Wiper Motor Replacement

This is a step by step procedure for replacing the wiper motor for an E30 Bmw 1984-1991.

Remove the left (driver's) side wiper arm and blade assembly.

Remove left grill assy. located under the wiper arm. This is done by gently inserting a thin putty knife under the top edge of the grill in several places to release the hold down tabs.

Pull the rubber weather strip (hood seal) up that goes around the fender and cowl area. Remove the large plate on the firewall to reveal the wiper motor access area, there's a wiring loom on the right side and a round electrical connection (multi pin) on the left that will have to come away before the firewall plate can be removed, the plate is held on with four 7mm sheet metal screws.

First to come off is the wiring plug from the wiring harness (that's the lower part of the square connector that goes through the wiper frame assy.(this pulls down with a wiggling back and forth), once the lower plug is pulled out the top square plug from the motor can be wiggled out, pry one edge up and work from there.

Sidebar…from here on you will have to work generally up-side down and totally blind so if you're not in a calm state of mind you might want to save this up-coming part of the job for a better time. The trick to this job is getting the wiper motor out without its plastic cover and getting the new one back in with its cover which is impossible unless you know the trick, and yes, I will give you the trick later on in this monologue… .

Take the center motor (armature) link arm nut off (10mm), making note on its position (the arm) in relation to the frame/motor assy., I take this arm off and try not to disturb its position and lay the linkage arm assy. down in the well, out of the way. If you do have to move it or loose its position, no big deal, we will discuss this later on.. TIP; if you take a flat punch and tap the linkage arms side it will fall right off without fuss, just a few small taps with a small hammer and punch will do it (the splined shaft is tapered).

Remove the three 10 mm bolts that hold the motor on to the frame, I start with the hardest to get at first and finish up with the easiest (it just works out easier), now the motor is loose in its mounting and this is where the "Trick" comes in, so listen carefully. The goal is to take the plastic cover off the motor while its sitting inside the well, this is done by tilting the assy. (motor and cover together) and sneaking it back further into the well area, if your in the right position the motors (armature) splined shaft will be pointing to the rear of the wells bulkhead (to the rear of the car) and at this point keeping the cover against the forward bulkhead of the well you can move the motors body away and separate the two, leaving the cover right there out of the way (very important), you can now slide the motor (on its own) past the frame and out of the bulkhead cover hole into the engine bay and out.

The new motor (I strongly advise a new one cause you don't want to do this repair twice) can be moved into place and when its in position the cover can be put on to the motor (just reverse the removal procedure), when the cover is on the motor jockey them both back into place on the frame, it's a tight fit but it will go (it came out, right?). The first hold-down bolt should be the easiest to get to and this just takes some eyeballing to get it started and once you have the first started the other two are easy, snug all three down tight.

At this point I plug the electrical connection together outside of the frame hole (where it will eventually go) and activate the motor from the switch so the motor parks in its right place (I do this a few times just to make sure), disconnect the electrical plug and lay the wiring aside out of the way, now comes the time for the linkage arm to-be connected to the motors shaft, if you have not moved the linkage you should be able to mount it up. If the motor is parked and the wiper arm/blade (the passenger side) is in its right place all should be well (I say, should be), my way is to tighten the linkage arm up snug but I will not bring it totally home, then I'll try turning the wipers on (from the switch) and see if it works right, when the wipers are shut off, the blade should park in the down position and not be on the up stroke. Another words they should not jump at the bottom end of their cycle (when they are shut off) but should stop in their lower position calmly and without fuss.

A quick note here, I take a small tie-wrap and go around the center of the two electrical block connections when they are put back into the frame hole just to keep them together, the little detents tend to wear and make for a loose fit causing the blocks to separate (cheap insurance).

Replace the grill and the wiper arm/blade assy. and make sure the blades have clearance of movement, I like to set the blades up, off the bottom of the windshield a tiny bit (I think it looks cool) when their parked. Clean the gutter (fenders and cowl) and replace the firewall cover and the weatherstrip, TIP; the lower cover screws can be taped into a socket for easy starting, replace the wiring loom channel and round connector and BON, you are done.

No need of taking the wiper transmission out or even loosening its mountings when you know the trick ...
Cheers,

Rick (rkj)