Rebuilding/regreasing a wiper motor

[entirelyturbo]

The rear wiper on my B4 is making a very strange noise. It works fine, but it almost sounds like a frog croaking... that's the best way I know how to describe it.

A mechanic at my old shop recommended I take it apart and replenish the grease inside the motor.

I've seen other people mess with wiper motors and screw them up, and needless to say, I definitely don't want to do that with this, or any other component of this car. I've looked at rear wiper motors on various USDM Subaru wagons, and none of them look like mine.

Can this be done? If so, what kind of grease should I use?

[Legacy777]

The motor is probably fine, it's the gearing inside that probably needs to be done. I can't comment on how hard or what you'll run into....

What have you heard that people have screwed up by messing with them?

[entirelyturbo]

I dunno. Electric motors are not my expertise, thus my apprehension to do this. I remember a guy here in town who used to have a Loyale, and curiosity got the best of him one day, so he took the perfectly-good wiper motor apart. I think he took the solenoid apart... he never got it working again.

[entirelyturbo]

I was making this more complicated in my mind than it really was, just took apart the linkage to find a severe lack of lubrication:



So I cleaned it out and greased it back up with high-temp wheel bearing grease, and put it back together.

Unfortunately, the sound didn't completely go away... I think the shaft coming off of the actual electric motor is loose and vibrating. But it doesn't sound nearly this bad anymore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8luBvYntLSw

Maybe I'll get lucky and run across a B4 rear wiper online, or find a USDM wagon that has a compatible wiper motor. We'll see.