2002 MAZDA PROTEGE User Comment / Complaint

Driving on fl turnpike at night in heavy rain, bumper to bumper traffic, wipers were on high, switched them to low (not intermittent) and the wipers stopped in the middle of the windshield. trying to make it to the right hand lane with my head out the window so i can see, and they just came back on automatically. made it home, keeping them on low. that was 7/17/07. yesterday (8/1/07) in medium rain in daylight, went to local store. as a test, i put wipers on low a minute or so, then high, then back to low, then they stopped mid window again (all this in about 4 minutes). turning them off/on would not make them come on again. i put them back on low hoping they would come back on. traffic light changed and i had to drive across four lanes to store with no wipers. wipers came back on automatically when i pulled up to the store (maybe 3 minutes after the wipers powered off). the car has about 60,050 miles, original owner, no accidents or other mishaps. it appears that i can reproduce this behavior.