Windshield washer problems
 

I bought my truck a few months back and didn't test the windshield washer sprayer before I bought it, but took it home and realized it was broken after a week or so.
I figured the pump itself was fried, so I ordered a new one on Rock Auto and installed it and it still didn't work. So I got out my multimeter and found out that there is no power to the pump. I figured it must be a blown fuse, so I opened up the fuse box under the hood but couldn't find anything in there for the washer pump! There are fuses for everything else on the truck listed in there but not this!
When I press the button on the stalk, the wipers go on so the button works there is just no power to the pump itself. And I can hear a relay clicking under the hood when the wipers come one and go off, but nothing when I press the button to activate the pump. I am wondering if maybe the relay for the pump is bad or maybe I have a short or bad wire someplace?
I am getting pretty frustrated with this and might just take it to the dealer because I need it fixed before winter rolls in. But I wanted to ask here first to see if anyone has some suggestions on what could be wrong before I spend a bunch of money having the dealer fix this.
Thanks!

Check the sticky section for the 2005/6/7 Dakota Service & Parts Manuals. This has wiring diagrams and troubleshooting info. Specifically Section 8R-29 speaks to the windshield washer. Like everything else on these trucks, it appears a "control module" is in charge of the washer pump.

Cool thanks for the info, I will check it out.

Control module???? Why do we need that type of crap?

So you are forced to go to the dealer and spend more money than you need to!

Yeah that's pretty much what it sounds like! I was hoping to spend my extra cash on a new radio or bull bar instead.

A buddy suggested just setting up an auxiliary switch for the pump but I think that would just be a little too ghetto for such a lovely truck.

I am still struggling with this problem and would appreciate any help you guys here on the forum can provide.

I tried to figure this out myself using electrical diagrams and did a little troubleshooting and got frustrated so I took it to a great mechanic here in town who has a good reputation for being smart and tenacious. He ran a bunch of diagnostics and we narrowed in on the problem but still cannot solve it. Here's the deal:

The wires that lead to the washer pump are not getting power, which sounds like an issue with the front control module. He determined that everything between the mutlifunction switch on the steering column and module is fine and it is getting a signal. So the problem lies somewhere between the module and the washer pump. On the diagram it says there is a brown wire that feeds into the module from the pump to give it power. That wire is present on the pump but he could not find it leading into the module! To make things even more confusing, the point on the module where the wire should connect into the little port is plugged. Where the hole should be is just plastic, like the hole for the brown wire was never even there when the truck was built! It is so bizarre. He offered to trace the brown wire from the pump and figure out where it goes, but he said that would take a while and would go beyond his standard diagnostic fee so I told him to stop there. Even if we did figure out where that wire went, there was still the issue that there is no port on the control module to accept it.

Does anyone know what is going on here?

I am to the point where I am about to wire up a remote toggle switch to turn the pump on and off. Not the most elegant solution, but it is better than leaning out the window with a water bottle to remove salt on the highway.

Any suggestions you guys have are much appreciated before I drill a hole in the dash and get this switch wired up next weekend. Thanks!

OH YEAH, forgot to mention this:

I installed an aftermarket Pioneer radio a few months back and it has been working fine until now. After getting the truck back from the mechanic last week, the radio stays on even after turning the truck off and with the doors open (should note I used the harness from Crutchfield so I didn't need to splice in for acc power). It seems to be getting power all the time now which is bad news if I forget to power down the head unit and it stays on all night and I wake up to a dead battery. I searched the forum and found a thread on this and it sounds like this is some sort of control module issue. I don't understand how this would be affected by the diagnostics he did, although he probably did disconnect the battery (lost all my radio presets) and maybe that reset something? Or is there just a ghost in my machine?

F'ing engineers...

hijacking this thread
 

Sorry everyone. I'm new to this. In reading several threads/posts, it appears a simple thing to do is disconnect the neg battery terminal for some electrical issues--like remote won't work. My question is some threads say to disconnect positive terminal. Is the effect the same if you disconnect the positive terminal and ground it to the frame as opposed to just removing the negative terminal? Thanks.

Just throwing this out there...Maybe he changed the position of this fuse during the diagnostic, which in one position allows the key to control power to certain accessories, and in the other position allows those accessories to get full-time battery power?


http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3...ghterpower.jpg


Might as well check it out. Sorry I couldn't help more with the washer issue, but good luck.


(Three times so far in one day I've gotten to use this pic. That's pretty awesome. :icon_lol: )