Frozen Wipers

[outlandish]

Mine is a basic PHEV.

It appears that when the rear window demister is switched on it also switches on the heated wing mirrors and the lower section of the front windscreen to deice the wiper blades should they be frozen.

This is all great news.

We are informed that if wipers become blocked by ice etc the motor may burn out if they aren't turned off. Also to check that wiper blades are not frozen onto the glass because of the same result.

Does this all mean that they should not be left turned on to the automatic setting ?
Because if they are and you get in the car and start it to deice the screen as mentioned above then are they at risk of burning out the motor.

In other words, should they not be left on 'automatic' in cold weather ?

Finally. If you do accidentally get in the car after leaving it the night before with the wipers on automatic and start it and the wipers attempt to move but are frozen how do you turn them off because usually once they have started they need to do a sweep before they will rest again.

 

[tjacobsen]

I use the heater to preheat the car every morning and afternoon, I have it set to "defrost" in the app and it automatically defrosters the wipers and mirrors.
however in heavy snowfall this is not enough to clean the windshield completely free of snow..
I left the wipers on auto one day like that by mistake, got into the car to start it before I was going to clear the rest of the snow of the car and the wipers kicked in...
I had close to 5 cm of wet end heavy snow on the windshield and the only option left was to hit the Start/Stop button again and kill the ignition which, worked just fine
I learned my lesson and from that day on I (try to) set the wipers to off when I park the car, it worked this time but I wouldn't recommend leaving the wipers on auto in winter..

 

[maby]

I use the heater to preheat the car every morning and afternoon, I have it set to "defrost" in the app and it automatically defrosters the wipers and mirrors.
however in heavy snowfall this is not enough to clean the windshield completely free of snow..
I left the wipers on auto one day like that by mistake, got into the car to start it before I was going to clear the rest of the snow of the car and the wipers kicked in...
I had close to 5 cm of wet end heavy snow on the windshield and the only option left was to hit the Start/Stop button again and kill the ignition which, worked just fine
I learned my lesson and from that day on I (try to) set the wipers to off when I park the car, it worked this time but I wouldn't recommend leaving the wipers on auto in winter..

That probably makes sense - much akin to the recommendation to turn off the automatic mirror folding in cold weather.

 

[KillerBob]

@tjacobsen, are you saying that if I set the app to defrost, that starts the electric heater, the front AND the rear deicer? I live in Greenland and take delivery in about a month

 

[ClasseClas]

Mine is a basic PHEV.

It appears that when the rear window demister is switched on it also switches on the heated wing mirrors and the lower section of the front windscreen to deice the wiper blades should they be frozen.

This is all great news.

We are informed that if wipers become blocked by ice etc the motor may burn out if they aren't turned off. Also to check that wiper blades are not frozen onto the glass because of the same result.

Does this all mean that they should not be left turned on to the automatic setting ?
Because if they are and you get in the car and start it to deice the screen as mentioned above then are they at risk of burning out the motor.

In other words, should they not be left on 'automatic' in cold weather ?

Finally. If you do accidentally get in the car after leaving it the night before with the wipers on automatic and start it and the wipers attempt to move but are frozen how do you turn them off because usually once they have started they need to do a sweep before they will rest again.

My habit during wintertime whenever I leave my car outdoor is to fold out the wiper arms to avoid the wipers to freeze onto the wind shield. Then you can have any setting you like and it will neither harm the blades nor the motor. I've learnt the hard way with frozen and thereby scrapped wiper blades. Boring procedure, yes, but it works!

 

[KillerBob]

lol - I raise my wipers as well, and for the same reasons...

 

[outlandish]

You would think these days that they could easily put wiper motor protection in place so they wouldn't burn out. Especially because of issues such as this.
Thanks for your comments.

 

[bdbdbd]

You would think these days that they could easily put wiper motor protection in place so they wouldn't burn out. Especially because of issues such as this.
Thanks for your comments.

These days there are very clever devices called fuses

 

[outlandish]

These days there are electronics that can monitor these things and protect them before they break without anything like a fuse blowing and requiring replacing.

 

[maby]

These days there are electronics that can monitor these things and protect them before they break without anything like a fuse blowing and requiring replacing.

Definitely! Fuses are intended to protect the rest of the car from a fault in the motor, not to protect the motor itself.