Wipers Stopped Working.

6

`66Beetle

Member
Hello, Not been on here since last year. Still got the noisy tappet on my A2 1.4 SE Petrol `53 plate. It has not got any worse though.

I drove to work yesterday morining in very heavy rain and the Wiper just stopped in a non parked position, half way accross the screen. Will not work at all. I`ve checked the 25 amp fuse ( Number 6 was it ? ). That has not failed. Will it just be the relay please ? I do not know where it is on the car though. I`ve looked on ebay and all the Audi Wiper Relays appear to be 4BO 955 531. I could try swapping the one off my `51 A6 1.9 Tdi, if I knew where it was on that car and on the A2.
 
the relay is under the pannel in the passahger footwell
you have to lift the carpet up then unlock the 3 clips

hopfully the relays gone, look up and old post of mine
happened to me when there was snow on my window and ended up with a new motor for 200 quid :(
 
Thank you. Found the relay. Auto Electrician and Garage I have spoken to think it`s the motor. Waiting to get my A6 back from MOT & Service, NOT by and Audi Dealership, then will get the A2 Wipers checked out. Audi Dealer came up with a staggering £264.76 inc vat & fitting for a new Wiper Motor. The Motor is only £102.76, so that`s a lot of Labour. Must be a big job perhaps ? Doesn`t look like it is to me ! Anyone changed one themselves please ?
 
Unless the garage have tested the electrics, I'd just change the relay on the offchance it fixes it. The relay is so much cheaper than a motor, even if there is only a slim chance of a fix, it's still worth it.
 
Located the A6 Wiper Relay. Swapped With A2 Relay. Still the same. A6 Wipers work. A2 Wipers do not. Taken it to a good Auto Electrician now. He`s tested the Wiper Motor using a direct supply and says it`s working O.K. Thinks it is a wiring fault but not located it yet. Will let you know the outcome.
 
O.K. Wipers working now. Auto Electrician said it was " an earth fault between the Wiper Motor and the Wiper Mechanism " ! Took hours to find it. He said he was ratching around and saw some sparking, which should not have been there.

Not sure he understood it. I certainly don`t !
 
My wipers stopped working. Reading a couple of posts about grounding problems I started working on that. I removed the wiper arm (a small two legged puller may be needed). I then removed wiper mechanism (it includes the motor). The two screws and two nuts are hard to reach, be sure to have different spanner extension available. Don't drop the nuts in the engine bay. I didn't. It helps to remove the coolant expansion tank. No need to disconnect the hose, just move it out of the way. Next to the motor is a black cover. It's attached with four plastic lugs and a sealant putty. It's relatively easy to remove it and nothing breakes doing so. Right at the edge of the cover is a copper strip that connects the ground to the body of the motor assembly. Mine was slightly corroded. A few swipes with a file (both the strip and mating spot on the body) and ground contact was re-established. Put the cover back and test it by plugging the connector in giving it a go with ignition swithed on. Then just reassemble the whole thing. Again those two motor scews are quite hard to put back in place.

My belive is, that the grounding problems people have experienced are not due to the brown grounding wire making proper contact to the chassis. To test this grounding broblem, take a 3 feet of wire turn the wipers on and put one end of the wire to the engine metal part and the other to the wiper assembly metal part. If it starts working you know it's the grounging problem. The test is really easy to make and costs nothing. If you don't want to take the wiper apart (or on the road), run a new ground wire to the body of the wiper assembly. That is a quick fix that should be later done properly.

Sorry, not pics. I was too quick to put it back together. Replacing the motor assembly takes a couple of hours, so garage will charge you acordingly.
 
Last edited:
Hi petteri, welcome to the A2oc and thanks for a very informative first post.

Cheers Spike
 
petteri said:
My wipers stopped working. Reading a couple of posts about grounding problems I started working on that. I removed the wiper arm (a small two legged puller may be needed). I then removed wiper mechanism (it includes the motor). The two screws and two nuts are hard to reach, be sure to have different spanner extension available. Don't drop the nuts in the engine bay. I didn't. It helps to remove the coolant expansion tank. No need to disconnect the hose, just move it out of the way. Next to the motor is a black cover. It's attached with four plastic lugs and a sealant putty. It's relatively easy to remove it and nothing breakes doing so. Right at the edge of the cover is a copper strip that connects the ground to the body of the motor assembly. Mine was slightly corroded. A few swipes with a file (both the strip and mating spot on the body) and ground contact was re-established. Put the cover back and test it by plugging the connector in giving it a go with ignition swithed on. Then just reassemble the whole thing. Again those two motor scews are quite hard to put back in place.

My belive is, that the grounding problems people have experienced are not due to the brown grounding wire making proper contact to the chassis. To test this grounding broblem, take a 3 feet of wire turn the wipers on and put one end of the wire to the engine metal part and the other to the wiper assembly metal part. If it starts working you know it's the grounging problem. The test is really easy to make and costs nothing. If you don't want to take the wiper apart (or on the road), run a new ground wire to the body of the wiper assembly. That is a quick fix that should be later done properly.

Sorry, not pics. I was too quick to put it back together. Replacing the motor assembly takes a couple of hours, so garage will charge you acordingly.
Click to expand...

You just saved my bacon with this
Spent last week with no wipers
This cured it perfectly

Many many thanks
Dean
 
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I did this today. Relatively straight forward, the hardest part is getting the nuts off that hold the wiper frame to the firewall without dropping them down the back of the engine. The copper contact strip mentioned above inside the plastic housing was black as was the part of the case it makes contact with. I cleaned it up with a multi-tool with a fine sanding bit on and then covered it with DC4 electrical compound.

All back together and working now.

It seems the way it works is that contact inside the plastic case connects the earth pin of the 4 pin plug for the wiper to the motor casing. By adding an extra lead as others have you're just bypassing the earth pin of the plug effectively and giving the motor an earth from another source. I've attached some pictures of the casing and contact below.

The copper earth contact is at the very top of the second picture right next to the plastic casing. You can see it's blackened which is why the earth was bad. It's sprung loaded against the casing which may be worth checking too.
PXL_20210103_090143814.jpg
PXL_20210103_090129334.jpg
 
My wipers stopped working yesterday, had the AA out today and it was a bad earth. He has rigged up a temporary earth lead but advised me to get the motor replaced.
Presumably it’s better to do that rather than try and repair it (which I couldn’t do myself)?
Can anyone tell me how many hours labour it should be to remove and replace it (excluding the cost of the motor, there are quite a few on eBay)?
Thanks
 
Just fit a better earth lead between the motor and the chassis. Less than 1/2 hours work after getting the parts.
 
The AA guy has done that but he said it should be regarded as temporary. Unfortunately I’m not mechanically minded and I wouldn’t be able to do anything myself.
 
Leave it alone then. If it is working now. The issue is water gets into the wiring plug and the earth pin corrodes and eventually does not make a good contact. Adding the external earth by passes the one in the wiring plug. Take a picture of what he has done to show us.
 
That is fine, only thing that I would do is reroute the wire behind the brake reservoir and behind the scuttle drain pipe. Unclip the corrugated pipe, and while holding the pipe down slip the red lead behind it then refit the pipe and clip. Then flick the lead over the top of the reservoir. It can safely live there and will not get in the way.
 
audifan said:
That is fine, only thing that I would do is reroute the wire behind the brake reservoir and behind the scuttle drain pipe. Unclip the corrugated pipe, and while holding the pipe down slip the red lead behind it then refit the pipe and clip. Then flick the lead over the top of the reservoir. It can safely live there and will not get in the way.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for your advice and help. I assume once I’ve done this l I don’t need to regard the repair as temporary?
 
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