The wipers on my '98 protege quit working yesterday
(during a snowstorm!).

Here is what I have discovered so far:

the wiper motor is fine, I can hear/feel it whirring away
the wiper arms can be moved easily (in unison)

My take on this is that the arms have become
disconnected from the wiper motor some how.
Anyone out there have this problem?
Is it a know issue?
Is it a big job to repair this?

 

Have you tried tightening the nut that holds the wiper to the motor shaft? Most times than others, the nut comes loose sometimes, especially when winter comes, and people try to move the wiper blades when they are either frozen to the windshield, or there is a ton of snow on the windshield. Other than that, I would just recommend you to take out the motor and inspect it first had. As far as taking it out, I am not sure how difficult it is, but maybe some one else can help out with that?

 

I fixed this on Sat morning, it was quite simple to do actually.
The shaft is connected to the motor with a plastic pivot
that snaps on to the wipre motor shaft. This is where it broke off
and thus I needed to replace this shaft and pivot.
All is well now.

 

Yeah, i was actually gonna tell u to check that.
I broke mine last year, that little pivot is so cheap that you really have to be careful with it.
I left some snow on my windshield then just put on the wipers and snap, they stopped working.

How much did u pay for the linkage part?

 

The part cost me $33 Canadian which isn't so bad if it lasts
5 - 6 years.

 

yeah, not bad! i know that when i broke mine it was freezing cold and i was too lazy to check it out myself, so i brought it to a mechanic and i ended up payin like 100 bucks cdn for them to change it.. But i will know for next time.. (hopefully there won't be one though)