intermittent wiper problem

mason storm

Active member
I have noticed in the cold weather recently that from cold my windscreen wipers don't work very well mostly when I try using a slow intermitent wipe cycle. When the car has warmed up a bit the problem seems to dissapear. Anyone else experianced this?
 
Yeah, I have this as well it's driving me mad :x .

Never happens when I take it to the garage though. It seems to be a common problem for older Z4's.

I posted on here a while ago but no one seemed to have any suggestions on how to fix it. I'm not sure whether it's the stalk or the wiper motor or something inbetween.
 
I've found that if on intermitent setting it's worse when on the slowest setting, if it fails I choose a faster setting and it starts working. However having said this it sometimes doesn't work when you push down on the stalk for a one off wipe? I don't think I get any problems when the cars been running for a few minutes which is weird or just coincidence.
 
mason storm said:
I've found that if on intermitent setting it's worse when on the slowest setting, if it fails I choose a faster setting and it starts working. However having said this it sometimes doesn't work when you push down on the stalk for a one off wipe? I don't think I get any problems when the cars been running for a few minutes which is weird or just coincidence.
Identical problem to me, how old is your car?
 
DAZ4 said:
mason storm said:
I've found that if on intermitent setting it's worse when on the slowest setting, if it fails I choose a faster setting and it starts working. However having said this it sometimes doesn't work when you push down on the stalk for a one off wipe? I don't think I get any problems when the cars been running for a few minutes which is weird or just coincidence.
Identical problem to me, how old is your car?

It's on '05 plate, how about yours?
 
But once the car warms up a bit after a few minutes, they work fine

Usually they do improve but recently I noticed it seems to be getting worse and sometimes it does it at any time.
 
My wiper sensor is currently playing up, but I have noticed sometimes if I pull the squirters it won't wipe it away if the squirt is quite quick... so if I do a few small squirts it won't wipe at all, but after say a 0.5s squirt they then engage and wipe away normally.

I'm not sure if that is related, or if it's a feature even, but it can be annoying :)

Dave
 
My car has a slightly squeeky nose coming from the wiper arm itself, I wonder if it's related to the problem. Probably not as I guess it's more of a sensor problem?
 
I have recently experienced similar problems with my windscreen wipers and yesterday they actually failed whilst on the motorway. I managed to pull over and stop the car as it was raining heavy. Once I had turned off the engine and restarted it they began to work again. Any ideas why this is happening and has anyone else had a similar problem?

Thanks.
 
I've been having wiper problems for a while now. If I push the contol stem down for one wipe, it carries on wiping for maybe 10 times before doing one of two things, it either "parks" about an inch higher than it should, or it stops at a completely random place and will not start again unless I turn the ignition off and back on again. This also happens if I have the sensors on and put the control to intermittent.

I think it may have something to do with the auto rain sensor as if I put the wipers on constant they seem to work.

Again any ideas would be welcome. I'm glad I haven't been driving for the last couple of months in the rain, but I need to sort something now I am back at the wheel.
 
Sounds just the same as mine started.

I have spoken to a few local garages who really can't get to the bottom of the problem but I don't want to risk it and have them stop working completely again.
 
This happened to my car one day last week, with the wipers just stopping in the middle of a wipe and would not work again until I shut the car off and on again. The next day though everything was fine again. I already had an appointment for oil change at the dealer this week, so I asked them to check on the wipers too. They kept the car for an additional day and found the fault was in the wiper motor. They replaced it under warranty, so I'm not sure how much it would cost if you have to repair it yourself. The tech comments describe their diagnostic procedure:

DIS TEST. ZKE FAULTS 33 GM. WIPERS. BLOCKING PROTECTION ACTIVE, RESET CONTACT FREQ.3 RUN TEST PLAN FOR WIPER MOTOR WIPERS MOVE, RUN TEST PLAN FOR RESET CONTACT. TEMP RE COWL COVER, DISCONNECT WIPER MOTOR PLUG AND CHECK RSK SIGNAL RETURN TO BODY GROUND X333 PIN 1 TO BODY GROUND- 1.43 MEGAOHMS TOO HIGH, CONTINUE TEST PLAN. RE+RE GM, CHECK WIRING FROM X333 PIN 1 TO X253 PIN 45 0.7 OHMS. GOOD RESISTANCE. TEST PLAN REQUIRES REPLACEMENT OF WIPER MOTOR. PARTS FP NUMBER 61-61-7-192-969 ROD ASSY WITH MOTOR.

I checked that part number on RealOEM but they don't list a price for the assembly.
 
This happened to me today. It is a bit embarrassing driving down the road with your wipers straight up and down.

left98204 said:
I've been having wiper problems for a while now. If I push the contol stem down for one wipe, it carries on wiping for maybe 10 times before doing one of two things, it either "parks" about an inch higher than it should, or it stops at a completely random place and will not start again unless I turn the ignition off and back on again. This also happens if I have the sensors on and put the control to intermittent.

I think it may have something to do with the auto rain sensor as if I put the wipers on constant they seem to work.

Again any ideas would be welcome. I'm glad I haven't been driving for the last couple of months in the rain, but I need to sort something now I am back at the wheel.
 
Mine hav'nt stopped competely, but they do miss a stroke now and again when on any intermittent speed, selecting another speed gets them going again. they work fine when on a constant speed.
 
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