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Wiper Switch Smoked...Help


daytonboi

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Little history...stupid me hit the wiper switch during our big snow storm and didn't know it. I had parked it to drive my Astro. Well after we had thawed i took the car out and it jus so happened to be raining that day and went ot use my wipers and they only worked on high. I could get the sprayer to work intermittently while it was on high speed. I was going to take it all apart once i got my van back from my aunt in a couple weeks.

 

Fast forward to tonight and So I go out to get in my car leaving from my folks and I start the car and the wipers start wiping across the windshield. Well i look at the wiper switch and its on off. I send it through all the settings seeing if it needed to be "reset". So i cut the car off and have my father come to the door and he says i should be fine and to try and make it home. I start the car and procede to back out of the driveway and before i could get 5 feet the area around my steering wheel begins to fill with smoke. I know where its coming from, so i kill the engine and shift to neutral and roll back down the drive and go pull the fuse. Which solves both my problems of the moment of the wipers wiping and the stalk smoking.

 

I guess my question is how hard is it going to be to replace that and how much?

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wiper switch (new, which I recommend) from Autozone is between $51.99 for the base switch, and $79.99 for the steering wheel control setup in my area.

 

Only special tools I can think of to swap it out is a steering wheel puller which costs about $15.00 and a lock plate puller which costs about $20.00.

 

If you get the 2 pullers, and a new switch, it should take you less than an hour to swap it out.

 

Also, if your car does not have steering wheel controls, you can get the steering wheel control switch and install it now, and in the future, if you find a steering wheel with the controls you will be prewired and just have to swap the wheel out (and some minor wiring which might not need to be done, but most likly will).

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just make sure you take your time on the project, it is a little tricky getting the everything apart, and sometimes it goes everywhere. the two special tools you will need can also be "rented" from those places, unless you plan on replacing multiple, I would just do that. I would also recommend that you pull the fuse for the airbag as well before you start pullin on that. made me feel better.

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not true. The DERM module (airbag arming) has a 15 minute charge on it. You would have to undo your battery cable and let the car sit for a white before it would be safe to do the airbag without pulling the fuse.

 

Safest thing to do is pull the AIRBAG fuses (I pull them all), and then remove the cover on the underside of the dash. Find the yellow airbag connector (usually has a green clip in it) at the base of the steering column. Remove the clip, and unplug the airbag. That is the only safe way to make sure your airbag does not deploy (I have deployed one before in a car that the battery was pulled out of).

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Wow - I guess W's are slightly different from newer cars. Most new cars have shorting bars in all the connectors and having the key off (and waiitng maybe 3 mins) is more than enough to discharge all the capacitors in the SDM.

 

I won't argue with you though you sounds like a W God!!

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That is the one thing that scares me is the air bag and i was going to pull all the fuses and the battery just to be on the safe side.

 

yah, listen to taylor, i forgot about the plug, but just pull the two fuses from the box. i have yet to have one blow on me, (done two switches on my own car, and several others on friends cars) just make sure to remember to return the fuses when you are done.

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disconnecting the yellow connector at the base of the column is the safest way to make sure of accidental deployment. at the price of an air bag module why take a chance. all of gm's sir systems use shorting bars for static discharge. the service manual says to disconnect the yellow air bag connector, they usually don't tell you to do something unless its important. there are always short cuts but why take a chance.

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If ou blow the airbag, you can get a new one on ebay for REALLY cheap. I bought a 2000~ish Silhouette airbag for my 1995 Cutlass Supreme just to install the steering wheel controls, and I won the airbag for only 1 cent ($0.01), but with $50 shipping.

 

If the airbag DOES GO OFF IN THE CAR, do NOT let the insurance company find out. Here in Texas, if the airbag deploys in the car, the car is automatically totalled (even if there is no damage to the car itself). Friend of mine just bought a 2002 mustang for only $2000 because it had a salvaged title. The previous owners father backed into the front of the car, and it deployed. The only damage done to the car itself was the front bumper cover got cracked, but the insurance company totalled the car anyways.

 

I tried to call BS on this one myself, but I called my insurance agent and she confirmed it.

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