VW Experts, Please Advise

[VDubFamily]

We are two chicks who do not have a lot of automotive expertise, and who do have an '01 Jetta 1.8T. Despite an immeasurable amount of bullshit problems, it has served us well and is much, much fun to drive .

Back to the immeasurable amount of bullshit part, though:

While 40 minutes from home in a hefty rainstorm, our wipers quit - midwipe. Everything else in the car seemed to be working fine, including the washer fluid sprayer thingy hehehehe..... Anyhow, I pulled over and the wipers were easily moved up and down by hand, so there doesn't seem to be any binding going on in the linkage. When we finally made it home, I located and checked the fuse, and it is also fine. So, I assume it's the wiper motor, but the funny thing is, when I turn on the wipers, I can HEAR the motor working (including going faster and slower depending on the position of the switch) - but there's no wiper action.

So ... is it the wiper motor, or no? If not, what else could it be?

Thank you to all of you auto-smarties out there willing to lend a bit of advice.

Molly and Kimmy

[Geezir]

Sounds like the wiper linkage has broken, or has come disconnected from the motor.

[MOEZER]

open your hood, and remove the rubber strap that is beside the wipers take out the plastec mesh and take a look at the wiper setup and where the motor is and take a look at if there is any thing loose or not conntected that should be connected like the wiper arms to move the wipers from the motor

[VDubFamily]

Thanks, guys.

I did as you said, and found that the nut connecting the linkage to the motor had come off. I put it back on and the mechanism works fine. (Unfortunately, getting the driver's wiper arm off was a nightmare, so in the process I managed to break both the cowl and the windshield. Nice, huh? At least we have $0 deductible glass coverage, and a cowl is much cheaper than a wiper motor. Ah, well.) Thanks again.