wipers

[bodie71]

my wipers hav suddenly taken a life of their own, sometimes when i turn my ignition on they go abt 5 or 6 times maybe more and do not stop in the right place a when i push the wiper stalk down for them to go 1 time its the the same all over again and its a real bollix to get them right, hav i got a knackerd relay or something major?

[Audi A4 Lover]

Ahhhh, sounds like burnt out contacts in the motor mechanism!If your a competant DIY'er,whip the motor out, strip the mechanism down and youll see large copper rings,these control were the arms park by shorting the motor out when it gets to the right place(its very complicated how it works)If the contacts on her get corroded or a bit burnt then the motor will just keep running.Easy enough to do,or if you dont thing you can then get someone else to do it for you.Its not worth taking to a dealer,theyll sugest replacing the motor and charge lots of labour!

[bodie71]

thanks for the info il try my best to sort it myself.

[frankiejr]

hey people. i am new here and just got a 1999 a4 1.8t

am having exactly the same issues as above. is there any kind of 'how to' on this fix? will it be the mechanism at fault or could it be something else?

thanks for any help.

forgot to mention, the guy i bought it from said it only seems to do it in damp / wet weather. not sure if this info helps?

[jockthedog]

exact same on my 2000 S4,
have replaced the relay and all was well for a week or so.
Battery was drained (alternator ok) and with a new battery (and a quick srapy wash of car) the problem re-appeared.
I'll repair/replace the (original, from new) motor and get back to you.

[bodie71]

dont know what was wrong with mine, didnt get a chance to look at at, ever since the post they have worked perfect.

[jockthedog]

Ok, that was pretty satisfying. Repaired the motor contacts as advised in the prev post and the problem is gone. Could be that the act of removal and replacement fixed something else but I did find the tell-tale corrosion in the motor, so fingers crossed...!
Only took an hour, but only cos I've taken the wiper bits out a couple of times before now.
The Bentley manual doesn't wuite described the removal process completely so...
Open the bonnet.
Using a small flat screwdriver, pry off the covers on the nuts for the wipers themslves.
Use a socket to remove the nuts underneath and waggle the wipers a bit to loosen and remove them.
Pull off the fat rubber strip which holds the plenum cover on, running across the engine bay.
Slide out the plenum cover.
Loosen the battery -ve terminal and lay to side. (Ok, I cheated and didn't bother with this!)
Remove the spring clip on the lhs of the remaining plastic cover on the bottom left of the windscreen and then ease that plastic cover off the bottom of the 'screen. (The screw-holes which rotate the locking bars on this piece were stripped to circles, but you don't need to turn those to get the plastic cover off). The LHS cover locks loosely into the RHS cover in a specific way - note that!
There should be rubber grommets around the posts which turn your wipers - remove those.
Now the tricky bit - remove the three bolts which hold the wiper linkage in place Left right and center.
The bentley manual now suggests tipping/turning the whole lot forward to get it out - impossible! You need to remove the cover from the ECU box on the LHS of the engine bay - squarish black plastic cover with 5 small bolts and then prise the cover off. Don't get water in there, of course!
Now lever/pop the two wiper linkage arms off the central pivot arm with a screwdriver - this will allow you to rotate the end pivot arms to get them past the fixing posts on the bodywork. You may also need to rotate the wiper pivot arm on the motor a bit, to allow you to squeeeeze the whole lot out. Phew! Now pop the ECU cover on again, to keep everything out of there and go fix the motor.

3 small bolts hold the motor to the linkage - remove and ease out the motor, noting the orientation.
5 Torx screws on the black plastic cover on the gearbox bit of the motor - remove and ease off the cover - watch out for a blob of grease which protects the adjustment wormscrew!
The corrosion should be obvious if its there. A green splodge on the little circle of copper.
I noted the position of the rotating part and then cleaned the corrosion with some wire wool.

Then repeat in reverse! Before you put on the wipers themselves, make the wipers wipe once, to 'zero' the position.

Hope this helps - seems a common problem.

[jockthedog]

PS - Bodie, just posting here didn't work for me )

[bodie71]

i got away good by the look of things

[ian1234]

A similar problem has just appeared with my 2003 A4 Avant. Both front and rear wipers seem to have a life of their own. Rear goes on and on and on then stops randomly in the middle of the window. Front goes really slowly, much slower than usual and won't speed up at all, then stops randomly in middle of window. Typical because I need to drive from Suffolk to Wales in the morning. Anyone tell me where the relay is to save me some time? Might a squirt of WD40 somewhere get me out of a corner until the weekend?

Many thanks in advance.