My intermittent wipers have stopped working, but the normal wipers work fine. Now I was going to replace the intermittent wiper relay, but Ford has placed a metal plate in front of the relay. And I was told if the relay were bad then NO wipers would work. My question is should I cut the plate off so I can replace the relay or should I just go and replace the wiper motor?
I wouldn’t cut anything off there but Ford must have a good reason for covering the relay up.
Are you sure the delay function fault isn’t in the multi-function switch on the steering column?
If I were you, I’d have the multi-function switch tested electrically before replacing the motor.
During the test, power continuity would be checked between the switch and the motor.
Those wiper motors aren’t cheap.
The delay function should be a part of the wiper motor assembly. There are no replaceable relays inside, unless you are handy with a soldering iron. What makes you think that it is the relay as opposed to any of the other electronic components?
Ok the relay is on my fuse panel. It’s replaceable according to the owners manual. But physically there is a Metal plate, it looks like at first they screwwed it in then decided to weld it on. It’s like part of the firewall framing that covers half the relay. I have no idea why they made it that way. When when I looked online there was a lot of reports of the motors going bad and there seemed like there was a recall but I don’t think the recall covers my year. It’s really odd I can find references to the recall, but everything that points to the Nitse reports go to a dead end. The only reason I thought it might be a relay is the relay seemed replaceable by me as opposed to me having someone replace the motor, and when I looked in the owners manual under fuses (thinking just a fuse went bad) I found a relay saying “intermittent wiper relay”.