I've had this happen to me a couple times in the past, but the issue typically goes away within a minute and doesn't come back for months. Unfortunately while driving during a snowfall today, the wipers on my TSX decided to quit entirely. Here is the observed behavior:

1. I did not have the wipers on either the intermittent or continous setting. Was simply bumping the stalk up every now and then to wipe since precipitation wasn't that bad.
2. Eventually the wipers would not run when bumping the stalk. Moving to the intermittent or either of the two continuous positions did not start the wipers either. Pulling the stalk triggered the fluid spray, but did not start the wipers.
3. Shut the car on and off a few times. Cycled the other electronics in the car (headlights, turn signals, climate control, stereo). Nothing caused the wipers to come back to life.
4. 10-15 minutes later (still with unwiped fluid on the windsheild), I bump the stalk and the wipers come on as if nothing was wrong. Intermittent, continuous, and spray settings all trigger the wiper as expected.
5. I got about 2 minutes of wiper usage until they quit again (repeat #2). They did not come back by the time I parked my car. I was driving to the airport so the car is parked there for the next few days.

Any ideas?

 

Check if the fuse for the wipers blew.
Check to see if the wiper motors sound like they are working.
Check if the nut connecting the wiper arm to the wiper motor came loose.

Just did all this to check a friend's Chevy Suburban in a snow storm. Check #3 was the culprit.

 

Possible cable reel or column switch fault seems likely. Should be easy to isolate if fault is present.

good luck

 

I am with TexasHonda, Doubt its the fuse if they came back on. Do we have a circuit breaker in there that would reset itself? Or a thermal overload?

Either a bad switch or spiral cable could be intermittent.

If they work, or don't, try rotating the wheel to see if that changes things. That would indicate the spiral cable.

 

Thanks for replying with some additional ideas. Agree it is likely not fuse related. Is there anything in the wiper system that is exposed to the elements? I don't 100% recall the conditions when this briefly occurred in the past, but it was very wet (rain/snow) on Monday.

 

I would suspect that 99% of the time it would be wet/snowy when you used the wipers.

 

I did not get much sleep last night.

 

I know the feeling...