Electrical & Audio Guides
Fitting Intermittent Wipe (By: Andrew Attenborough)
Note from the webmaster:
Before you go rushing off to get the bits you need for this mod, take a moment to check what you actually need. The only Fiesta's that came with intermittent wipe as standard were Ghia's and XR2's however, if you own a 1.4S like me then the wiring and in many cases the red relay will already be there and all you need is the switch (and relay if you don't have it). In all cases it is worth having a look at the fuse box first to see what you have. If the red relay is already there then get the switch and see if it works, if the relay is not there but you have a empty relay socket, check to see if it's wired up, then just try getting the relay and switch to see if it works. If you find you need to do more than this then please continue with the rest of this guide - Ollie.
You will need:
- Big red relay (the one with 31b2, 31b1, 31, 54 connections on it)
- New headlight/wiper switch
- Wire
Go to a scrap yard and find a Ghia or an XR2 with the headlight/wiper switch
still fitted. Check it is right by pushing the wiper stalk down- it should
stay down and not pop back up. To remove it take the steering column shroud
off and unscrew the switch. Then access the relay cage from the same car and
pull out the big red relay. Check it has the right terminal numbers on it (see
above for these).
Then take your column shroud off and unplug the old switch. There should be 2
holes in the multi-plug connector- cut 2 lengths of wire to about half a meter,
bare the ends and push these through the holes in the connector. By bending
the bared ends around the outer edges of the connector, you should be able to
push these in so that they make contact with the terminals on the switch.
Thread these wires through the dash panel, and access the relay cage
(by pulling down the carpet and unscrewing the fuse box). The wires from the
switch should emerge. If your car does not have intermittent wipe (if it does
why are you reading this?) there should be a spare socket in the cage. Bare
the other ends of the wires, bare the end of another wire about 1m long, and
connect the following wires up:
- 31b2 - goes to 31b (brown/white wire) on wiper motor
- 31b1 - goes to 31b1 on new switch
- 54 - goes to 53-2 on new switch
- 31 - goes to earth (should already be spare socket for relay with earth connector in it)
The wires can be connected to the relay terminals in the same way that you
connected the wires to the switch terminals.
The wire going from 31b2 should be pushed through a grommet into the engine
compartment - use the speedo cable grommet or the one used by the rest of the
wiring loom. Connect this wire to the brown/white wire (terminal 31b) on the
wiper motor, again a scotch clip is very handy here.
Then it should all work - if it does not, check the connections to the switch
and to the relay, and re-fit them to make sure the connections are made
properly.
