Question: No matter how I move the lever, my wipers are stuck in the ON position. I can’t drive to work on a sunny day without the wipers moving! Why won’t my windshield wipers turn off?
Answer: If your windshield wipers won’t turn off, then it’s more likely than not you have an issue with the electronics governing your wipers: the relays, switch on the right-hand side of your steering wheel or the park switch located within the wipers.
Bad switch
The first thing that you’ve probably done to try to fix this problem is to turn off the wipers by rotating the switch to the off position, but your wipers continue to wipe.
Let’s take a look at the switch that’s in front of you. In a typical car, the windshield switch will have an off, auto/intermittent and a few “on” positions with increasing wiping frequencies. If your switch is broken, it might not be able to get in the off position, leading to your wipers running constantly. Some possible reasons include failure of the rotating mechanism on the switch, corrosion of the circuit board or contact points.
Changing the switch is a bit more challenging because you’ll need to take apart your steering column, which is why you might want to find out if it’s a relay that’s causing the problem first.
Bad control module
There are different ways to control the speed and intervals of the wipers, but a lot of it comes down to having something called a body control module, or a separate intermittent wiper module. These modules might have a combination of electronics parts like relays, resistors and microchips. Over time, corrosion, bad components and other electrical gremlins can cause your wipers to not turn off. The good news is that modules are likely replaceable by just buying a new one and then swapping it out.
Bad relays
Relays are electromagnetic switches that turn on or off when the requisite voltage is applied to them. A faulty relay could be keeping the electromagnetic switch in the on position when you actually want it to be off, causing the windshield wipers to fail to turn off.
Bad park switch
A rare occurrence is when your park switch fails. A park switch helps your motor go back to its resting position when you have turned off the wipers. For example, say you turn off your car and the wipers end up halfway up. When you turn the car on again, those wipers will turn on automatically and return to its resting position because of the park switch. If the park switch fails, then the wipers could continuously run because it hasn’t found its resting position.
Xuyun Zeng is a content strategist with a wide-ranging content background including tech, journalism, cars and health care. After graduating with highest honors in journalism, Xuyun led a newspaper to win eight awards, helped start an award-winning film industry podcast and has written over a hundred articles about cars repair, state laws and insurance. Prior to joining Jerry, Xuyun worked as a freelance SEO consultant with a mission to create the best content that will help readers and grow organic traffic.
Chris Burkhardt is a writer and editor with over a decade of experience across various storytelling mediums. With Jerry, Chris hopes to help anyone with a question about their vehicle easily find the answers they are looking for. Whether you need to know how much insurance costs for a classic car, how to replace a broken light or tell if you need an oil change, Chris wants to help you find solutions the best he can. Prior to joining Jerry, Chris was a digital content producer and writer for NBC and a freelance editor for NerdWallet. A graduate of the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, if Chris is not working on content, he’s sure to be found cheering on his Ducks!
