Skipping/Jerking Wiper Issue Saga Continues - New Motor Did Not Fix

[RyanS93]

I have been dealing with the skipping/jerking wiper issue now since I bought my truck. I am starting to see it cropping up on many other people’s trucks too and hoping we could discuss what could be causing it.

What I'm referring to is only when the wipers are on intermittent mode, when they reach the end of the cycle to rest at the bottom of the windshield, they seem to skip/jerk ahead to a further stop rather than resting at the original point. When the windshield is dry it doesn’t do it and when using the regular low/high or washer modes they work perfect as well. I have checked and my wipers are aligned to the marks on the windshield, and I have even gone through a couple sets of blades and cleaned the windshield.

I have had it to 2 different dealers who could not replicate the issue. So based on feedback from other owners, I went ahead and just replaced the wiper motor myself. It’s an easy job and I had Ford points which made the part cheap enough to be worth the gamble.

The wipers are doing EXACTLY the same thing as before. I’m completely stumped now and all I can think of is this is either an inherent design flaw or maybe it’s the wiper linkage that’s to blame? I have no idea and this issue drives me absolutely crazy. Would love some input from other owners on this!

Added some videos as well to explain (note not all videos are mine).

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[Nameless]

Mine do the same thing

 

[Mav2112]

Mine also do this; not every time but it hasn’t bothered me enough in the last year to look into it further.

 

[Silver23]

I believe they are just "parking" . It's what they do at the end of the cycle when turning off and apparently in your case on intermittent too.

 

[RyanS93]

I believe they are just "parking" . It's what they do at the end of the cycle when turning off and apparently in your case on intermittent too.

That’s what I assumed as well, but they don’t go all the way down to where they normally park when you turn them off, just a little bit further. Perhaps this is “normal” operation.

 

[Silver23]

That’s what I assumed as well, but they don’t go all the way down to where they normally park when you turn them off, just a little bit further. Perhaps this is “normal” operation.

I went and tried mine, they don't do that. It's a 2023. Maybe it's a quirk of some of the trucks? Very strange.
I can't see what else you could do other than changing the motor. The good news is I doubt the wipers will fail because of this although it would be annoying for sure.

 

[Rolmav]

Maybe it's the wiper switch giving a bad signal on the intermittent setting? That's my shot in the dark.

 

[RyanS93]

Mine do the same thing

Interesting that yours is a 2023 and also does it.

 

[Maverick2023]

I have been dealing with the skipping/jerking wiper issue now since I bought my truck. I am starting to see it cropping up on many other people’s trucks too and hoping we could discuss what could be causing it.

What I'm referring to is only when the wipers are on intermittent mode, when they reach the end of the cycle to rest at the bottom of the windshield, they seem to skip/jerk ahead to a further stop rather than resting at the original point. When the windshield is dry it doesn’t do it and when using the regular low/high or washer modes they work perfect as well. I have checked and my wipers are aligned to the marks on the windshield, and I have even gone through a couple sets of blades and cleaned the windshield.

I have had it to 2 different dealers who could not replicate the issue. So based on feedback from other owners, I went ahead and just replaced the wiper motor myself. It’s an easy job and I had Ford points which made the part cheap enough to be worth the gamble.

The wipers are doing EXACTLY the same thing as before. I’m completely stumped now and all I can think of is this is either an inherent design flaw or maybe it’s the wiper linkage that’s to blame? I have no idea and this issue drives me absolutely crazy. Would love some input from other owners on this!

Added some videos as well to explain (note not all videos are mine).

Normal to me and I don’t lose sleep over it

 

[Tailender]

Mine does it too. Built April 2022.

 

[RyanS93]

This makes sense to me, I notice the same thing with it shifting the position of the blade rubber. I also feel like when I tried a different set of blades (Rain-X Latitude) the problem seems to go away or at least get significantly better as when it does that weird “park” motion, the new blades seemed to glide better rather than “thunk” like the factory Motorcraft blades. I have cleaned the windshield several times with Invisible Glass and Windex, but thinking maybe those cleaners aren’t working right.

I am going to try to deep clean the windshield with a different glass cleaner and install a new, different set of wiper blades, since it seems to be the worst with the Motorcraft blades. I am going to try the Rain-X Silicone Endura blades. I wish I could get Bosch Icon but they don’t seem to have ones that are compatible.

I am also thinking maybe a coating of Rain-X would make the windshield more “slick” and reduce the drag?

 

[Skifletch]

I believe I asked in the other thread and don't recall if there was a reply. Do we know what kind of motor drives them? Is it by chance a stepper motor? It looks almost like a step.

My 2023 EB does not do this. I find myself wondering if it's a sensor, or motor driver issue. Also maybe there's the wrong downward spring force on the blade?

 

[RyanS93]

I believe I asked in the other thread and don't recall if there was a reply. Do we know what kind of motor drives them? Is it by chance a stepper motor? It looks almost like a step.

My 2023 EB does not do this. I find myself wondering if it's a sensor, or motor driver issue. Also maybe there's the wrong downward spring force on the blade?

I am not well versed enough to say for sure but I don’t think it is a stepper motor. Only my guess. I assumed a new motor would fix it but it did not. It’s possible that the force on the blade isn’t right somehow. I had to remove the wiper arms for the replacement so I would have re-torqued the nut on them and they behave exactly the same as before.

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