So I just got my car back from the body shop and my windshield washer fluid motor/pump is not working.

I hooked a multimeter up to it - I put a probe in each hole of the connector to the pump and got nothing... then when i put the positive probe in one hole and the negative probe on the negative battery post i got 12V - I went to the other hole in the connector and also got 12V - so both sides are getting 12V.

I'm kind of a wiring/electric noob so I'm not sure what this means - do I have a short?

Can anybody tell me how this should work? when you hit the lever for the washer fluid what should the voltage read at that connector?

I have no other problems that I've noticed so far...

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

When you hit the washer switch you should see voltage at the washer pump (12v). If you do, your pump is probably bad. You can also jump your pump straight from the battery if you happen to have a couple of wires to make jumpers with. If your pump works or you don't see voltage at the plug when you hit the switch you have other problems.

It sounds like you are seeing no voltage when you hit the switch...Is that so?

Not quite... and thanks a lot for the response btw...

the connector to the pump has two wires - according to the wiring schematic in the service manual one goes to the switch and one goes to the fuse #15 - so I think one of them should be 12v whenever the ignition is "ON" (the fuse one) and I would guess the other one would go 12v when i hit the switch.

What I did was stick the positive probe of my multimeter in each hole of the connector with ignition "ON" and the multimeter ground at the negative battery post. I saw 12v on both wires regardless of whether i was pulling the lever or not... which doesn't really make a lot of sense to me... unless i'm totally wrong about how it works i would think the thing would be spraying constantly.

I'll try jumping the pump to rule that out.

If anybody else has any clue as to this wiring situation plz fill me in... thanks!

According to the schematic, the switch controls the ground of the pump. One side is positive 12v at all times through fuse 15, so if you are seeing voltage there, it is working as it should. Your meter shouldn't detect anything when testing the grounded side of the plug if your other terminal is on the battery; you should see your meter go from a slight charge to zero when this connection is made irrespective of whether the switch is on or not. This statment only applies if the pump is disconnected, though.

You can also do a continuity test between the negative side of the plug and the negative terminal on the battery. You should see continuity between these two points when the switch is on.

Let us know what happens when you test the motor.

Good luck!

I'm a little confused... You said my meter shouldn't see anything when testing the grounded side of the plug (when the meter is grounded to the negative battery post) right? regardless of whether i'm hitting the switch?? And what do you mean by only if the pump is disconnected?

I'll try the continuity test as well... as far as jumping the motor - how would I do this considering your last post? Do I need two wires one for each side of the plug going to each post of the battery? can I use a coathanger for this?

stupid questions probably but like i said i'm a bit of a n00b with this electrical stuff :rolleyes:

thanks a lot for your help!

Testing for voltage on the grounded side of the plug and the negative terminal of the battery should amount to the same thing, no voltage reading. This is becuase if there is continuity between the two when the switch is closed the motor is grounds, and the negative side is the ground. You won't have a meaningful voltage potential at the same pole.

There are two systems here you wanna evaluate, switching system and the motor. I mentioned testing with the pump disconnected as you really just want to see what is happening at the plug. You can test whats happening at the motor by hotwiring it.

You need to connect the pump to the + and - side of the battery with two wires. Polarity doesn't realy matter for this test as all you wanna do is see if the motor spins. You can use a coathanger, but I'd use shielded wires to avoid an accident. Speaker wire would work great.

so assuming i did the test correctly the first time and both sides of the plug showed 12V - that would mean I have a short circuit??

I just jumped the motor and it works - the body shop must have pinched a wire somewhere and shorted something out. Since my wipers work fine I think the short has probably got to be somewhere between the washer switch and the connector to the motor. It looks like the wire goes into the fender.

Start tracing the wires from the switch. Do your continuity test between the switch and the plug, perhaps then you can start to pinpoint where the harness is damaged, if that is the case.

Since its apparent that the body shop caused this I'm probably going to let them chase it down - I've chased down wiring problems before and know they can be a major PITA. Thanks a lot for your help!