Hey All- Newbie to this site, but have had a '98 LE 2.2L auto(134,500K) for 8 years now and a '00 LE 3.0L V6 5 sp. manual (177,300k) for 3 years. Hands down the most dependable, trouble free vehicles I've ever owned.
My intermittent wipers have quit working on my 2000 model, but instead operate in 'low' when switch is turned to 'intermittent'. Low and high speeds both work fine. The wipers will also no longer 'park' themselves at bottom of windshield when turned off, just stop wherever.
I've read all the old threads I could find on this site, but there seems to be some confusion as to wheather it is caused by the wiper motor or something in the interior switch or stalk. If I knew for sure, I believe I can replace parts and save some $$$, If I replace wrong part, then I just cost myself more then just having it fixed at a mechanics.
Does anyone know positively what the solution is to this problem? It seems to be fairly common, so I figured maybe one of you has done the work before and knows which way to go with this. Thanks in advance for any replies!

'00 Camry LE 3.0L V6 5sp. manual
'98 Camry LE 2.2L 4cyl. auto

 

Send a private message with an email address, will send a file on diagnosing the system.

 

seem to be everything is dead or not working perfectly... I guest you got used vehicles right? that would be it.

 

Thanks for the info guys! Fullhouse I must admit that I'm a little confused about your reply, but appreciate the your effort. I'm having a local auto repair place take a look at it tomorrow, so will find out then if it's the wiper motor or interior switch.
Funny how I lived without intermittent wipers for a lot of years driving older rigs or rigs that just didn't have them as an option. After having them the last 15 yrs. or so I'm spoiled and feel like I can't live without them! It does rain a lot here in Oregon though.

Spacinjason
'00 Camry LE 3.0L V6 5sp. manual
'98 Camry LE 2.2L 4cyl. auto

 

Sometimes in the cold wet weather The Wiring Gets Wet And Short Circuits The Electrical System A Good Starting Point Is The Fuse Box To See If Any Thing Is Blown Then Check The Motor To The Back Wiper It May Be Blown And Can Cause This Chain Reaction To The Electrical System Plus Another Issue Might Be That wires are crossing or touch that can lead to a total electrical failure.

 

I would take a guess and say that it's the wiper switch itself. It could also be the wiper motor, but you'd have to test the parts with a voltmeter

 

So I got the Camry back from the shop. It was the wiper motor at fault, and now the wipers work in the intermittent mode and park themselves at bottom of windshield properly.

 

mY 98 CAMRY WINDSHIELD WIPERS DO NOT WORK ON INTERMITTENT AND DO NOT RETURN TO PARK POSITION. TOYOMOHO OFFERS TO SEND DIAGNOSTIC INSTRUCTIONS. PLEASE SEND TO sam_garwood@umit.maine.edu. Thank you.

 

Your wiper motor needs to be replaced. Spacinjason

 

I disassembled my wiper motor when my 2000 Camry had this problem 4 years ago. There is an electrical contact in the gear drive (which is inside the motor housing) which controls the intermittent and wiper park operation. The contact is mounted on a very thin leaf spring about 1" long. The spring flexes once for every wiper cycle, so it gets hundreds of thousands of flexes over the life of the car. The leaf spring in my wiper motor had fractured from metal fatigue. I repaired it by soldering the broken leaf together by bridging the sections of the leaf with a small metal splint. After the repair, the wipers worked properly for 4 years. Until this morning! Which is why I consulted this forum today. I'll be opening the motor again as soon as it stops raining, and I'll repair the spring again. My local Toyota dealer swears that there is no rebuild kit available for the motor. This was a fairly tricky repair, so unless you're good with car repairs and soldering, I'd say just get another wiper motor. Rest assured the problem IS in the motor.