Had intermittent back wiper operation for over a year: mostly works (-hence my reluctance to ask garage to sort..) but stops every now and then, often for many days at a time. Springs back to life if you've inadvertently left the stem lever down. Definitely not the fuse; has anyone else seen this ? And, if likely to simply be the motor, are these easy to access and replace ? This is mkII Elegance TDi Estate. Thanks in advance.

41 minutes ago, Robgoch2 said:

Had intermittent back wiper operation for over a year: mostly works (-hence my reluctance to ask garage to sort..) but stops every now and then, often for many days at a time. Springs back to life if you've inadvertently left the stem lever down. Definitely not the fuse; has anyone else seen this ? And, if likely to simply be the motor, are these easy to access and replace ? This is mkII Elegance TDi Estate. Thanks in advance.

 

Lest anyone cite, I have started searching and finding multiple instances on forum of similar wiper-motor erratic behaviour: would still be interested if anyone has particular experience of diagnosis, repair and / or replacement of the motor. Thanks again.

Yes had exactly the same and some other erratic behaviour as well as sluggish running.

 

It was water ingress through the spindle seizing the mechanism, also the motor bearings had dried out, worked fine and as it should afterwards.

 

Like yours it was an estate, I think on the saloons the water ingress is from the rear washer piping.

Thanks, JR: appreciated. Yes, I'm seeing a pattern on here ! I assume the motor is easily accessed, even to a relative amateur like myself ?

Yeah, it's relatively easy. The same procedure as when replacing the third brake light. A plastic tool for removing frames is good to have, but a long screwdriver will also do. IIRC, you'll have to remove the inner plastic by removing the sides first, screwing loose the top, removing that, and then you'll be able to click of the big plastic as well. Then you'll have access to the wiper motor and mechanism.

There is an "improved" motor on the CR facelift estate such as yours.

 

I and others have found the problem with the estate rear wiper is the brush holder and its brush spring.

The two brushes are tight in the square holders. When the brushes are new and therefore longer, there is enough spring pressure to keep the brushes in contact with the commutator. As the brushes wear and so get shorter, there comes a point were the now reduced pressure springs cannot overcome the friction of the brushes in the holders and one of brushes fails to touch the commutator.

 

The solution is easy. Remove the wiper motor from the tailgate, undo the obvious many screws to separate the electrical half from the mechanical half (which also contains the motor), then either move the brushes up and down inside the holders a few times or take out the brushes to sand off a little on the sides. Assemble and refit.

With the two halves are apart it it easy to test the motor using the two connections that normally go the top half however I also found that previously just lightly touching the brushes may have pushed the brushes into contact to fool you into thinking it is fixed. So only test it after freeing up the brushes in the holders.

 

I also found the bearing and shaft to be working fine although I did lubricate them again as I had it all apart.

 

Alternatively, just replace the wiper motor assembly with a new one of the same part number.

 

 

@pikpilot

 

I just had this problem/fix with a vacuum cleaner.

 

I would first suggest percussive maintenance to shock the brushes free i.e. hammer time.  That sometimes works and is easier than taking things apart.

This seems a long time to return to one's own ticket, but a while after all the useful suggestions above, the wiper suddenly sprung back to life, seemingly after I had the battery disconnected for an unrelated matter, and (-having then read somewhere that disconnection can cause some sort of reset) assumed that had done the trick (-apologies for the lack of confirmation on here: I know that members like to hear positive tales. ).

HOWEVER.. it stopped working again earlier this year, and a battery-disconnect hasn't done the trick. I've finally, with the help of 2 picker tools (-one broke), removed the arm and now the motor in its entirety; I can't see any obvious damage or wear, but might not know what to look for. Manipulating the brushes seems to be an option, but I'm suddenly being a bit timid about being rough with them lest I damage them permanently. How do I get access to them from their holder (-see attached photo) so I can 'push' them into a position where they make contact? Thanks as ever

Mine was erratic and finally died in January 2021. Might replace it soon!

Yes, I suspect a trawl of those well-known auction sites is imminent: my amateur poking-around is yielding nothing!

An update - and a pertinent one at that: I've just this week tested using a battery/cables to the motor terminals, as a number of BriSkoda posts have recommended, to find out that it is indeed functioning, just not when re-attached to the car and wiring loom / connector. Given that the fuse is almost certainly ok (-correct slot, fuse intact) I was about to ask if anyone has recommendations RE the loom / connector, when I read a post about the motor circuit board, and a possible solder repair. So I flipped the cover, to find the slightly worrying burned-out area in the upper left of attached image. This looks fairly 'game-over' to me; can anyone confirm if this might be (a) reparable, (b) replaceable? Or am I finally looking at a new motor? Thanks as ever in advance.

I don't know about this particular motor problem/solution but I've dealt with a few circuit board problems in general (on-car and off-car). Clearly it doesn't look good but it is just possible that the components themselves are still functioning but the melted solder is causing one or more shorts. Once that starts to happen it just keeps getting worse, which would explain why it was intermittent at first.

If you are good at desoldering and flow soldering, it might be worth a try?

I can't guess what caused it in the first place, though.

Excellent illustration of dry/cracked joints on the two connections just to the left of the pyre.

Doubt that'll be repairable without some component replacement(s).

Thanks, both; as I feared, I think this is beyond my meagre electronics capabilities, and I'll finally have seek a replacement. It's good, tho, to finally have that confirmation of there being an issue: even if it's not quite the issue i originally thought it !

Good luck !

My Octavia does exactly the same thing, one day it works the next not, really annoying

Sorry, Dazza: I should have answered your post last month: I would, as a matter of course, take yours off and test it with a battery: many posts on here talk about that, but I put it off for ages on the grounds of it needing specialist equipment. I finally got the motor off and did this, far too late in the day, with, of all things a rectangular 9v battery out of our kitchen scales, and some basic cables from my kids' school electronic experiments ! I was gobsmacked to see the motor fire without any issues, and only then stumbled upon the burnt circuit board through which the wiring loom has to connect. The hard bit might be getting the motor off: I had to use a battery-terminal picker tool in the end (-£8 or so on Amazon) as the wiper-arm-to-motor sprocket was so badly seized. But a good way to see if your basic motor fires, and it rules out issues with the brushes.