Touring rear wiper problem

[guizai]

Finally a place where there's other touring members!!! I'm from Canada and I've bought an imported Touring from Germany. Little information over here about the rear end.

The rear wiper when I press the button on then off, wipes for approximately 10-15 strokes, is that normal?

Also sometimes it doesn't return to the resting position. Anything I can check or clean?

Thanks a lot gents!

[gareth]

there's two buttons on the same housing.

one is for the wash/wipe. push this and it'll do a handful of wipes after you let go. it will also pump washer fluid but only while the wiper is going upwards. the rear washer bottle is on the left and side of the boot (small plastic cap above the left hand light cluster)

the other button latches in and sets the wiper to intermittent.


regarding the random stopping, this is common on the front and is caused by dirty tracks.
this may help: http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... wipers.htm

[Lobstrosity]

Finally a place where there's other touring members!!! I'm from Canada and I've bought an imported Touring from Germany.

Hi canucker! Where abouts in Canada?

As long as you aren't using the wrong button, like the guy above mentioned, it should just latch into intermittent mode and do one wipe, then stop for a bit, then another wipe.

Mine has recently started doing 4 or 5 wipes, then pausing halfway through the wipe, then moving to the resting position properly. I wouldn't mind, except the sound it makes after the 2nd wipe when the window is totally dry... painful.

I'm going to try cleaning the tracks, as in the above link, if it works I'll let you know. Also, update this post if you find the solution.

[KDS]

Yeah, the wiper motor is a pretty poor design, resulting in all sorts of weird operating problems. When mine started acting up I had my mechanic pull it out for a diagnosis. He showed me that there was a lot of corrosion inside the motor because it was being regularly soaked with washer fluid. Because the fluid is routed through the center of the mounting spline, it's prone to backing up into the motor--or so it was explained to me. The only solution was to buy a good used motor on eBay from a friendly Brit.

With a replacement motor installed, I now avoid the right "wash/wipe" button altogether and just use the left "intermittent wipe" button to clear the window when it's raining.

Also, in a related problem, the washer fluid hose is prone to kinking/splitting where it's routed past the left hatch hinge. When this happens, you're likely to get a headliner full of washer fluid. One more reason to avoid the right button...

[Brianmoooore]

The park function of the rear wiper motor is dealt with by a small microswitch mounted on the rear cover of the motor. The sliding contact and half round metal plate are used for the washer control only.
Wouldn't say the motor is particularly bad design, it's just that the newest ones are 13 years old now, and the rubber water seal in the rear cover has deteriorated.
For a while now, I've been thinking about how I can fit a seperate water jet to the rear hatch to eliminate the water going through the motor.