wiper problems

[oscarthegrouch]

hi there

my front wipers on my b5 avant have started "jerking" when on the quickest speed.

i was just wondering if this is likely to be the motor or the relay

thanks for the help

otg

 

[B5NUT]

Could be the mechanism seizing up, I stripped mine down a few weeks back, cleaned up the spindle and covered it in grease and put it all back together, working better than before.

 

[oscarthegrouch]

If it was that though wouldnt it do it at every speed?

 

[Sulli79]

When you say jerking are they stopping slightly at all during the arms sweep? This is what mine started off at, after a while they just stopped entirely mid sweep and would not start again for 10-30 seconds, maybe longer. I was convinced it was relay related. But a mechanism rebuild has it sorted. I think the stopping of mine was maybe a thermal cut out in the motor?

 

[oscarthegrouch]

They are stopping for half a second or so repeatedly around the whole sweep of the wipers. But only on the quickest speed. But i found last night after i had been using the wipers for a while is pessistant rain the quicker speed worked fine. if it is the motor how do i go about rebuilding it and do i need any parts?

 

[Sulli79]

It's a bit of a ball ache to get the mechanism out. I'm pretty sure somebody did a write up on here, I shall have a little look see.

 

[Sulli79]

Oh and by the way that is a gret username!

 

[Sulli79]

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a4-a4-...assis/107157-slow-wiper-mechanism-repair.html
this is a b6 but almost identical for a b5

 

[oscarthegrouch]

Ok cheers. And the username was my nickname at work when i "abused" a customer

 

[Tom_B]

I did this recently and I think the B6 has more room in the scuttle so I had to release the motor from its bracket and wiggle the wiper mechanism out.

The wiper motor is very torquey and get move the wiper arms even when the pivot bearings are almost seized. My wipers just stopped working within a couple of weeks and I needed to replace the mechanism with a s/ h item from eBay.

You might find it useful to take pictures before you dismantle so that you have a guide when you put it all back together again.

I am not particularly intuitive with engineering stuff so while I got the wipers sweeping the correct area of the screen I did not realise that the stop point is defined by the motor so the actuating arm must be refitted horizontally to get the stop point right. ( I put it all back together wrong and had the wiper blades stopping six inches too high.....)

I found it useful to tighten a couple of zip ties on the shafts to double check the reassembly.

I bought a wiper arm removal tool which for me was essential to get the arms off without damaging anything. Watch out for damaging the fine conical splines on the wiper arm shafts and when refitting the arms tighten them down enough.

I did get it all back right in the end and it all works fine.