Today at Atelier Kaz - ex-Honda R&D, F1, Indy/CART engineer

It was not fun removing the seized washer motor without removing other parts.
Very little space and not easy to remove it as you don't want to crack the washer tank....

Also, even after sucking out more than 2L of washer fluid, there were still lots of it left inside the tank.....
I hate any garages with dirty and wet floor....




As this was not the first time seeing the UK spec washer motor to fail, wanted to understand the cause of the issue.

While the commutator was showing oxidation with build up of white powder and rust around the magnet housing, it was not enough to cause seizure and
managed to slide it out from the magnet housing.




However, I couldn't remove the top hat from the shaft initially so something was stuck in there.

It was actually the top section of the shaft that seized inside the pivot cup cauising the failure. The pivot allows the commutator to spin in pendulum orientation.
It was such a small corrosion but enough to prevent the motor from spinning.


Because of the nature of this parts, it will always be next to the washer fluid and since the motor shaft would be spinning while in contact with the washer fluid,
it needs some sort of seepage mechanism.
That is designed at the bottom side of the motor but it means continuous dampness.

Therefore, it's best to operate the washer motor from time to time to prevent the seizure.


Another reason why it's better to drive the car regularly and operate the moving parts than just letting the car sitting inside the garage.
My washer motor is different spec but it's still healthy even after 20years over 145K miles.





New washer motor, rubber seal and the sponge for the connector.





Now it's back in operation.



Time to remove the TH body and replace all coolant hoses.


More to follow later.


Kaz