Windscreen wiper working erratically

Hi,
I'm hoping that someone can help with an issue affecting my 2005 Tdi SE, my windscreen wiper has been playing up for a number of months.
It all started at the beginning of December 2018 when my wiper was set on intermittent wipe and for no reason started to wipe at the normal wipe speed, I then discovered that scrolling through the wiper speeds had no effect and the wiper couldn't be turned off.
I left the car in with an auto electrician and they changed the relay, this fix worked for about 10 days and then the wiper started to work erratically ( i.e. not starting to work for a number of minutes when turned on, continuing to work when turned off, intermittent wipe sometimes wiping twice on each sweep). I returned to the auto electrician and they looked at the car for a day but couldn't identify the problem and said that they didn't want to change parts that may not be at fault - the wiper motor, etc. so they needed the wiper to fail completely to identify the problem.
The problem persisted for a fortnight and then towards the end of January they started to work again! All was well until 17th March when the problems returned again. I then left the car in with an independent Audi specialist towards the end of March and they tried a new wiper motor and wiper stalk but to no avail. I picked the car up after they had looked at it for 4 days as I needed it for an upcoming trip. The wiper has been working erratically as described above but sometimes it does work normally but that is the exception rather than the rule.
I have left the car back with the Audi specialist on the 25th April and asked them to check the earthing points suggested on one of the posts on the forum - i.e. the point under the nearside headlight and at the base of the A pillars inside the cabin.
Unfortunately this has not cured the problem and they at a loss to identify the issue but think that the wiring loom may be the cause. Could anyone shed some light as I would hope to keep the car for the long term as I am attached to the car!
My thanks in advance.
 
Try putting a jumper cable between the body of the wiper motor and the engine block. If works OK then it is the motor earth that has failed. Fix a new permanent earth between the motor body and the chassis of the car. Several others on here have posted about the wiper motor earth issue and it fixes.
 
The wiper control module can go wonky too, mine packed up althogether and I replaced it with a cheap 2nd hand one, now works perfectly.
 
Thank you for both of the comments above, I'll contact the garage on Monday with your fixes. Fingers crossed, as I wouldn't know what I would want to change my car for, there really is nothing out there that I would want to change it for.
 
My apologies for the late post, but just in case anyone else has a similar problem to the one encountered above. The fault turned out to be a broken wire in the wiring loom, I really have to thank the garage (Belfast Service Centre) for persevering with the car as it took them two weeks on and off to track down the fault and repair the car. Only £230 for the fix so I was well pleased as I feared that the car was heading for the breakers yard. So glad to have my car back as there really isn't anything on the market to fill it's shoes.
A great article in this week's Autocar on the A2 btw.
 
Back
Top