Hi

My 67 Superb has developed an issue recently with the rear wiper.

It’s prone to stopping mid stroke and won’t reset unless I lift the wiper arm and twist it left and right. Then the motor will work once the steering column lever is switch on. It’s as if it can’t overcome the friction on the screen because it also appears to have slowed down in its sweeping motion.

Anyone else seen this? The wiper is a couple of years old so will swap it over to see if that makes a difference.

Yes, I have. I had exactly the same issue, starting a few ago, except it managed to get 3/4 of the way through the arc. Bloody annoying.

I fixed it by raising the blade, switched on the ignition and left it running for an hour whilst I washed the wheels. Yeah, I know, but they were filthy! I think the contacts in the motor had become contaminated/dirty given lack of use and running it for a decent period did the trick. Worth a try anyway.

Exactly the same fault that i am experiencing. will take the arm off and run it continuously for a long drive somewhere. i thought it was the motor loosing out to resistance in the wiping action against a drying screen as the rear window keeps itself pretty dry at motorway speeds.

Hi,

Haven't had that issue on my Skoda but I've had rear wiper issues (and they're fairly generic components).

Most likely answer would be water ingress causing rust (or dirt) screwing up the gears mechanism or motor itself. Either that or a broken tooth on the plastic gear in there. 'Exercising' the part a bit can help in the short-term if it's dirt/rust but long term it'll likely need replacing; the motor-gear unit is about €120 new (cheaper for a used one but I'd go with a new one in this case, since you don't know what a used one looks like on the inside; they may look good externally but be on their way to seizing up from rust).

A budget option would be to take it apart - clean out the old grease and any dirt and rust, make sure the gears and electric contacts are working, put in fresh grease and put it back together. I've done this myself (again, not on this specific one though) and it wasn't terribly hard but IMO not really worth it unless you like tinkering - especially considering it won't even work if something is outright broken.

In either case, replacing the unit isn't too hard as far as DIY jobs go - removing the wiper arm can be tricky if it's stuck (I saw threads here on people having issues there - using a bearing puller seems like the right way to go if it won't come loose) and remove the trim on the inside (which you can find videos of) and then unplug, unscrew it and then repeat the process in reverse. The kind of nice simple job that'd take half an hour if everything went smoothly and invariably takes the whole afternoon because there's always something stuck or you can't find a tool or..

On 24/02/2026 at 22:21, pdrisc said:

Exactly the same fault that i am experiencing. will take the arm off and run it continuously for a long drive somewhere. i thought it was the motor loosing out to resistance in the wiping action against a drying screen as the rear window keeps itself pretty dry at motorway speeds.

Me too; it wasn’t! I knew the unit was OK as it completed the arc when I turned the wiper off and on again, so a dirty contact causing it to loose power was my thought. Good idea on removing the arm and leaving it on. 👏🏻

Edited 26 February26 Feb by numskull

Mine did this just after buying as a drive from south wales to plymouth was a little far i just sprayed WD40 on the top under cap a few times and it released, worked fine up to this dy (22/03/2026)