windshield wiper initial delay

I have a 1998 honda accord LX and my windshield wipers don't start
immediately when I turn them on. They used to start right when I turned
the switch on in the morning. Now there is an initial 15 second delay
before they start moving. At first I thought they had frozen to the
windshield, but I lifted them up and they weren't stuck and still
didn't move. Then a several seconds later they started to move. I've
tried all positions... delay, slow, fast... but regardless of position
there is no movement at first, then after the initial delay they work
fine. After I drive along for a few minutes if I turn the wipers on
again there is a brief delay of about 2-4 seconds before they start. I
tried them when I got in the car this afternoon at lunch time, and the
delay was short... 2 seconds... unlike the longer delay first thing in
the morning. Could it have anything to do with the cold (gets down to
the high 30s at night around here in northern california)? Is the motor
or a relay going bad? Once the wipers start working they work fine.
They always responded immediately whenever I turned the switch on up
until about a month ago. Any ideas what is causing the delay and how to
fix it? I don't want them to totally fail on me sometime in a
rainstorm. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
thanks.

 

My wipers did almost the same thing a couple of months ago on my Civic
SI 98. They did not start right away, short delay of 1 -2 sec, and were very
slow on the first pass. After that they behave normallly. Of course I did
nothing
and, as luck would have it, during a cold and very rainy day here in
Montreal a
couple of weeks ago I get into my car after work (interior parking) and got
out.
It was raining like crazy, I turned the wiper on and NOTHING! They did not
move at all.
I had to go back to the parking the best I could because I could not see,
left the car there
and took a taxi home.

Turned out to be the motor itself that was fried. My advice... don't delay!
fix it
now!

S.

 

Actually troubleshooting the system looks like a nightmare, since it uses
the integrated control module (at least in our '93... I expect it's very
similar in yours). But we can probably put the wiper motor on the unlikely
suspect list; this behaves more like a switch contact that has hardened
dielectric grease on it. The "continue" wiper in the motor doesn't affect
the start-up (and that really isn't a common failure except in really old
cars), so that leaves the control switch as the primary suspect.

Mike

 

I defer to S.'s experience.

Mike