Windscreen Wiper Fail..

R

repo

Member
 Surrey
Coming through a busy little town centre this morning, rain chucking it down, windscreen wipers stopped, mid-sweep and refused to budge.

Had to make a hasty stop and turn the engine off and back on before they started again...Strange.

I put it down to seasonal affected disorder. Is that a known BMW fault? :D
 
Mine did it about a year after I got it and it was a wiper relay module, which is part of a 'general module' which controls other things too - all of which had to be re-coded.

The other cause I've seen for this is the gear on the wiper arm linkage slipping/jumping. I think there's a DIY on fixing this on here somewhere.
 
My indy cleared out the muck from the arm linkage & regreased etc I believe as mine started to stop a couple of inches higher than they should have done & they are perfect again now... I think it's relatively common...
 
OwenT said:
My indy cleared out the muck from the arm linkage & regreased etc I believe as mine started to stop a couple of inches higher than they should have done & they are perfect again now... I think it's relatively common...
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Yeah, had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago to mine. Not great considering the weather :(
 
Yep, it happens to E53 X5 as well. motor heats up, grease in the gearbox goes a little thinner and then it spreads over the contacts in the mechanism. if the wiper relay does not receive a signal to say the wipers are turning in a determined period, it will final that they re frozen and kill the power to the wipers irrespective of how much you may need those wipers to work at that actual time!

take mechanism out, dismount wiper motor, remove cover from wiper gear box, clean contacts and apply a tiny amount of grease.

All done.

Oh and the wiper squeak that the E85 suffers from is not the spindles, but the wiper arm pivot (the oner that allows you to lift the arm off the screen)

Dario
 
My wipers failed just like the first guy said, mid windscreen - then worked again when I turned engine on and off. The garage checked the wiper motor which they say is ok, then sent the car away and it's come back with the message the it's a £300 part that needs replacing and the total cost of the job will be £760! Then I read so,e of the posts here and thought hang on....now don't know what to do! Any advice helpful. Female car driver who doesn't know who to trust!
 
Bewildered said:
My wipers failed just like the first guy said, mid windscreen - then worked again when I turned engine on and off. The garage checked the wiper motor which they say is ok, then sent the car away and it's come back with the message the it's a £300 part that needs replacing and the total cost of the job will be £760! Then I read so,e of the posts here and thought hang on....now don't know what to do! Any advice helpful. Female car driver who doesn't know who to trust!
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So what is the £300 part that need replacing?

I'm guessing the motor need a clean up and that's all.
 
PS Can anyone tell me how much a wiper relay module for a BMW Z4 should cost? I've been told £300. Should I trust this price?
 
My E85 is having the same issue. The gear has worn out causing the wiper to slip. Does anyone know if I can simply replace the gear? If so where would I be able to find one? Don't want to purchase an entire motor or assembly just for the gear! Any help would be super appreciated!
 
Z4Fanatic said:
My E85 is having the same issue. The gear has worn out causing the wiper to slip. Does anyone know if I can simply replace the gear? If so where would I be able to find one? Don't want to purchase an entire motor or assembly just for the gear! Any help would be super appreciated!
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replaced with a used motor and works fine!
 
Wow old thread revival, not surprising given how much rain we have been having of late.
Usual causes of wipers playing up are due to grease migration from the worm drive that spreads over the metal electrical contact plate inside the motor housing, often causing bad wiper parking when switched off. The grease interferes with the electrical contact causing the motor to be delayed in switching off and stopping the wipers in the wrong place. Simple remedy is to remove the wiper unit as a whole after taking the wiper arms off and removing the scuttle cover to reveal the whole unit which is secured by two bolts/nuts and one plastic clip in the centre. Lift the unit out and turn it over, remove the six bolts off the cover plate to reveal the inner workings. Clean all the grease off the metal contact plate thats revealed to restore the good electrical contact. The worm drive only needs a minimum amount of grease on it so dont put too much on it or it will migrate again causing the same issue with parking in the wrong place.
The other issue that arises is the linkage popping off their ball joints, you can restore them using a repair clip that can be obtained on ebay here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Z4-E85-E86-2002-2008-Windscreen-Wiper-Motor-Linkage-Link-Rod-Repair-Clip/223797946946?fits=Car+Make%3ABMW%7CModel%3AZ4&epid=25035751655&hash=item341b65aa42:g:h7oAAOSwTqtd94mW
Well worth taking the scuttle cover off annually to clean the end and centre scuttle drains and dosn't take long to pull the wipers out to clean the grease off whilst your in there.
 
I have same problem with mine now wiper relay replaced but still happening I’ve been told it could be an electrical fault, they work once I stop then restart engine but only work for about 2 to 3 mins then stop again happened to me on m6 yesterday in torrential rain , was pretty scary tbh my car is an e85 2.5i 2006 facelift model
Does anyone have any ideas I’m taking her to the garage next Monday I want to sound like I have lots of information so they can get it right as cheap as possible
Many thanks in advance
 
I have same problem with mine now wiper relay replaced but still happening I’ve been told it could be an electrical fault, they work once I stop then restart engine but only work for about 2 to 3 mins then stop again happened to me on m6 yesterday in torrential rain , was pretty scary tbh my car is an e85 2.5i 2006 facelift model
Does anyone have any ideas I’m taking her to the garage next Monday I want to sound like I have lots of information so they can get it right as cheap as possible
Many thanks in advance
 
firewire75 said:
I have same problem with mine now wiper relay replaced but still happening I’ve been told it could be an electrical fault, they work once I stop then restart engine but only work for about 2 to 3 mins then stop again happened to me on m6 yesterday in torrential rain , was pretty scary tbh my car is an e85 2.5i 2006 facelift model
Does anyone have any ideas I’m taking her to the garage next Monday I want to sound like I have lots of information so they can get it right as cheap as possible
Many thanks in advance
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Welcome to the forum.
If you read the post one above yours you'll see the potential answer. Not a relay, but grease on the contacts. Try cleaning that up and se what happens.
Whereabouts are you? Might be someone close by who can do it a lot cheaper than a garage?
 
Shame you are too far away from me otherwise I would have offered to do it down here in Zedshed Cymru, simple enough to take the scruttle cover off and take the wiper motor out with the linkages then take the backplate off and clean the grease off the contact plate. Doing this would be the first course of action before throwing parts at it.
 
colb said:
Wow old thread revival, not surprising given how much rain we have been having of late.
Usual causes of wipers playing up are due to grease migration from the worm drive that spreads over the metal electrical contact plate inside the motor housing, often causing bad wiper parking when switched off. The grease interferes with the electrical contact causing the motor to be delayed in switching off and stopping the wipers in the wrong place. Simple remedy is to remove the wiper unit as a whole after taking the wiper arms off and removing the scuttle cover to reveal the whole unit which is secured by two bolts/nuts and one plastic clip in the centre. Lift the unit out and turn it over, remove the six bolts off the cover plate to reveal the inner workings. Clean all the grease off the metal contact plate thats revealed to restore the good electrical contact. The worm drive only needs a minimum amount of grease on it so dont put too much on it or it will migrate again causing the same issue with parking in the wrong place.
The other issue that arises is the linkage popping off their ball joints, you can restore them using a repair clip that can be obtained on ebay here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Z4-E85-E86-2002-2008-Windscreen-Wiper-Motor-Linkage-Link-Rod-Repair-Clip/223797946946?fits=Car+Make%3ABMW%7CModel%3AZ4&epid=25035751655&hash=item341b65aa42:g:h7oAAOSwTqtd94mW
Well worth taking the scuttle cover off annually to clean the end and centre scuttle drains and dosn't take long to pull the wipers out to clean the grease off whilst your in there.
Click to expand...

Thank you!

Same problem and this worked.

The toughest part was removing the scuttle, as the fixings had degenerated
 
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