Can anyone tell me how to remove the wiper arm from a 2001 Pathfinder SE? I have removed the black cap, and removed the nut underneath it...however, the arm is still solidly on the bolt. It almost looks like there is a bushing firmly holding it on there. Any instructions/help would be greatly appreciated.

Front or rear?If it's the rear, I replaced mine a few weeks ago on my '02 (I'm in Ottawa too BTW), and it should just pop off. It's probably just corrosion.You may have to give it a little shot of penetrating oil, and muscle it off.Welcome to NICO.Go Sens go.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that...its the 2 front I'm trying to get off. I'm actually trying to get the cowl off because something has let loose in the wiper linkage. When I turn the wipers on, I can hear the wiper motor and something moving under the cowl, but the blades don't turn. The blades are still connected together...that is, if I move one, the other moves with it. So, I cant get under the cowl until I get the wipers off, and those puppies look like there are bushings holding them onto the bolt and it would take a puller to get them off. I tryed prying them loose, but they wouldn't budge. Can anyone let me know if I should be pulling harder, or if there's something specific I should be doing?

Thanks for the welcome!

Unfortunately, I've never had to take the front ones off, so I can't give any decent advice.Maybe someone else out there can help?

I just removed my wipers and cowl to clean under the cowl. The easiest way to remove the wipers is to unbolt them, then use the wiper arm as leverage. Pull the wiper arm up to put it in the upright position. Now, place a soft rag at the hinge where the two metal pieces will contact (or pinch), this is to prevent from scratching off the paint and causing premature rusting. Now, to free the wiper arm, just pull the wiper arm further back (or towards the driver side), this should free the wiper arm a little and should allow you to just pull the arm straight up off the metal "nub" that turns the wiper. There is no bushing or anything of the sort, it just gets a little rusted and difficult to remove.

To remove the cowl you will need to remove the rubber seal at the edge of the cowl that seals the engine bay; you will also need to remove all of the clips that hold that down as the clips will not come up as you pull the seal up (you will have to pull out the black clips, two on either side, as they actually hold down the seal and you can't remove the seal without removing these). Then you just have to remove the single screw next to the passenger side wiper "nub" and then there are four clips that hold the entire cowl in place, they pop off fairly easily.

The one thing I would check first is the main arm at the wiper motor. If both wipers failed at the same time, it is likely that the main arm that moves both blades has come undone at the wiper motor, and removing the cowl won't give you access to where that arm attaches to the motor. You will need to remove the motor and inspect where the arm attaches and you will probably just need to reattach it.
Modified by Pwnin O'Brien at 10:37 PM 3/28/2010

Thanks Pwnin...that was good advice...I took the wiper motor off but unfortunately it is still connected at that point (thought I was gonna avoid a whole bunch of work there). Which means that the disconnect is at the point where that bar meets the 2nd bar holding the two wipers.

I just tried again to get those wipers off...but they're jammed on tight...thought I'd step away from it before I broke something by pulling too hard. Just to confirm how yours worked...pull the wiper up (as in away from the truck), protect the hinge so that it doesnt bite in, using the upright wiper as leverage, pull back (clockwise or towards the driver side) and up to try to break the wiper loose from its "perch". Man, its odd how they don't want to let go.

Niall02 wrote:Just to confirm how yours worked...pull the wiper up (as in away from the truck), protect the hinge so that it doesnt bite in, using the upright wiper as leverage, pull back (clockwise or towards the driver side) and up to try to break the wiper loose from its "perch". Man, its odd how they don't want to let go.

Don't turn it clockwise, you want to just pull it back further, or continue the motion of putting the wiper in the upright position. This should break the deathgrip and start to loosen the base. The wiper wont just pop off when you do this, but it will let you work it off by pulling up on the base of the wiper. The wiper base and the little metal "nub" have teeth that interlock which prevent the base of the wiper from turning freely on the nub, those little teeth get rusted together.

Thanks again, your advice and some PB Blaster got those arms off...now to the cowl and the broken link...sigh.

Sorry to bring an old thread up, but any updates on the broken link?
The same exact thing happened to me to day and i was wondering what to expect after removing the cowl.
I would find out for myself, but its already dark and its raining.

So this is what happened just in case this ever happens to anyone else.

So removed the arms and cowling as per Pwnin's instructions. ? I noticed that the main arm was disconnected from the assembly so I tried to fit it back on to it's perch. It sat there but not secured.
After scratching my noggin for five minutes, I decided to remove the wiper motor to gain full access to the main arm.
After inspecting the arm, it turns out that the plastic fins in the coupler were worn down and two fins were broken off.
It also turns out that you can't just replace the coupler because it's molded in to the arm itself. So you need to replace the whole arm.
Now I got to wait till Monday to find out how much this part cost. :boo

Resurrecting a very old thread.. Over the weekend wipers stopped during flash flood warning downpour... Fun drive back with no wipers. Took the wipers and cowl off and found one of the linkage arms had disconnected. The arm that atattches to the motor disconnected at the end where it atattches to the other linkage arm. The plastic bushing had some plastic broken off inside same as the above post described.

Ordered a Dorman "wiper transmission/linkage" at $92.95 Part NO: 602-090. The fun part is there is no access panel above the wiper motor to access it or the screw which holds the linkage on... Youtube videos show a Frontier with access and the Haynes Manual shows access panel. I was able to remove the wiper motor and pop off the linkage once the wiper motor was partially out but it is very awkward. Since the vehicle is 20 years old I figured I would create an access panel to the motor and cut one out... This made for accessing the motor alot easier but the screw holding the arm "pivot" to the motor will not break loose... This makes the Dorman part useless, it is a totally different design over Nissan.

Checked out coutesty parts to see what parts were available from Nissan and found the linkage arm is available. All I really need is the plastic bushings but they do not seem to be available anywhere and not sure how they would press in etc). The arm was $15.47 and hopefully comes with the bushings (the local Nissan parts counter said it does....)

Has anyone successfully replaced the linkage arms/wiper motor etc without an access panel and any hints or tips?? Curious how the screw comes out of the wiper motor (even tried an impact wrench). Youtube videos on Frontier make this look a 2 hour job max... 2 days and well beyond that...

Quick Update: The link rod fixed the problem it is part no: 28841-0W00C. Did not need to remove the bolt holding the pivot arm from the wiper motor. The link rod comes with the bushings and they are pre-greased. Much cheaper than the Dorman replacement linkage. I am not sure what the trick or procedure to connect the link rod is to the pivot arm with out an access panel but I sure would like to know. Cutting out the metal to create an "access panel" seems over kill but was the only way I could get to the wiper motor pivot arm.... I would recommend anyone doing this to make sure they sand the cut metal, it is sharp. I also primed and painted the exposed metal and covered it with some window flashing before putting the cowl back on.