Intermittent Wipers Not Working - How to fix??

[StudioWizard]

Hey all

My 2005 2.5i wipers work great, but I recently noticed the intermittent control does not work. Why would all the wiper controls except for the intermittent switch work? I can put the wiper lever in both up positions for normal and fast speeds and I can pull the lever down for manual one-time wipe, but when I put it in intermittent position, nothing.

Anyone have this experience and have a fix?

I'm also having a similar issue with the brights lever: the momentary (pulling the lever toward me) position turns on the brights, but the constant position (pushing the lever away from me) does not work.

Could these two issues be related in the fuse panel or some other control unit??

[smorris_12]

Has it got rain sensitive wipers?

[StudioWizard]

I don't think so... It's a base model 2.5i (2005) as far as I can tell. It just has the 3-position slider switch on the wiper lever.

[bigwinn]

I had this issue and it was the gm5 module starting to fail

It was the 12star version

[StudioWizard]

Would the gm5 module also control the brights for constant vs momentary, etc? Are there other symptoms that might demonstrate the gm5 module is going bad?

[StudioWizard]

Additional info just learned:

If I put the wiper lever into intermittent position, the wipers wipe once and only once. If I switch to a faster or slower intermittent speed with the thumb dial on the lever, the wipers move again once and only once. In other words, the switch is sending a signal, but there's no intermittence.... they wipe once regardless of the intermittent speed selected and never wipe again.

I'd love to get this fixed. It doesn't seem like it's the wiper lever. Is there some type of timing circuit somewhere that needs replacing or maybe something is dirty?

Any thoughts?

[skmattwell]

Additional info just learned:

If I put the wiper lever into intermittent position, the wipers wipe once and only once. If I switch to a faster or slower intermittent speed with the thumb dial on the lever, the wipers move again once and only once. In other words, the switch is sending a signal, but there's no intermittence.... they wipe once regardless of the intermittent speed selected and never wipe again.

I'd love to get this fixed. It doesn't seem like it's the wiper lever. Is there some type of timing circuit somewhere that needs replacing or maybe something is dirty?

Any thoughts?

If you have rain sensors that thumb dial actually works as a sensitivity level. The higher it's positioned, the more frequently the auto wipers will kick in. If there's no rain it will wipe one or twice to tell you it's been activated and then wait until there's rain on the screen to do so again.

If it doesn't have rain sensors then there's obviously an electrical issue somewhere and id trust Bigwinns brains

[StudioWizard]

Well, I noticed it because when it was raining non-stop in LA a while back, I had to manually intermittently hit the wiper lever. I was wishing the intermittent switch worked.

Where would the rain sensors be located?

If the GM5 module is beginning to fail, would an OBD2 check tell me so?

[enuff_zed]

Rain sensor is part of the rear view mirror assembly. If you have a large fitting on the screen with what looks like a mini solar panel on the front then that is the rain sensor. They can delaminate and not work properly

[StudioWizard]

Interesting! The "master BMW tech" (yes, he has a certificate) I showed the car to, said that rear view mirror sensor area is the cause of lots of problems including the constant brights malfunctioning and, I suppose, the intermittent wiper issue. I'm not sure what the fix is or the cost....

[patriot66]

Interesting! The "master BMW tech" (yes, he has a certificate) I showed the car to, said that rear view mirror sensor area is the cause of lots of problems including the constant brights malfunctioning and, I suppose, the intermittent wiper issue. I'm not sure what the fix is or the cost....

A very common issue with the rain sensor is that over time the transparent adhesive pad that secures the sensor to the windscreen starts to fail. If it does so the sensor will not detect rain drops on the screen and therefore doesn't work. It just reverts to intermittent but not triggered by rain fall. A failing adhesive pad looks like this :

20190121_132313.jpg (50.31 KiB) Viewed 293 times

The pads are readily available. I fitted a new one about 3 years ago and it's been working fine and fully rain sensitivite since

20190124_191028.jpg (97.42 KiB) Viewed 293 times

[StudioWizard]

Yep, that's exactly how mine looks now. This is super useful - thank you!!!

Do you have link or product name/part # handy by chance? I'm looking on Amazon (US) and getting mixed results, esp with ratings.

[patriot66]

I bought mine on Ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123394335324 ... media=COPY

[StudioWizard]

Yeah, I can't find that same item on Amazon US... It shows up on UK Amazon, but as soon as I switch to US, it disappears and doesn't show any type of replacement. I ordered something different, but apparently it fits my car, so we'll see.... I ordered two different ones - one is already created to be the right size. The other has two tubes that you combine to create the gel, then attach it after it starts to cure or something.

[buzyg]

You may have grease in the unit under the bonnet. Easily sorted by opening the unit and wiping the grease off, if that is the case.

Take a look here... viewtopic.php?f=34&t=55535