Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

My wipers are working nicely at both speeds, but not self-parking. I understand from the archives and the manual that there is a self-parking switch in there, but for the life of me, I can't find it. On the wiper motor, I see the plug with the 4 wires. I can see the same 4 wires connected properly to the back of the switch, but I can not find the switch and the green wire that powers it. A description or picture of where it is would be most appreciated. Thanks, Dan

4 wires? Is it only a single speed motor? The two speed motor has five wires. In either case, the parking switch is underneath the large plastic gear wheel inside the motor gearbox.. There is a ramp on the back of the wheel that triggers a microswitch on the back of the motor. For this to happen there needs to be a permanent live feed to the motor. I'm not sure of the standard colours because my wiring uses non-standard colours. But looking at the S4 (two speed wipers) wiring diagram:
Igniton controlled power comes from the fuse box in a green wire to the micro-switch and then on to the facia switch.
There are three more wires going to the wiper switch from the motor -
Light Green and Brown - this is the high speed wire.
Light Green and Blue - this the low speed wire.
Light Green and Red - this is the park wire and has the function of reversing the current flow as the microswitch is triggered, thus stalling the motor and preventing it from over-sweeping the blades.

On the motor itself there is a fifth black wire which is the earth.

There is a brilliant description of how it works for both single and two speed wipers in Paul Hunt's MGB site. The wiring of an MGB is almost identical to an Elan so it is entirely relevant and well worth a read. Find it here [url]http://www.mgb-stuff.org.uk/electricstext2.htm#wipers
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Mike

Thanks, Mike. 4 wires coming from switch, plus ground, so you are right, 5 is actually correct. Figured out the problem. The plug doesn't fit very tightly, so while it was plugged in enough for the rest of the connections, it must not have been for the red/green. Now just need to figure out how to get a tighter fit. Cheers, Dan

Dan, I got a new wiper plug here:

http://www.britishwiring.com/Wiper-Moto ... p/c805.htm

It is the end that fits on the wiring loom, not the plug receptacle on the motor. Not sure how my car was fitted up originally, but when I got it there was no loom plug, just five individual female spade connectors with plastic sleeve covers. Maybe the PO did a repair similar to your issue?

The new plug included the terminals. Need a good crimping tool to put them on. I installed the plug with a new loom as the Lotus wiper wire colours are a bit confusing.

Might work if your wires are long enough?

HTH

Stu