reg091

OP here, seven months on and it has failed again. Stripped it down and it is full of water, plus the teeth on the cam wheel have been worn away in one spot (seems the motor was turning but the cam was seized). New one ordered from ebay 55 quid. Chinese copy, will see how long it lasts!

Great, glad that it helped. Agreed, it was a poor design decison.

UPDATE: FIXED First to answer @Breezy_Pete: yes, the wire with 14v is the purple/black one. Interestingly though that has 14v regardless of if wiper stalk switch is switched to wipe or not. I pulled the motor from the car and stripped the motor part from the cam housing (cam teeth look okay) and put 12v across it - nothing. I pulled the cover from the motor (simply bend four metal tabs) and didn't find anything blindingly obviously wrong (it turns freely by hand) but the commutator was a bit dirty. Brushes are wearing, but still making good contact. I cleaned out all the old grease and gunk, cleaned up the commutator (and other contacts) with contact cleaner and reassembled. Put 12v across it and it worked. So, seems likely it was the dirty commutator. Stuck it back on car, tested and it didn't work! Then I realised there must be a boot switch to stop it working when the lid is open! Closed boot and working okay! Motor is only about three years old, and the wear on the brushes suggests I will probably be replacing it at some point. But, saved myself £££ today! Some pictures. Arrows/circles show contacts and dirty commutator:

FYI found this pic on another thread. Not exact same model but looks like they all work the same way:

Thanks, that makes sense.

Question: I assume that the motor is "commanded" to turn one direction, then the polarity reversed and turn the other way? Or is there a gear mechanism that allows the motor to turn continuously one way?

I'll check tomorrow. Thanks!

Thanks @Breezy_Pete that is really helpful. I shall have to do some more investigating. Cheers.

Sorry, stupid of me! 2016 1.6 TDi Hatchback

Hi, Looks like the rear wiper motor has failed again (last replaced about three years ago). Rather than go through the nightmare of accessing the fuse box I thought a simple diagnostic would be to put a meter across the connector and see if I am getting power. Unplugged connector from the motor. Connected multimeter negative to boot latch metal. Switched on rear wiper (engine running). There are four pins in the connector. I am getting 14v from one of them and nothing from the other three. Am I good to assume that the motor has failed? (What are the other three pins for?). Tried to find a wiring diagram online but it's a jungle!

That's the one. Thanks @Mickvrs220

Thanks guys. I had tried the steering wheel control but scrolling through the options I couldn't see any of the familiar speed, MPG etc. Turns out the options change once sat nav is displaying to a folder level up, displaying a bunch of things I had never seen before. The speed, MPG etc. options are sub-options of a choice called something like car data (I can't remember now).

Thanks guys, I thought I had tried everything. I will check that out.

Due to my height, seat/wheel position I can't see much of the speedo so rely on the digital speed display. Is there a way of stopping the directions from displaying there when using sat nav?

Thanks @MartiniB much appreciate you taking the trouble to put that info together.