Help, rear wiper not working

[mar123]

I have a 2008 Rogue and the rear wiper motor is not working. Since there is no fuse labeled for the rear wiper I removed and checked them all under dash and under hood, all are good. I unplugged the harness from the motor and there is no power at any of the 3 terminals ( engine on and switch on) and my ground for the test light is good. What else can I check? What are the three terminals for anyway, I assume one is ground and one is power but what is the third one for? I also tried putting power and ground to all combinations of the 3 terminals on the motor and I get sparks but no motor movement. Thanks for any help

[TrevorK]

In my factory service manual it states the following (for a 2011, but I assume the same) to check when the rear wiper does not work at all:
• Combination switch
• Harness between combination switch and BCM
• BCM
and
• BCM
• Harness between rear wiper motor and BCM
• Harness between rear wiper motor and ground
• Rear wiper motor

The factory service manual provides instructions (they are quite detailed and lengthy so a picture will not help as it spans many pages) on how to go through the various checks to determine if it is the harness, switch, motor or BCM. If you do a search you can find a copy of the manual. My experience tells me the most common failure items on the list are the switch and motor, so if you have a junkyard nearby that has these parts it may be relatively inexpensive ($10) to buy one to try.

When I looked through the manual it did not provide a description that I saw for what each of the three wires do on the motor - it just provided the colour of the wires. If someone can provide that it should be an easy way to test the motor.

[mar123]

Is the combination switch the switch on the steering column, any idea how to remove it? Over the last winter the motor would work sometimes and not others and now it won't work at all. Do you know if any of the relays in the fuse panels have anything to do with the rear wiper? I found some of the service manual online and it does seem pretty complicated, involving the BCM and something to do with ground speed affecting the intermittent settings etc.. We had mice build a small nest in the heater fan, I guess it is possible they may have chewed a wire somewhere. In case anyone else has a bad vibration in the fan you can access it but removing the dash, I cleaned out the nest and seeds and it is fine now.

[TrevorK]

Is the combination switch the switch on the steering column, any idea how to remove it? Over the last winter the motor would work sometimes and not others and now it won't work at all. Do you know if any of the relays in the fuse panels have anything to do with the rear wiper? I found some of the service manual online and it does seem pretty complicated, involving the BCM and something to do with ground speed affecting the intermittent settings etc.. We had mice build a small nest in the heater fan, I guess it is possible they may have chewed a wire somewhere. In case anyone else has a bad vibration in the fan you can access it but removing the dash, I cleaned out the nest and seeds and it is fine now.

I think it's not as straight forward as most think:
REMOVAL
1. Remove the driver air bag module. Refer to SR-11, "Removal and Installation".
2. Remove the steering wheel. Refer to ST-11, "Removal and Installation".
3. Remove the steering column upper cover and steering column lower cover. Refer to IP-13, "Exploded
View".
4. Disconnect the spiral cable body side harness connectors (A).
NOTE:
Disconnect the spiral cable body side harness connector after
removing the spiral cable.
5. Remove the spiral cable fixing screws.
6. Pull out forward the spiral cable.

In the manual I could not find anywhere stating "check the fuse" so I'm unsure where the fuse is. I don't drive my Rogue in the summer so I cannot check.

[mar123]

Thanks for you help, I think this is going to be a dealer fix.

[07phil]

when I remove my wiper motor,and test it with a multimeter, it run like 2 sec. and stop after... because of a kind of protection to not brake the motor. When I simply fix it inside my hatch, the "protection" was turned off and wiper turns on and off.... hope this help... sorry for my english.....

[sprocket]

IIRC, the three wires are:
- power
- ground
- "auto stop" position

The "auto stop" position is the signal read by the BCM to let it know that the wiper motor arm has returned to its normal (parked) position. This is how it handles interval or delay (intermittent) wipe operation. It also uses this signal to determine if the arm is "stuck" possibly due to ice or physical obstruction so that it can default to a "protected" mode to help prevent blowing the fuse or damaging the motor/wiring/output driver or relay. When in "protected" mode, it will either make several attempts or disable it completely. Turning the power off and back on again typically takes it out of the "protected" mode, so it can resume normal operation.

Front wipers on the Rogue work in a similar way, controlled by the IPDM.

[mar123]

How does the "protected" mode operate, is there a circuit breaker of some sort, which in my case my not be resetting? Or is it all controlled by the BCM, if this is the case does it require BCM replacement?