850 wiper problem

[rick m]

Tonight on the way home the driver's side wiper in our 95 850 quit - the
passenger side still worked fine.

I haven't been out to look at it due to the torrent we are currently having,
but I'm thinking it's a bad relay.

Would you agree with this? Also, where are the relays located? I was going
to listen to them in the morning, then swap them around so I'd at least be
able to drive if I had to. Lastly, would a regular auto parts house have
these in stock? (Napa, AutoZone, etc)

[RAZ]

Rick,

I had a similar problem. It was a loose locking nut at the pivot of the
wiper arm. Since the passenger side is working it most likely is not the
relay.
--
Bob
Boston, MA USA
'97 BMW 540i Sport 6 speed 100,000 miles
'93 Volvo 850 5 speed 125,000 miles
'85 Volvo 740 160,000 miles
'72 Triumph 650 Bonneville 20,000 miles

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"rick m" <cas...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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[rick m]

Bingo, that's what it was. The wiper arm's grooves look a bit warm, I'll
give Boston Volvo a call in the morning to order replacements.

[Larry]

I have had this same wiper arm loosening problem on my 850. Started using
"loctite" on the wiper arm nut and stud threads and that seems to have
lasting results. Try just tightening the nut before buying new parts, it
will probably hold OK (that was my experience) without having to buy new
parts. Also, this would be a good time to "bend" the wiper arm (the angled
part) so the wiper arm maintains good contact with the windshield. That
angled part bends over time and the symptom is for the top of the wiper
blade to lose contact with the windshield when the driverside wiper is all
the way toward the left in its sweep. I use a rubber tire mallet to bend
the angled part - do it gently a little at a time so you don't break the
aluminum casting. Have to do the rubber mallet thing every year or two.

.... Larry

[rick m]

> I have had this same wiper arm loosening problem on my 850. Started using
> "loctite" on the wiper arm nut and stud threads and that seems to have
> lasting results.

I sorta wondered why there wasn't a lockwasher or something on there, that
was my next trick.

> Also, this would be a good time to "bend" the wiper arm (the angled
> part) so the wiper arm maintains good contact with the windshield. That
> angled part bends over time and the symptom is for the top of the wiper
> blade to lose contact with the windshield when the driverside wiper is all
> the way toward the left in its sweep.

I did that last year, along I40 (at night) during a nasty rain. The
passenger side fits snug, the driver's side has always had problems
"lifting" every year.

[Mike Mayer]

Yeah, I had that same bent arm problem too. I fixed it by putting it in a
bench vise with small pieces of wood as shims at the correct locations and
slowly tightening the vise, which caused the arm to bend back into the
correct alignment.

Question I have, is how can aluminum just slowly creep, or bend like that
over time? It's not like there's an enormous amount of stress on that arm -
just the spring tension to keep it against the window. If it were plastic I
could perhaps understand "creep" over time, but not in a piece of aluminum.

Anyone with ideas as to why this happens? And why not the right side?

Mike

"Larry" <IN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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[Rick]

> The new arms are deeper / thicker, with more webbing underneath, so it
> appears that Volvo recognized the problem.

I assume the new arms work with older cars back to model year... ?

Any idea on the cost? or the part number to specify the new ones, or are
all the arms now the new ones?