My Dad's 04 Ambiente SE H/back,

The rear wash wipe is not working very well, and stops every now and again across the sweep of the window.

If you wriggle the Arm with your hand it will move, but today with lots of rain on the screen it seemed to work ok.

How easy is it to maybe get to the motor a spray some WD40 on it as it seems it just needs a little "lube" Or does it sound like the motor is on it's way out.

Also the rear Drivers side door will unlock on the "remote" but will not lock, unless you push the button down by hand.

Any idea's?

Thanks.

Take the rear wiper out its dead simple

Strip it down (easy done even for someone who has never done it before)

Clean all the gunk and old grease out of the insides, and then put new clean grease inside it

put it back together

and it will work perfectly

Water travels up inside the spindle and leaks - mixing with the old grease and over time it clogs up, mine eventually stopped working altogether, thought I'd have to buy a new motor

Took it apart cleaned it up inside put new grease and its as good as new.

Edited 3 May, 201214 yr by Lew247

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I think the hard part is taking the trim off. Im dreading going there as I dont want to be left with bits of car hanging off :(

I just totally removed mine!

The hatch doesn't need a rear wiper anyway (unlike the estate).

it does help on a wet murky day when your reverseing!

Only way to remove one properly is to get a rear screen off a base model or it'll look like one of those base models from the 80's ie fiesta lol

As Lew247's post, it's a pretty simple fix.

The inside hatch trim panel can be a bit of a bugger to replace I grant you - just get someone else to help you lift it up and re-locate it into the locking tabs.

Those tabs can get a little loose over time and let the trim panel rattle - what I did was drill 5 holes into the trim panel, replace it, then cable tie it in through the holes I drilled and through the strengthening plates of the tailgate itself.

WRT the wiper motor - bad design really, the washer system goes through the wiper arm spindle. The joint inside where the rubber hose goes onto the spindle leaks washer fluid when you use it, and the fluid dries out the gears and the mechanism, making it go rusty.

I had the same problems as you, so I stripped mine, cleaned all the rust off the cogs with Scotchbrite and WD40, then re-assembled it all with lashings of waterproof Molybdenum grease.

Works lovely now - and as you don't REALLY need it, I just refrain from using the 'wash' part of the wash / wipe to avoid it happening again.

To be honest, you only really need it to clear rainwater off the rear screen anyway, right?

I had a problem with my rear wiper not so long ago, stopping in the middle of the window and having a mind of there own and just came on when it felt like it. It turned out to be the rear motor was full of water from the washer. Took it all to bits to find the o ring had gone so renewed the o ring cleaned all the old grease out and replaced with new, and now it works fine. The only problem I have now is that rear trim on the boot lid is a complete arse to get back on, mine keeps falling off coz I cant get it on propa

I had a problem with my rear wiper not so long ago, stopping in the middle of the window and having a mind of there own and just came on when it felt like it. It turned out to be the rear motor was full of water from the washer. Took it all to bits to find the o ring had gone so renewed the o ring cleaned all the old grease out and replaced with new, and now it works fine. The only problem I have now is that rear trim on the boot lid is a complete arse to get back on, mine keeps falling off coz I cant get it on propa

See my post above on how to get the boot trim back on!