Front Wiper Mechanism

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s4mark

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Hi all.

To my dismay, this morning my windscreen wipers gave up for good. They went slowly up and just when they should have returned, they stopped lol. Could I get them to reset to the bottom? No! After 20 mins I managed to get them down to the off position but am a bit concerned with the rain on its way. They are just so slow, fistly thought the rack might need greasing but now I am thinking the motor has packed up.

Any one had this problem?

Cheers for all your help and advice:icon_thumright:
 
AndyMac said:
Had this on my B6 just a few weeks ago, I had to completely remove the whole mechanism, as the drivers side shaft had seized up big time.
http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=38402&highlight=slow+motion+wipers
Click to expand...

did you just clean and regrease it or did you need to replace any parts. Also I think I will need to disconnect my ECU to remove the mechanism. Did you have to do this and if so does anythink need resetting after refitting?

It is covered under a RAC warranty but need to try and improve them for use over the weekend as the weather looks a little grim.
Cheers mate.
 
Just cleaned it up, regreased it and refitted, no parts needed. Audi would have replaced the whole thing.
I did have to remove the ECU, so disconnected the earth lead on the battery first. Also worthwhile buying a wiper arm removal tool from Machine Mart (£5.99) as they are seated on an angled spline and no amount of WD40 would loosen them. the only thing I replaced was the splashguard under the wipers as this had been butchered by a previous windscreen replacement, and did not fit properly (probably why the shaft was getting wet and ended up seizing). This part was only £10 from dealer, I was expecting it to cost about £50!
B6ECUremoval.jpg

B6ECUremoval2.jpg
 
Well have just been out armed with my toolbox and some WD40 as it's all i have at the minute.

After further investigation I think I have found the problem. As you have all said, the shafts have seized and I think this is due to the following reason :

Whoever replaced the front screen has kindly broken all the plastic lugs off of the plastic scuttle trim, therefore leaving a nice gap between the screen and the trim, which is letting a nice amount of moisture onto the wiper mechanism :no: .

Tried to remove wiper arms from the shafts but think i need to get the tool as they don't seem to want to budge at all no matter how much wiggling.

I just went for soaking the shafts continuously in WD40 and operating them (with the blades off the screen to reduce effort). Have managed to get them going a lot bettter, but still not 100%.

Will keep soaking them every day until I can get the whole lot out for a clean up.

Thanks everyone for the advice its been spot on. Nearly went to Audi this morning in a panic but you lot have saved my bacon again.

Cheers:icon_thumright:
 
audi upgrades
"you can usually wiggle the arm off the splines fairly easily"
Yes but back on planet earth you need the tool and also a pry bar for additional leverage.
The problem with the shafts are that they are sealed with an O ring so WD40 can't get anywhere near the seizure. this is mine after a whole 4 hours of soaking. Had to heat it up with a blowtorch in the end and then it came free immediately.
Wiperspindleremoved.jpg
 
yep gonna take it all the way out and clean it properly etc. What is the best grease to lube it with? Also I was a bit concerned about removing the ecu but think I will just bite the bullet and go for it. Cheers again
 
I just used vaseline, which is probably completely wrong, but by the time I'd released it no where was open to buy anything else, so it was all I had to hand.
 
maybe i was lucky then but i just pulled mine straight off once the blade was off the screen. anyway, returning to planet Zorg............

mine looked nowhere as bad as those and they still seized, god knows how they were running. vaseline isn't the best lubricant for this particular type of shaft but in a pinch i supose it will do. problem i'd guess is it goes all runny when it gets slightly warm so any friction will have it leaking out. any general purpose grease should do.

unplugging the ECU shouldn't cause any issues, it'll just clear the learned values in there so will take a while to relearn certain parameters
 
is there anyway of getting the mechanism out without actually disconnecting the ecu?

The only reason I ask is that I have just been out in the car and the wipers are failing again on me, really need stripping down and sorting however.......

i have to drive to Teignmouth in Devon tomorrow evening so have to have the car running, I cannot risk the slightest chance of my car not working due to me removing and disconnecting the ecu. I do not know anyone with VAGcom etc. Thanks for all the advice and I know I should just go and do it as you all have the experience.

I am just paranoid due to my previous problems with everything I own or touch lol
 
trust me i'm a stamp collector.

disconnecting the ECU won't have any adverse affect, i've had mine in and out on a few occasions, fitting a boost gauge, doing the wipers, re-routing my alarm siren etc. just do it wimp, lol, and hurry up, it'll be dark soon;)
 
shineydave said:
trust me i'm a stamp collector.

disconnecting the ECU won't have any adverse affect, i've had mine in and out on a few occasions, fitting a boost gauge, doing the wipers, re-routing my alarm siren etc. just do it wimp, lol, and hurry up, it'll be dark soon;)
Click to expand...

ok mate I trust ya lol will have to go to halfords tomorrow to get a wiper arm removal tool then i'm gonna do it mate.

Thanks again mate:icon_thumright:
 
I didn't remove the ECU completely, just unplugged it from the loom so it could be moved out of the way. Just remember to disconnect the earth strap on the battery. Disconnecting the ECU is no different from disconnecting the battery in terms of resetting.
 
Always a good idea to pop to local car spares shop and get a pot of Molybdenum disulphide grease, it handy for all sorts of things and has high melting point. Failing that get some GP grease. Easy to tell apart, MD is dark grey and GP is yellow.
 
My wipers have same problem, they'd been going slowly for months, almost grinding to a halt, but usually started working ok after being used for a while, and squirting WD40 into the area seemed to help a bit. Bit random as it could be ok for days then an hour later it would be juddery. Then today they stopped dead half way up, had to physically push them to come back down again.

I've got AA membership so called them out figuring it was worth a go rather than taking everything apart myself (yeah I wimped out) or going to a garage. The guy took the linkages apart, the motor was fine as were the arms and right spindle (when facing car), but the left one was stuck. He ended up drilling couple of small holes in side of it to get some penetrating oil into it, eventually it started moving again. One hole was near the middle of the spindle but he didn't think it was all the way through - there seemed to be some kind of hardened casing, the one near the bottom was definitely into the body of the spindle and let the oil in. Now the oil has worked in seems ok and cost me nowt, will put a squirt of WD40 in every month or so and see how it goes ...

Thanks,

Nick
 
audi upgrades
I don't think after a liberal spraying of WD40 and lithium grease that silicone will stick to it, or anything for that matter
 
I don't understand why after doing all the hard work of removing the mechanism they didn't just do the easy bit properly.
 
AndyMac said:
I don't understand why after doing all the hard work of removing the mechanism they didn't just do the easy bit properly.
Click to expand...

Why should they, they dont give a ****. As long as it works for the next 30 mins then thats it.
I think you're thinking of proper engineers that like to do a job properly, the AA don't fall into that category or anything even remotely near it.
 
If it packs in again next time it rains I'll add the AA to my hate list, but so far so good. Getting the wipers off and taking the linkage apart was pretty easy, only took couple of minutes and no need to move ECU. The spindle wasn't budging until it got the oil inside the body, don't know if he'd have been able to actually disassemble it and a garage would have just replaced the whole linkage.

Reckon I'd be able to find a replacement spindle (new or used) on its own without getting a whole new linkage? Maybe a parts specialist or scrap yard?
 
And 20 seconds with a blow torch would have released the seized spindle. Now he's drilled holes in it you'll need to get a replacement. Just stupid.
 
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