During a recent freeze I scraped the windshield and broke the drivers side wiper free, then went and did the same to the passenger side. When I got in the car, a 2007 Chev Impala I turned the wipers on and only the passengerside wiper wiped. The drivers side had refrozen to the windshield. Now only the passenger side works. When I move the drivers side wiper by hand I feel strong resistance and do not believe I stripped the teeth. I have no idea where to start taking things apart to see what could be wrong. Any advice would be appreciated as the last car I worked on was a 65 Mustang and no where near as complicated as what we have now.
Thanks
Hopefully someone will come along who knows this car, but since no one has yet I can give a general idea. First, if you really want to mess with it a repair manual for the car ($20 @ an auto parts store) will tell you how. But, in general you can usually eyeball it. You’ll need to uncover the wiper linkage which is likely where the problem lies. A good place to start is to just pop the hood and inspect along the upper part of the driver’s side firewall for the wiper motor. That gives you a place to start. The shaft of the motor will probably disappear into the firewall, and you’ll need to go in from the top. There are often trim pieces at the bottom of the windshield that cover the wiper linkage. One or more might sit above the hood and have trim inserts that cover up screw heads. And one or more might sit just under that below the hood. Those might be in with screws, various kinds of plastic rivets, etc. In other words you just need to figure out how to dig your way down to the wiper linkage. Once you do you’ll find that the basic stuff looks about the same now as it did in '65.