Hi all

 

I've had a preliminary search but so far all I have found is people having problems with their rear wipers not working at all.  Mine sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.  Can't seem to find any pattern to this.  

 

I wondered if anyone might know where the problem could be please?  

 

Cheers

Any thoughts from the experts? I wouldn't know where to start looking seeing as the fault is intermittent. What I should have maybe added is that by intermittent I mean it works then stops working within the same journey, not it works for a few weeks then not for a few weeks, etc.

 

Any likely culprits?

 

Cheers

Almost broken wire inside the bellows going into the tailgate?

Thanks Wino. I'll take a look, although I'm not exactly sure what that means to be honest!!

 

 

Open the tailgate and look in the left side hinge area at the top, you'll see a rubber hose with convolutions which carries wiring from the main part of the car into the tailgate. Inside there the wires are flexed every time the tailgate is opened and shut; leading sometimes to them cracking and eventually breaking. You need to look inside there to search for such problems.

 

 

Edited 6 February, 20206 yr by Wino

Hi Wino and all

 

I'm tackling my Fabia problems one by one and this one had to take a back seat so only just got round to looking today...

 

Is there a way to getting the rubber hose off completely? Or is it just a case of pulling it back as best as possible?

 

Once in there, do you know which wire is for the rear wiper?

 

And is the thicker black "wire" actually the hose for the water? It has tape round it, but don't want to unwind it and cause more problems than when I started!!

 

Many many thanks

32 minutes ago, Hawthorn654 said:

Is there a way to getting the rubber hose off completely?

 

Only by de-pinning all the connectors in the tailgate and pulling the whole loom out through it.  I doubt you want to try that!

32 minutes ago, Hawthorn654 said:

Once in there, do you know which wire is for the rear wiper?

I'll have a look now, but basically if any look nearly broken that'll probably be one of them.

 

32 minutes ago, Hawthorn654 said:

And is the thicker black "wire" actually the hose for the water?

 

Think so yes. Is it about 5mm thick? 

Edited 26 February, 20206 yr by Wino

On 06/02/2020 at 14:41, Hawthorn654 said:

Any thoughts from the experts? I wouldn't know where to start looking seeing as the fault is intermittent. What I should have maybe added is that by intermittent I mean it works then stops working within the same journey, not it works for a few weeks then not for a few weeks, etc.

 

Any likely culprits?

 

Cheers

Thats exactly what mine was doing, I prefer to let things develop and watch carefully the behaviour before working on them, I eventually noticed that when it worked it was slower on the final return stroke especially the usually dry "teardrop" stroke after the 10 second pause, I concluded a mechanism that was sticky and got worse with use as it turned out to be:

 

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

I've had a look and no joy so far. I pulled up the rubber hose both ways so managed to see most of the run of cables, although there's no way of seeing right in the middle of the run. It's also quite tight in there, but certainly from what I could see nothing looked bad. However, if I know which cable is likely to be the rear wiper I can closely inspect that one then which may help.

 

There was a little moisture in there... And as per JR above, I too have been trying to keep a close eye on when it does/doesn't work. Always seems to work too begin with. And it tends to be ok in dry weather. So I'm wondering (totally guessing!!) if when in use it allows more water in somewhere which then stops it working. Unfortunately though I don't drive it all that often, so will continue to monitor and experiment. And I've also had other theories which have then proven wrong we well...

 

Cheers

A good way to confirm that its friction in the motor/mechanism/wiper spidle is to repeatedly operate it at a standstill till it starts playing up then raise the wiper arm so its no longer in contact with the screen, it should then sweep freely or at least free-er (no word!) because mine would also sieze in that mode after a few operations.

 

It is now much much faster in operation, I had not realised how fast it should have always been having only owned it for a year or so.

I think there might be four wires going to the rear wiper motor, but the wiring diagram confuses me a bit.

If it is the four I think it may be, they are black (ignition 12V), brown (earth), green/red and green/white. 

 

Broken wires are usually quite obvious and don't tend to cause intermittent issues, so follow J.R.'s suggestions instead for now. 

 

Edited 26 February, 20206 yr by Wino

On 26/02/2020 at 16:00, J.R. said:

A good way to confirm that its friction in the motor/mechanism/wiper spidle is to repeatedly operate it at a standstill till it starts playing up then raise the wiper arm so its no longer in contact with the screen, it should then sweep freely or at least free-er (no word!) because mine would also sieze in that mode after a few operations.

 

It is now much much faster in operation, I had not realised how fast it should have always been having only owned it for a year or so.

 

On 26/02/2020 at 16:03, Wino said:

I think there might be four wires going to the rear wiper motor, but the wiring diagram confuses me a bit.

If it is the four I think it may be, they are black (ignition 12V), brown (earth), green/red and green/white. 

 

Broken wires are usually quite obvious and don't tend to cause intermittent issues, so follow J.R.'s suggestions instead for now. 

 

 

Well, it never ceases to please me how helpful you guys all are   

 

I followed the advice above and what do you know??!  After several laps it conked out.  So I lifted off the blade, it ran again for 4 or 5 laps and then conked out again.  My partner is out in the car at the moment, which gives me a chance to have a read up now on what to do when the mech is sticky / seizing.  And if it's still light when she's back, I'll go see what I can do....  

 

Cheers

I think that it only does a few sweeps before going into intermittent mode, to test mine I repeatedly pushed the stalk forward to action the washers and several wipes each time, perhaps thats what you were doing.

 

If it was then my thread that I linked to above should help you repair it or buy a replacement if thats your preference.

It's certainly looking like I have the same / similar problem.  Maybe a few more days of doing the same as I described above might confirm - if the wiper behaves the same each time.  

 

I've just read through the thread you linked to, and in all honesty I wouldn't know where to start after reading that!  Also, were you describing what you did on an Octavia?  If so, I wonder how different it might be on a 2003 Fabia Estate??  

 

If anyone can confirm, or if anyone has a walkthrough on what I need to do if a Fabia is different, that would be fantastic.  A video would be even better!  I've not been able to find one yet.  I've ticked off several fixes this week and don't want to be defeated by this one!  

 

EDIT: but by the sounds of it, it's not a quick fix??  I'm travelling across country tomorrow so was going to try and get something sorted before I go.  But maybe that's a tad ambitious?

Edited 27 February, 20206 yr by Hawthorn654

Sorry, making and posting videos is beyond my competence and equipment, I can do a job (well) and describe it (not so well).

 

30 minutes is a quick fix for me, if you simply replace the motor it would less than half of that time, one screw for the rear door handle, pull off trim, remove wiper arm, remove electrical connector, undo 3 bolts and remove old unit.

 

Reverse sequence to fit the new one.

 

I think Fabia will be identical.