Wiper problems of the 2003 Mini Cooper S

2003 Mini Cooper S. My wiper motor died in a heavy rainstorm, or so I thought. Driving without the wipers in hilo, hi where I live with 140" a year of rain can be deadly when wipers don't work. It is a well documented defect affecting all original 02-06 Minis. See here for details. I repaired mine simply by grounding the wiper motor to anywhere else on the car. I had to drive 3 weeks without wipers before I could fix this. Dealers charge $600 to fix it and it is a design defect and the motor is not actually dead. It is a poor, and potentially deadly design. I guess I could have spent a couple thousand renting a car for that time, or just spent $600 right away and another $500 on the car to get it fixed. I took my chances, so will many others. There were plenty of times I couldn't see well and hoped for the best. Here is the site with lots of info about it. . Read more...