Has anyone encountered the windshield wipers starting randomly...and you can't stop them? When they eventually stop...they stop in a random position except at their home position. Has this been encountered by anyone else and what fixed it?

I have a suspicion that the switch may be bad because when they go crazy, I spray some fluid to avoid them sliding endlessly on a dry surface. I got irritated and pressed the fluid spray a bunch of times rapidly...they continued running but returned to their home position after a few swipes.

Anyway, curious if anyone else has encountered this or if this is unique to my car.

 

Sounds unique to your car.
I've heard it rains a lot in Florida
I wonder if they are just practicing for a heavy storm ? ?

In all honesty this is the first I've heard of this on the forum.

 

Likely a bad switch. Mine do just the opposite - they'll simply stop in the middle of a rain storm. Can be more than annoying.

It's not a huge problem around town, but I'll surely take 'er in under warranty before I go off on a long trip down the Interstate.

Good luck.

 

I wouldn't mind so much if it did this when it was raining...but it never does. I would like to add it always starts only as I start the car. If it doesn't do it then, they work fine.

 

My guess it is not the switch, the switch will start the wipers but when you use the same switch to turn them off they still keep going until they return to the park position. This means that they still are receiving an electrical current. The mechanism that returns them to the park position is a remarkably simple but brilliant invention. I think that you will find that the wipers always have power to them with the ignition ON, the multi function switch basically jumpstarts them to the continuous ON position.
Each time the wiper returns to the park position it opens a contact and stops power to the motor, but it also closes a contact which gets its power from the Multi-function switch if that switch is ON then the power makes the wiper go through another cycle, but if the switch is OFF the wiper has no power and parks. If the ignition is turned OFF with the wipers in mid cycle and the wiper switch is turned OFF the wipers will automatically return to the park position.
Its a long time since I took a wiper motor apart but that is the basics of its operation or at least it was and it is so simple I doubt it has changed much.
If the contact which the wiper opens at park is not open properly or it has a short then as it always has power to it, the wiper will operate. This puts the problem in the wiper motor.

 

I had the same problem on an S-10 that I have. Factory TSB was to replace the circuit board which had bad//intermittent circuit aggravated when it rained.

 

Here's the catch...it does this regardless of rain or dry. It can be clear days for a week, then randomly does it when the car is started. IDK. I haven't made time to look into it yet but thanks for all the suggestions on where to look.

 

New chapter. They just randomly start now. They worked perfectly for the longest time. Now that Florida heat is returning, they are acting up just randomly wiping once then returning to home position...or starting then immediately stopping an inch or so up from rest. This almost sounds like a board issue because symptoms are different...

 

Did you ever find out the real problem and remedy? We have an '05 LTD Roadster that because of Cancer, has been in and out of storage for 10 Years now (28,000) miles on it now.
Any way it started the EXACT same thing: Turn key on, no problems. But as soon as you start the car the wipers come on for 1 to 2 minutes, then suddenly stop at a random position. Other than this the car runs great.
Been starting the car once or twice a week, but with health issues going on it probably hasn't actually been driven this year.
Hope y'all know a sure fix by now. In the meantime I think I'll go put it on a slow charge for the night.
Thanks in advance,
Rotten

 

I never found the exact source of the problem. However, I recall having lost my temper a few times and banged on the switch several times while driving. Thinking back across the last two years, I've not had the problem come back. That leads me to think it has something to do with the switch as well.

 

Thank you for the help. This one turned out to be a weak battery.
Put it on a 2amp charge overnight, and no more problems.

 

Weak battery, how old is it? Maybe you need a new one.

 

Had it ten years now and only have 29k miles on it.
The wife and I have been fighting health trouble
for three years now.
Had the Crossfire for 10 yrs and it has 28k miles now.
Had my Challenger 392 for 3 yrs and just about to turn 9k Miles on it.

 

These cars despise old batteries, lol. Glad you got it resolved.