the wiper fuse. It is located in the mounting block and is designated F5. You can check it using a multimeter turned on in tester mode. Next we move on to the bimetallic fuse installed in the purifier gearbox. If the wipers on a VAZ-2109 stop working in winter, this may be the reason. This fuse was equipped with the latest modifications of the “nines”. Its role is to protect the wiper motor from overheating in cases where the brushes freeze to the glass. You can check it with the same multimeter turned on in tester mode.

Next we move on to the relay. As already mentioned, it is located in the mounting block and is designated as “K3”. We find the relay, remove it from its seat, and put a known-good breaker in its place. Checking the operation of the windshield wiper. If it works, we buy a new relay. If everything remains unchanged, we continue troubleshooting.

As for the switch itself, it is very difficult to check its performance on your own. It has a rather complex design, so it is also easier to replace it with a known worker than to try to repair it. By the way, if the wipers and turn signals of the VAZ-2109 do not work, you can be sure that the problem is in the steering column switch.

Main causes of failure

Windshield wipers will help during bad weather

If this device breaks down, you need to find out the reason why this happened. Often the wipers on the VAZ 21099 do not work due to prolonged parking or driving in heavy snow or rain. Wipers also fail for the following reasons:

Water got into the “black box” - the relay and fuse box.
The electric motor, presented in the form of a DC motor, has broken down. Power is supplied to its commutator through the brushes. They should be changed regularly.
The steering column switch, which is located on the right side of the steering wheel, is broken.
The wiring or connections are faulty.

If the wipers do not work, then you need to check the serviceability of the fuses. This process can be performed independently if you have a VAZ 21099 wiring diagram. You also need to inspect the cover. As for fuses, the standard configuration of such parts involves the installation of models F4 and F5. In this case, the current operates at 10 and 15 A.

If these parts are in good working order, you will need to disassemble the relay, which is responsible for the functionality of the wipers. In this case, it is removed and the coil resistance is checked. If the relay is working properly, then the wipers only work in the upper extreme position of the handle. Otherwise, the steering column switch is removed.

To disassemble the steering column switch, you will need a file or fine-grained sandpaper. The contacts are cleaned, the steering column is assembled, and the windshield wipers are checked. If they do not work, then the wiring is checked using a tester. Auto mechanics advise connecting the wiper motor to the battery. In any case, you need to remember that the wipers on the “nine” do not work when the ignition system is turned off.

The relay is activated, but the motor does not start

Having discovered such a sign, we can assume that one of the above-mentioned fuses or the electric motor itself has failed. We check the fuses with a multimeter. If everything is in order with them, open the hood and inspect the trapezoid for deformation or the presence of a foreign object in the structure. In winter, it is possible for the wiper blades to freeze to the windshield. This phenomenon is accompanied by similar symptoms, so if the VAZ-2109’s wipers do not work in frosty weather, first check their condition.

If the trapezoid is in working condition and the wiper blades are movable, you will have to remove the electric motor for diagnostics. To completely eliminate other malfunctions, after dismantling the electric motor, connect it directly to the battery terminals. If it works, look for the cause in the electrical circuit; if not, contact an auto electrician.

Replacing damaged parts

New windshield wiper trapezoid

If the brush springs are damaged or lose elasticity, they will need to be replaced. It is recommended to check how they move in the appropriate holder. If they jam, then worn or existing chips are replaced. In this case, the leads of the new parts are soldered to the corresponding holder.

The collector is cleaned with sandpaper (if there are scratches or other defects on it). If this unit is burnt or worn out, then the gearbox and armature are replaced. Replacement of the gearbox gear is carried out with a similar condition of the teeth. Bent rods are straightened or replaced with new ones. Damaged splines or roller threads require replacement of the rod assembly. All cracked, torn and weak rubber cushions are replaced with new parts.

The procedure for replacing windshield wipers on a “nine” begins with dismantling the main windshield mechanism. To do this, use a set of screwdrivers and wrenches. Initially, the negative wire of the battery terminal is disconnected. The windshield wiper arms rotate vertically. The nuts are unscrewed and these elements are removed from the rollers.

The next step is to unscrew and remove the levers. If they cannot be removed with light force, then you need to slightly unscrew the nut securing the lever. Using pliers, the last element is moved from the slots. The lever and protective caps on each side can then be removed. The same should be done with the nuts that belong to the upper bracket mount.

Next, the hood of the car is opened and the connector is disconnected from the block. The heating fan is moved to the right (relative to the compartment located in front of the windshield), and the cover is removed from the corresponding unit. After disconnecting the connector, the relays are removed from it. The next step involves removing the lower mounting bolt. Then the holder is pulled out and the wiper rollers are removed from the holes in the body.

Electric motor does not stop in intermittent mode

Intermittent mode differs from the others in that at the end of each cycle the wipers stop in the starting position. This is achieved due to the movement of the cam located at the rear end of the gearbox shaft. It closes and opens the moving contact of the windshield wiper limit switch. Irregularities in the operation of wipers in intermittent mode are usually associated with a malfunction: wear, damage. The problem may also be in the switch plate or its contacts.

You can easily replace the cam yourself. As for the plate and contacts, if necessary, you just need to bend them.

What to do if the trapezoid “flies”

The trapezoid is one of the most complex devices in the overall mechanism of the wiper system. At the moment, no car manufacturer will provide a guarantee for the long-term operation of the windshield wiper drive mechanism.

Elementary jamming of the wipers or their increased pressing into the glass, illiterate activation of the wipers (for example, glass frozen in frost) - all this can cause the trapezoid to break.

In order for the mechanism to start working normally again, the following measures can be taken:

Buying and replacing a trapezoid with a new one is the best option for domestic cars; their windshield wiper mechanism is estimated at 1000–1500 rubles.
For foreign-made cars, buying a new trapezoid will be quite expensive; here it is more advisable to repair or replace the parts that caused the mechanism to fail.
It is common for trapezoid bushings and tips to break. They are often made of plastic and cannot withstand extreme cold at all, they crack, and they are most often replaced.
If it is very difficult to find a repair kit for the trapezium of your car, you can try to find bushings and other necessary spare parts from the mechanisms of other cars of the same class or close to them.
The trapezoid must be changed if the repairs made do not eliminate the malfunction, or if subsequently, when the mechanism is working, extraneous knocks are heard.

Any sounds coming from the trapezoid may be a warning sign. This call signals that the entire device may stop working. This is not a reason to immediately replace the trapezoid. You can continue to operate the device until it completely breaks down, or try to eliminate play and gaps in its components using ordinary tools. This simple job can usually be done right outside or in the garage.

The wipers on the VAZ-2109 work slowly

The reasons for reducing the speed of brush movement are:

low air temperature;
wear (licking) of the splines connecting the levers and wiper housings;
problems with the electric motor.

In the first case, the wipers may move more slowly than usual due to the grease solidifying on the gearbox gears. As a rule, when the car warms up, this problem disappears.

When the spline joint wears out, the brushes can also move more slowly due to the rotation of the lever tips in their seats. This problem is solved by replacing worn elements.

If these measures do not bring the desired result, we remove the electric motor and send it for repair.

The rear wiper of the VAZ-2109 does not work

The VAZ-2109 has another wiper. It is located on the glass of the rear door and has an autonomous drive. The wiper is driven by a separate electric motor with a small gearbox. You can get to it from the inside of the door by removing its trim.

A malfunction of the rear wiper can also be associated with both problems with the switch and problems with the electric motor itself. Most often it stops working: