Flippin' eck. Ever get the feeling someone's having a laugh at your expense?

At the end of last year my (front, only) wipers on my '99 Octavia TDi stopped working. Garage said the linkages were seized (which is what you good Briskodians had diagnosed) and replaced them.

Now the wipers run fine - but stopping them is a problem!

On single and intermittent wipe (any setting) the wipers just run for a random duration each time they swipe : you may get one swipe, you may get 5 minutes of continual motion, or anything in between. And when they stop, they often stop at a random position across the screen.

Normal speed wipe seems more reliable, but I use it much less.

Is it possible the garage have failed to adjust some setting, some sort of switch or timer when they changed the linkages? I swear (a lot) I can hear some sort of relay-type clicking coming from the steering column when the wipers are in motion.

I called the garage, they said "sounds like the wiper motors need replacing". Are they taking me for a mug (easily done), or what?

Cheers, and thanks for any tips,

AWED

The wipers on my wife's 1999 1.6 LX Octy also have a mind of their own. They often keep going with the switch back in the off position after a single wipe. I find that switching to regular wipe and then off works

Cheers for that!

I've just noticed - DOH! - there's already another thread on this same issue, "Octavia Front Windsreen Wipers" started just two days ago.

Yes, I've discovered the "switch to regular" trick too!

Consensus seems to be : common problem, live with it.

get the motor replaced should do the trick

ade

Err, replacing the wiper motors is exactly what I was hoping to avoid. And having checked out the other thread on this topic, it seems that the motor is irrelevant : it can theoretically be fixed by fine-tuning the linkages.