2016 CX9 GT - Front windshield wipers stopped working today

Hi all, we recently bought a 2016 CX-9 Grand Touring. The car currently has less than 5000 miles on it, and the front windshield wipers inexplicably stopped working today. The rear wiper still works fine, and I can get wiper fluid to spray on both the front and back windows, so the column stalk seems to be functional to some degree. The front wipers are completely dead - no motor noise, no movement, nothing in any setting.

Is this a known issue, and does anyone know what the fix is? Is there a software setting on the infotainment unit to completely disable the wipers? Thanks in advance for any guidance.

TitaniumVT said:

Hi all, we recently bought a 2016 CX-9 Grand Touring. The car currently has less than 5000 miles on it, and the front windshield wipers inexplicably stopped working today. The rear wiper still works fine, and I can get wiper fluid to spray on both the front and back windows, so the column stalk seems to be functional to some degree. The front wipers are completely dead - no motor noise, no movement, nothing in any setting.

Is this a known issue, and does anyone know what the fix is? Is there a software setting on the infotainment unit to completely disable the wipers? Thanks in advance for any guidance.

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The fix is--you have a '16 MY w/5000 mi, so call the dealer and it will be covered under warranty.

tex2670 said:

The fix is--you have a '16 MY w/5000 mi, so call the dealer and it will be covered under warranty.

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things like this should not be happening to a brand new car in the first place. my 2015 mazda 6 with almost 60k miles on the clock hasnt had one single issue yet.

OP, did you try restarting the car and/or electronics?

Agree, this should not be happening on a brand new car. It's my wife's car, and she noticed the problem on her drive home yesterday. Yes, we did re-start the car (didn't help). I wasn't sure if there was an Infotainment system setting for the wipers (hence my question). The next step is to take it to the dealer, but I wanted to check first if this was a known issue with a simple fix to avoid the inconvenience.

TitaniumVT said:

Agree, this should not be happening on a brand new car. It's my wife's car, and she noticed the problem on her drive home yesterday. Yes, we did re-start the car (didn't help). I wasn't sure if there was an electronics setting for the wipers (hence my question). The next step is to take it to the dealer, but I wanted to check first if this was a known issue with a simple fix to avoid the inconvenience.

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Doesnt sound like a simple fix to me if they just stopped working. Id try them again a day later to see if they were just having a bad day and schedule an appointment with your dealer

This may be a dumb question but, Did you check Fuse??????

GJ-Molestor said:

things like this should not be happening to a brand new car in the first place. my 2015 mazda 6 with almost 60k miles on the clock hasnt had one single issue yet.

OP, did you try restarting the car and/or electronics?

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Which is why new cars come with a warranty.... (uhm) Sh!t happens sometimes; no product is perfect.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. The good news is that I've managed to fix the problem...at least for the time being.

I found some time this afternoon to check the fuse box. There are two fuses (#1 and #18) in the engine compartment fuse box that are indicated as being related to wipers. The #1 slot is empty (i.e., didn't ship from the factory with a fuse in it), and the #18 fuse looked intact. I pressed it down just in case there was a loose connection. Then I checked the settings on the infotainment system. I found only one wiper related setting for "Rain Sensing Windshield Wipers". I turned it off, and tested the wipers. The wipers were working again! Then I turned the rain sensing wiper setting back on. The wipers still worked! Woohoo!

At this point, I don't know if the problem was due to a loose connection with the fuse or a glitch in the infotainment software (in retrospect, I should have tested the wipers after pressing down the fuse and before messing with the Infotainment system). My wife's been complaining about the Infotainment being buggy and crashing, so I suspect the culprit is a software glitch. We'll continue to monitor it, and if it happens again, we'll take the car in for a more thorough investigation.

At some point, we do need to schedule an appointment to get a firmware update for the Infotainment system. For now, I'm happy that the wipers are working again and that it turned out to be a trivially easy fix. Although the car's still under full warranty, I'd rather avoid the hassle of dealing with a service appointment and being without the car for half a day if I can help it.