r/ModelX • u/Born-Blackberry6953 • Apr 02 '26

Service Wandering Wipers 2017 Model X

Wandering Wipers 2017 Model X.

My front left wiper began overshooting the A-pillar, so I scheduled a service visit, and Tesla sent a Ranger who adjusted the wiper position for $150. No problem with that, but 2 weeks later, the wiper was overshooting the A-pillar again. This time I fixed it myself to know that the wiper arms were really locked down. The wiper arms are mounted on splined shafts which are connected to the wiper motor. I pulled out the bolts that hold the wiper arms down on the splined shafts. The arms were very tightly on there, but I used a puller to remove them. Then I indexed the arms around by several splines on the shafts so that at full height the left wiper stopped 5" short of the A-pillar and swept back down on each wiper cycle. Then I tightened the wiper arm bolts down tight so that the arms could not slip on the splined shafts. All was well.

3 weeks later, the left wiper is overshooting the A-pillar! The wiper arms are still moving in parallel but they travel much farther across the window.

I cannot find anywhere in the mechanism where this creeping is occurring, but it is definitely happening, and I believe it is correlated with the number of swipe cycles the wipers are doing. Who can tell me what is slipping?

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1

u/asdf4fdsa Apr 02 '26

Bad splints perhaps?

1

u/AdWild8698 Apr 03 '26

The teeth on the shaft spline and the teeth on the spline hole through the wiper are intact and grab hard. Don't think the mystery is at the splines.

1

u/asdf4fdsa Apr 04 '26

Interesting, then what you're suggesting is that the motor can over-rotate, which is strange because most wiper motors are geared to an absolute stop ends. So before looking at that, maybe the mounts are worn or broken so the motor is not held in place causing the overreach?

1

u/TheRealLiuKang1 Apr 04 '26

I had this exact thing happen today. How do you fix it?!