A3 Faulty Wiper system

[Ed.]

Hello, I am new to this site and also to Audis. I have a 1998 A3 1.8T with various niggling faults but the most annoying and potentially dangerous one is that the wipers have stopped working.

Basically when you operate the wiper control arm, the wiper arms do not sweep but ever so slowly edge their way up the screen. At the moment they are stuck midway in their sweep and it is seriously obtructing my view of the road. If it rains when I am driving, then its game over as they will not be at all effective.

I'm trying to diagnose the problem without taking it to a dealer.

I imagine it is either the wiper control arm, the wiper motor or perhaps the linkage?

Can anyone suggest anything?

Thanks
Ed

[midfield general]

Hi there,

I guess by now you probably have this sorted but I had a similar problem last month. The wipers on my 1999 A3 1.9TDi would run very slowly or jam up altogether. We didn't get to the bottom of it exactly but a "new" motor from an audi breaker fixed the problem. After 100,000 miles I think the motor was just giving up the ghost. Not sure if this was ahead of schedule but it seems fine now. The motor was 70 quid inc postage with the linkage arm from an online breaker in Bristol. Not difficult to change if you are happy doing Haynes manual 3 spanner jobs.

Audi Chelmsford quoted £250+.....