2018 Leaf SV Front Wiper Stopped Working!

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Mar 27, 2018
Messages
13
We have an ice storm in the Greater Toronto Area since yesterday. I was out a short while ago and the front wipers were working fine. After driving about 15 minutes, I noticed the wipers were not going back to the original position, stopping just short of normal. They stopped working. I can manually move the wipers. I hear what I think is the motor, wipers don't move. The rear wipers are fine.

I had to keep stopping and manually move the wipers in order to see.

Any ideas?
 
You shouldn't be able to manually move the wiper arm, if you can it sounds like something has broken or come off where the motor hooks to the arm. I've not taken mine apart to tell you where to start but again if everything was hooked up, you shouldn't be able to move the arm by hand.
 
jjeff said:
You shouldn't be able to manually move the wiper arm, if you can it sounds like something has broken or come off where the motor hooks to the arm. I've not taken mine apart to tell you where to start but again if everything was hooked up, you shouldn't be able to move the arm by hand.

I guess I need to bring it in to a Nissan dealer tomorrow morning. I have never had something like this ever happen before. :oops:
 
Wiper can be moved with hand (and motor will spin) if wiper is not parked at the lowest position.
If you are lucky, motor just blew the fuse (under the hood, diagram is on the cover).
Replace the fuse and all fine. If fuse is fine, then likely motor is toast.
This vehicle should have warranty. Go to dealer.
 
arnis said:
Wiper can be moved with hand (and motor will spin) if wiper is not parked at the lowest position.
If you are lucky, motor just blew the fuse (under the hood, diagram is on the cover).
Replace the fuse and all fine. If fuse is fine, then likely motor is toast.
This vehicle should have warranty. Go to dealer.

Dropped the Leaf at the dealer first thing this morning. I get a call back later in the morning telling me the item is not under warranty due to environmental conditions. In this case, there was freezing rain and an ice storm. The issue they said was the wiper linkage rod was bent due to frozen ice buildup. Furthermore they said I turned the wipers on while frozen to the windshield. INCORRECT; I was already driving a warm vehicle and using the wipers when they stopped working yesterday.
I told them that I had the car preheated plugged in before leaving at 25 degrees celsius and the windshield as well as all windows were clear.

The Service Advisor gave me the option of having them straighten the wiper link for what I think they said was $180 including a $57.50 diagnostic fee.
The 2nd option was to change the links for about $540. I couldn't believe it. 14 days old today and about 600kms.
I spoke with the Service Manager who reiterated what the Service Advisor said that environmental issues are not warrantable. He told me to call Nissan Canada. I called and spoke with a rep who called the dealer with me on hold. He comes back to tell me that it is not warrantable because of the weather conditions and I should have cleaned every possible area before attempting to use the wipers. The rep then said that the Service Manager will fix it as a goodwill but not replace it with with new links.

At the end of the day, they removed the cowel (the black plastic piece at the bottom of the windshield), took off the wiper blades, took out the wiper link, straighten the links and re-attached it to the motor.

I am getting a bad feeling about Nissan and their customer service and its only been 14 days since I bought the vehicle.
Disappointed!
 
backtolifeback said:
arnis said:
Wiper can be moved with hand (and motor will spin) if wiper is not parked at the lowest position.
If you are lucky, motor just blew the fuse (under the hood, diagram is on the cover).
Replace the fuse and all fine. If fuse is fine, then likely motor is toast.
This vehicle should have warranty. Go to dealer.

Dropped the Leaf at the dealer first thing this morning. I get a call back later in the morning telling me the item is not under warranty due to environmental conditions. In this case, there was freezing rain and an ice storm. The issue they said was the wiper linkage rod was bent due to frozen ice buildup. Furthermore they said I turned the wipers on while frozen to the windshield. INCORRECT; I was already driving a warm vehicle and using the wipers when they stopped working yesterday.
I told them that I had the car preheated plugged in before leaving at 25 degrees celsius and the windshield as well as all windows were clear.

The Service Advisor gave me the option of having them straighten the wiper link for what I think they said was $180 including a $57.50 diagnostic fee.
The 2nd option was to change the links for about $540. I couldn't believe it. 14 days old today and about 600kms.
I spoke with the Service Manager who reiterated what the Service Advisor said that environmental issues are not warrantable. He told me to call Nissan Canada. I called and spoke with a rep who called the dealer with me on hold. He comes back to tell me that it is not warrantable because of the weather conditions and I should have cleaned every possible area before attempting to use the wipers. The rep then said that the Service Manager will fix it as a goodwill but not replace it with with new links.

At the end of the day, they removed the cowel (the black plastic piece at the bottom of the windshield), took off the wiper blades, took out the wiper link, straighten the links and re-attached it to the motor.

I am getting a bad feeling about Nissan and their customer service and its only been 14 days since I bought the vehicle.
Disappointed!
That's pretty bad service , if you have no easy access to the to the links, how are you supposed to clean them?
 
I had a very similar experience with my 2016 Leaf this weekend, except that instead of ice, a 10" pile of snow from the roof broke loose at a stoplight. Not just some snow - ALL of the snow on top of the roof. This completely wrecked the wipers, which were on the intermittent setting at the time, when they encountered the concrete-like snow from the spring storm. I could hear the motor actuate, but the arms did not move. I could also move the arms manually pretty easily and they remained paired, even though something was obviously wrong with the linkages somewhere.

Took it into the dealer and had a completely different experience. They were more than happy to write it up as a warranty repair and gave me a brand new, free Altima loaner with 31 miles on it for the 36 hours or so that I would be without the car. I did ask how much the repair would have cost had it not been covered, and they said it really wasn't terrible. I think he said the linkage part was about $185 and would take about an hour of labor to install and test, so maybe $300-325?

I would think with so few miles on your car, even if it is an environmental condition that is not covered technically covered under warranty, it should be covered under goodwill by Nissan.
 
jotunheim said:
I had a very similar experience with my 2016 Leaf this weekend, except that instead of ice, a 10" pile of snow from the roof broke loose at a stoplight. Not just some snow - ALL of the snow on top of the roof. This completely wrecked the wipers, which were on the intermittent setting at the time, when they encountered the concrete-like snow from the spring storm. I could hear the motor actuate, but the arms did not move. I could also move the arms manually pretty easily and they remained paired, even though something was obviously wrong with the linkages somewhere.

Took it into the dealer and had a completely different experience. They were more than happy to write it up as a warranty repair and gave me a brand new, free Altima loaner with 31 miles on it for the 36 hours or so that I would be without the car. I did ask how much the repair would have cost had it not been covered, and they said it really wasn't terrible. I think he said the linkage part was about $185 and would take about an hour of labor to install and test, so maybe $300-325?

I would think with so few miles on your car, even if it is an environmental condition that is not covered technically covered under warranty, it should be covered under goodwill by Nissan.


I totally agree. You have a 2016 Leaf that was fully covered under warranty. I have a 2018 Leaf with about 600 kms and two weeks old and had to fight just to have the dealer bend the links back AS A GOODWILL, so I have functioning wipers.

I was comparing a 2006 Toyota Highlander and a 2012 Corolla. I noticed that the Toyotas are much more sealed where the wipers are attached
to the hood. No gap or very little compared to the Nissan Leaf (big space for snow and ice to get in). Looks like it is a design flaw. IMHO.
 
Yes, I noticed this too that the return action of the wiper into the parked position seemed to kill it with no room to push the snow and ice anywhere.

I would push a bit on the dealer if you are not satisfied with the resolution, as your wiper failure occurred under somewhat normal driving conditions for the geographic location and was not due to negligence from not clearing the ice/snow prior to operating the vehicle. Good luck and hope this weather changes soon!
 
As an engineer I can tell you that this is vehicle specific design flaw.
All vehicles should have wiper obstruction failsafe.
For example, for BMW, since 1996, wipers motor will just stop and restart after vehicle switched off.
In case of very cheap vehicles, usually fuse will blow. That happened with my friend last month
on his old Mazda from 2002. WIpers were frozen, that's all.

But having rods bent is not acceptable. Especially if they sell this vehicle in your market.
This is not debatable. It is design flaw and manufacturer has to fix it for free until warranty runs out.
 
For those who had failures, I suggest you file a safety complaint with your respective safety bodies.

NHTSA for the US at https://www.safercar.gov/.
https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/motorvehiclesafety/reporting-defects-motor-vehicles.html for Canada.

Looks like Honda had a recall long ago for a similar symptom: https://www.torquenews.com/106/honda-odyssey-recalled-windshield-wiper-problems so if they deemed it recall class/worthy...
 
cwerdna said:
For those who had failures, I suggest you file a safety complaint with your respective safety bodies.

NHTSA for the US at https://www.safercar.gov/.
https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/motorvehiclesafety/reporting-defects-motor-vehicles.html for Canada.

Looks like Honda had a recall long ago for a similar symptom: https://www.torquenews.com/106/honda-odyssey-recalled-windshield-wiper-problems so if they deemed it recall class/worthy...


I will be away for 3 weeks in a few days. I will seriously consider filing a safety complaint in Canada. Thanks to all for their input.
I do believe this is a safety issue.
 
This, unfortunately, is a situation where the customer caused damage to the car. Accidentally or not, the damage to the wipers is not a defect. Just like if you drive over a log and blow out your tires and damage your suspension.

They did repair the problem... But your complaint that they were a bad dealer is ridiculous.. Don't start trashing Nissan. They have a right to get paid when the customer breaks something...
 
If the linkages are too flimsy to stand up to freezing rain, that is a design or build defect. I have never, in 40+ years of driving in the Snow belt, had a wiper linkage bend and stop working.
 
I agree. Like I said, I can stall my BMW wipers whenever I want, while parked or even when moving up.
And all I have to do after that is restart the vehicle for wiper motor to reset "soft fuse".

It's a defect. Design defect. What is not defect is when wiper is at standstill and you bend it with your own force.
It's the same as: sorry but you closed your door too damn fast and now the window lifter doesn't work.
Or the same as: sorry you used maximum windscreen defrost in -20*C weather and now you have a
horizontal crack at the bottom edge. True story, true defect on older BMW. I think they might limit
heater output for defrost button after that :lol:

flat,800x800,075,f.jpg

Level 6 if that matters :lol:
 
LeftieBiker said:
If the linkages are too flimsy to stand up to freezing rain, that is a design or build defect. I have never, in 40+ years of driving in the Snow belt, had a wiper linkage bend and stop working.
+1
The Leaf should be designed to turn off the power to the motor under those cases. Making something so flimsy that it bends in that case is a design defect, not like someone driving over a log and complaining their front end is out of alignment, in that case it's above and beyond what would be considered normal use.
 
jjeff said:
LeftieBiker said:
If the linkages are too flimsy to stand up to freezing rain, that is a design or build defect. I have never, in 40+ years of driving in the Snow belt, had a wiper linkage bend and stop working.
+1
The Leaf should be designed to turn off the power to the motor under those cases. Making something so flimsy that it bends in that case is a design defect, not like someone driving over a log and complaining their front end is out of alignment, in that case it's above and beyond what would be considered normal use.

I called to Transport Canada this afternoon and reported the issue. I told them I will follow up in Mid May when I return from what I hope is a sunny, warm vacation. I provided the work order that the dealer performed on Monday.

I want to thank everyone's input, as I feel I have done everything I can at this time to hopefully rectify a potential safety concern.

I will update once I have more information.
 
Back
Top