Front slow wipers, faulty wiper motor, wipers park intermittently

[guddo1969]

On my Audi A6 (C5 model), I had a problem with my front wipers where they run really slow or stop in the middle for a while. I fixed it using the link below:

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/misc44.shtml

On top of that information, which is very helpful, I would like to add some interesting problems which I encountered while sorting things out myself:

1. Removing wiper arms - this is not easy if it's your first time as you really have to apply some decent amount of force. Be very careful - or get them removed by halfords or kwikfit for free. Or use a balljoint remover which is readily available in halfords.

2. Removing platic cowel - after removing three metal tabs which are quite visible you have to start taking it off from either end ( never start from the middle). Hold it with your both hands with your thumbs at the bottom and then use your thumbs to lift cowel up. Once it pops out from one end its very easy to remove.

3. Taking the wiper linkage out - in my case removing the ECU top cover didn't help much and I ended up shifting the whole ECU box in order to make some room to remove the linkage out. It is secured by two nuts.

4. Taking the linkage arms out - hold them securly and pull them away from the joints and they will pop out. But be careful not to bend them. Use a cloth or something to hold it tightly - you may need a another hand for this.

After replacing the linkage and putting all things back in reverse order, I noticed that my wipers starts as soon as I switch the ignition on. And they only work with 15 seconds interval despite where you set your wiper switch ( slow, fast, quick, intermittent ) doesn't matter. This makes you believe it is a relay problem but it is not. It was actually a wiper motor. Faulty perhaps, not at all.

There is a mechnical switch in the motor which parks your wiper arms when you switch them wipers off. If it is alligned then you get things like wipers not parking at the correct place, intermittent problem or stop working altogether etc. This happened to me because I had to rotate the wiper arms manually in different directions in order to take the linkage out of the cavity - hence ending up in misalligned swith.

I had to take everything out again and opened the motor assembly and aligned the switch - it is like a small dial which has four different combinations being set by two tabs on the motor gear.

But this is not enough as you have to set the motor arm in three o clock position - VERY VERY IMPORTANT. If you are looking at the wiper linkage from the front while it's all fitted then the motor arm should be at 3 o clock position. Just rotate the arm in this position, set the mechnical switch and close the motor assembly. Then plug it to your wiper harness and then try to operate it. If it doesnot work then try a different combination and try again until its working the way it suppose to work.

Only then assemble it back to the linkage. I had to do this twice but learned a very good lesson.

Hope this helps.

[Undercover]

I only looked at the piccies in the article, but I was impressed by how much beer is required to do the job properly.

[odrides]

guddo, thanks for the info. I've been having problems with my wipers for a long time -- only work on high speed and do not park. I replaced the relay and that didn't fix it. Makes sense now that I see from your post that the wiper motor has a switch to park the wipers. Many thanks!

[martink]

i did this twice on my old 98 plate golf gt tdi.
exactly as per the pics. had to REALLY hammer the shafts to get them out the body, the shafts were very crudded up and were binding on the inside of the body.

put them in teh vice, emery paper and file to lightly remove the crud and hey presto they worked a treat.

on the mk4 golf the whole job only takes a little over and hour.

well worth it.

[ford776]

What's the green stuff in the bottle? Is it the result of all the beer?