Be Excellent To Each Other

If it was me I'd certainly take the cover off the switch box to have a look.
So you could do that and post a picture for further suggestions, at least to see if that part is the problem. If you are very lucky it will be fixable but I wouldn't hold out much hope.

You're looking at something like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ ... G_0551.jpg

If it's faulty you'll see burnt or loose contacts or the copper track they press against.


So I would also look for a complete replacement motor from a breaker on ebay...


There's also a small chance on a modern car that the motor and switch thing are perfectly fine, but the too-many-computers which now control it have gone mental.

Cheers Kalmar.

After considering everything in your post I think I'll take it to a brum-brum man.

x

Is that your Sonic workstation btw?

Sadly not, it's a random image from the internet

Anyway, it shouldn't be that difficult to change the motor if you can find a cheap one on the 'bay.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAZDA-323-FRONT-W ... 3a4258f060

10 mm spanner and half an hour worth of swearing and you're done.

Cheers Kalmar, I'll buy one and bring it to Manchester x

Out of interest I contacted my local Mazda garage in Preston to see how much a new motor would cost and a fitting charge.

<LOLZ>
Front Wiper Motor between 180.00 and 190.00
Fitting is estimated at 90.85
</LOLZ>

It has brought to light however that there are two possible motors for my car, so I'll need to find out which is the right one before looking on Ebay.

I'll find the name of the company I used when I needed some heater controls. It's one of those things where scrappies sign up to it and then you get a bunch of competing quotes from each one for the part you're after.

Best bet is just to look at the photo, compare shape and the connector style etc with the one on your car.

You guys are totally crucial.

I use http://www.breakeryard.com .

Cool. Asked them too now.

Just bought some projector headlights for the car off fleaBay.

Well after a quick peep at lunchtime I now see that there's plenty of space around the motor and it's in a sensible position. Looking good so far then. Oh and the codes/part number is on there. The engine bay is ultra clean, I'm wondering if the garage borked the motor when they steam cleaned it.

Good work. Seems quite likely they got water in it, it's only a plastic cover.
Looks a bit like the ebay one dunnit.

Yes indeed. I'm going to give it a go once pay day comes around.

If you feel like breaking it in the meantime, have a go at unscrewing / unclipping the plastic cover and letting the water out

I'm gonna tinker it's little arse off.

Spray it with some WD40 while it's open, too.

On electrical contacts? *Shudder*

It should be full of vaseline. WD40 would dissolve it. I'm sure Zardoz has some vaseline handy to re-pack it if necessary.

Wuss. Spray on.

Stop fighting over me and my lubricants

Just arrived home to see my picture of the new car sitting next to the old one didn't come out. FUCKING.

That's alright, we'll just have some pics of the new one then

Yeah, but I liked to get pics of the old and new together. I am genuinely upset/pissed off by this.

Still, new one is fine. The fault was indeed one of the fan motors which has been replaced, and the clips which enable the cigarette lighter to 'lock' in place had been bent by someone's satnav adaptor.

Cruised wonderfully on the M5, at the start of the M50 it most certainly did not accelerate all the way up to instant disqualification speed, no sir.

One thing I note is there's no rubber trim on the doors to protect against taps.

Don't drive in the sink then.

Glad you're enjoying your new car Perks.

How are the wipers?

I can't remember the last time I saw a sports car with those on.

Glad that it's driving well though, I give you a year before you yearn for a GT-Four

A lot of people mocked me when I had my Celica Gen7, said it was a girl's car and a hairdresser's car. I couldn't care less of course, but it was when I discovered the hooks in the boot for attaching shopping bag handles to that I thought "You know, they might just be right..."

Heh. One of those went past us while we were stuck in traffic on the way into BRUMMIEHAM.



Idiots, they can't tell the difference between a Celica and a Mk3 MR2...

The GT Sport has these. I think its so your shopping doesn't fall over when you are cornering fast.

That's what I tell myself anyway.

Yeah, all your crates of beer, bottles of whisky and other MAN THINGS.

Any advice on stopping alloys rotting?

If they're the stock Toyota alloys there's not much you can do. If you get them refurbished the refurb man might be able to suggest fixes, but for the price of 4 refurbs you can probably get a decent set of aftermarket alloys off fleaBay.

Yeah, there's plenty out there for £75 or less each. I wondered if Autoglym's alloy stuff would be of any use in holding off the rot.

Possibly, it's just the paint bubbling and flaking so anything that hardens the paint or whatever the term is might stave it off for a bit.

I wonder if ACF 50 will do any good? Thinking of buying some for the bike anyway (using FS365 at the moment)

I think I might have found the problem:

That's going to be enough to fuck things up royally, isn't it? That's the cables going from the +ve terminal cap thingymadoodah.

Not necessarily. If the corrosion was causing enough of a bad connection to make it fail to start, it would also have melted / burnt the cable insulation. No sign of that.

So, your battery is charged now?

What happens when you turn the key? What sounds, what happens with the headlights, etc/

Right, battery in, and head lamps worked, windcreen wipers, indicators, windcreen washers. Glowplug pre heat lamp came on and went off again as normal. Turn the key to start the engine and there was a sharp crack sound, and then no lights at all.

OK, that sounds like one of the terminals is making a bad connection, or it's the fault of the corroded wires.

Check the terminals first: take the terminal clamps off, clean up the surface that touches the battery post with a wire brush (or brillo pad, sandpaper, whatever you have), and then reconnect it as tightly as possible- wiggle them about before tightening to be sure of a good connection.

Done that, wiped some shit away from the starter motor earth bit thingy, started on the key.

Most happy.

Clock and temp is fucked now, but VICTORY IS MINE!

Thanks for your help, k-Man, I'll get KC to buy you a beer on my behalf.

Thanks to KC and BeeX as well.

Happy days!

Now. Vaseline. Spread some over the terminals and those wires to stop it getting any worse.

Dunno about you, but i think I'm off for a beer or several.

And to stick some more coolant in after the engine cools down.

So, as Twitter fans will know, I "finished" my Tomcat on Saturday. By "finished", I mean it's up to competition standard and will (hopefully) pass scruitineering at the first event*.
I still need to put the locking rear diff back on (when it's fixed), but that's it, competition wise.
Obviously I'll constantly be adding bits to it - such as the waterproof ignition system I was looking at last week.

Still, yay! I took it somewhere muddy on Sunday to celebrate.


Note that the water line goes way above the passenger door line. Whoops

*Except I have to remove the steering lock. Don't forget, me.

Oops!

Looks great, Grim.... Get some videos up if you ever can.

Woo and very much hoo, mr Grim...

I would imagine the difference comes if one were to run it as a company car.

Here we are showing off by driving round and round to cure a misfire in a bit people were struggling to drive along...

Is that.. Drifting equilibrium?