Hi All - I had an issue with the rear wiper randomly coming on when driving. It started a couple of years after acquring the car second-hand. Here's how I fixed it....

 

It seemed at first that if I used the screenwash it would rectify it. After lots of mucking about with different systems I had to resort at times to lifting the arm clear of the rear screen so it just moved mid-air rather than rub against a dry screen.

 

I looked online and spoke to a garage, it seemed it could be anything, from a loose connection or water getting into connections, to a faulty steering column control stalk- which sounded expensive. A temporary fix seemed to involve wiggling the wiring as it comes through a rubber elephants trunk to the boot tail-lift lid.

 

I ended up taking off the rear panel in the tail-lift and couldn't find evidence of either water ingress (as mentioned by some) or loose connections. THEN I started to look at the inside of the main car surround to the boot opening and removed a plastic clip-on panel to the right of the door (looking from the inside the car towards the rear). Lo and behold; there was a wiring loom going from the car, then vanishing through a SHARP EDGED punched out hole to go through the elephants trunk to the lid.

 

Long story short: Pulled wires clear of the metalwork, secured large felt pad as padding against the sharp edge, put everything back - no trouble since (about a year ago).

 

It's basically bad design, where the wiring goes though the panelling it should either be de-burred at manufacture or some form of grommet inserted to protect against sharp edges. Vibration during travel had caused the wire to be knicked by the body panel and shorted against the bodywork, with a variety of seemingly unpredictable results.

 

Hope this helps anyone with similar problems!

Cheers

 

Good to know!

 

Glad your patience and perseverance paid off in the end.

Son has been reporting similar intermittent issues with rear wiper and 3rd brake light. Could be this. 

 

Thanks for the heads up and I'll report on my findings.

something to cogitate for future reference.