Hi guys

 

Ive run into a bit of a weird problem with my wipers. They stopped working! Well, kind of stopped. They work again now! Ill give you some background.

 

Ocasionally my wipers wouldnt do anything when i turned them on. I found that giving them a gentle helping hand (tugging them) would get them going again no problem. This worried me but the tugging worked so I wasnt too worried. However, last week they stopped in the up position and wouldnt move at all (even with tugging).

 

Bugger i thought! Motor or relay. After listening for any clicking from the relay and not hearing any I assumed that that was the problem. Figured id get a new relay in a few days. Sounds simple. Alas no! Last night when I fired her up the dam things started working again!

 

Im a bit stumped now. Its obviously not the motor or linkage or id have heard the relay click. Its not the relay as they work again now. Im guessing its either the stick or wiring between the stick and the relay. Everything else on the stick works fine and even the spray worked when the wipers didnt.

 

Has anyone come across this before or got any suggestions?

 

Cheers guys

Chris

Its the linkage

Its the linkage

+1 on that my audi did the same try some wd40 on the spindles see if they free off if so you'll need to strip the linkage down and lube them up properly. Common fault on a lot of vw stuff especially sharan/galaxy.

My nephew said that too. He had it on his vrs. But how come the relay stopped clicking?

The linkage is seized so the motor can't move an trips a thermal cut out so you don't burn it out

Classic symptoms of seized linkage. As chrisw4266 states the safety cut out will stop the motor burning out.

If its got to a point where it hardly moves it will be a right pain to strip down unless you have a vice to hold it still. Its happened on both my octys

that makes sense, cheers guys. Is it a big job to strip it down?

Bit of a pain and yes a vice would be a massive help but if you've got loads of wd40 or duck oil, some mole grips and plenty of muscle it can be done the thing is a new linkage wil be expensive and a second hand one will seize up eventually.

Google it I think I used a write up on a audi forum to do mine.

When my vrs one seized i got a replacement from a golf in a breakers but one side of that was seized so ended up having to strip that down too

Rebuilding a linkage is very easy imo. If you were local I'd show you how.

 

Basically remove the whole motor/linkage assembly from the car and get it on your work bench. You need to remove the circlips from the top of each spindle, use some short needle nosed pliers for this and put a bag over the whole lot so the clip doesn't jump away. Wack the spindle with a soft hammer to get it out. From here I believe you should get 3 washers per side, 1 small one at the top, 1 big one at the bottom then another small one at the bottom. Make sure to take the o-rings out as well so you don't lose them. 

Next clean all that crap up and put some nice grease inside the spindles especially around the o-ring areas. 

 

Now, for me, this is the important part. When you rebuild each spindle remove one of the small washers. I found this a) made it easier to rebuild and the mechanism moves far, far easier. 

 

I've rebuilt two different ones now and neither was seized together too bad.