Rear wiper - intermittent behaviour

[PhireSide]

Hey fellas

Something odd I noticed a while back but haven't paid much attention to as we are currently in a drought is that when I activate my rear wiper with the stalk it will sweep about 60% of the way then stop and pause for a few seconds before continuing on it's merry way.

Also, normally when turning the setting off it returns to the 'home' position but lately if I stop it if it's not at the 'home' position it will just stop wherever it happens to be on the glass and pause there until I turn it back on again and stop it when it rests at the 'home' position.

Man, I hope I am making sense but that is the gist of it

Otherwise the car is still going very well and I have no gripes other than it being a bit filthy due to said drought and water restrictions

[i30joe]

I have a very similar problem on my fd so I have no fix for you but I have the same problem it's kind of annoying always trying to time turning it off to stop at home

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[PhireSide]

Aye, tis what I am resorting to doing for the time being. It's probably a duff relay. I should see if I can pull the inner tailgate trim off this weekend and try to find a part number and see if I can get a replacement part from the breakers or FleaBay

[Dazzler]

Hi Phil,
Could it just be the filthy weather has made the back winow and blade so grimy it is struggling to wipe. How about giving the back window and wiper blade a good clean and perhaps give the spindle where the wiper pivots a squirt with WD40 or CRC lubricant and see if that helps.

[PhireSide]

Dazz,

No such luck unfortunately as it happened when the window was squeaky clean, too. I haven't given it a squirt of Q20/WD40 yet but because it freezes in the same spot every time I seem to think the relay or the sensor which tells the motor when and where to stop may be to blame

[Shambles]

In the old days the motor had a copper track which broke the current at the parked position.

[eye30]

If you lift the arm up, so no resistance,  then turn on does it do the full sweep and return to park?

[Dazzler]

Fair enough Phil, good thought Lester.

[nzenigma]

In the old days the motor had a copper track which broke the current at the parked position.

Phils on the money here.
 the break in the copper track was bridged out by the 'on' switch on the stalk. So the wiper swept back and forth. When switched off , the wiper could still return to the now open gap and stop, eg. 'parked' at the end of a full sweep.
In short, you need a new wiper motor, its all enclosed.

[The Gonz]

If you were in Melbourne, I would propose refurbishing your motor, just for something to do.

[Shambles]

Phils on the money here.

Good old Phil...

[PhireSide]

If you lift the arm up, so no resistance,  then turn on does it do the full sweep and return to park?

The issue persists when I tried this over the weekend. I should actually take a video of it happening just to give everyone an idea of what it's doing.

In the old days the motor had a copper track which broke the current at the parked position.

Phils on the money here.
 the break in the copper track was bridged out by the 'on' switch on the stalk. So the wiper swept back and forth. When switched off , the wiper could still return to the now open gap and stop, eg. 'parked' at the end of a full sweep.
In short, you need a new wiper motor, its all enclosed.

That sounds plausible - but expensive, unfortunately. What I will however be doing in the mean time is reading up a bit how the circuit works - it sounds pretty ingenious to me so perhaps I can find a video or something that can explain it to me on this foggy Monday morning

Thanks for all the input so far

[Dazzler]

Phils on the money here.

Good old Phil...

That was my fault (Sorry Lester...) 

[PhireSide]

I wonder how feasible it would be to try and disassemble the motor to see if I can see a break in the contact ring and perhaps attempt a fix? The way I understand it is that the ring that supplies the initial current probably has a break in it as mentioned above, but if it's just due to some dirt or corrosion perhaps it can be cured with a fine wire brush and some elbow grease

The other option is buying a used part from eBay but the prices are pretty steep, most certainly not worth the ZAR1500 for an item that isn't being used in this drought we are experiencing

[The Gonz]

The internals involved would be pretty simple. I am guessing the moving wiper contact, not the track, is loose or bent. A video would help.

[nzenigma]

Salutes and confirms  ranking officer's opinion. 

[chef_adrian]

Hi all,

Digging up this oldish thread. Did you find a home made resolution to the wiper not returning home? Tried to use the rear wiper for the first time and could not work out if it was user error or a quirk of the car. Turns out it's neither 

Thanks,

Adrian

[PhireSide]

Hi, chef_adrian

I have not found a way to make it work - yet. We are currently in the middle of a drought and I haven't had to use my rear wiper in months. I am just dealing with it and turn it off when it returns to the starting position manually instead of waiting for it to auto-return

[yodm]

the rear wiper will work continuously for several cycles and then switch to intermittent. so you don't need to time the turn off. just let it switch to intermittent.