Rear Wiper stopping and starting

[YorkshirePud]

The rear wiper on my 14 plate is playing silly buggers. It seems to do almost a full sweep and stops. If i leave the stalk pushed away it will usually return by itself. Sometimes it works fine and others it just stops and starts. It's even worse if its in that mood and i go to reverse with the front wipers on! I can see that other people have had the same issue but only one has commented that putting in a new motor fixed this. Sadly my car is well out of warranty by now, although its not the only issue I've had with the car, currently the DAB is terrible. I mentioned this during its first major service (and first under my ownership) But nothing was done about it.

Is it worth getting it serviced again with the dealer but kicking up a stink about the wiper and DAB to see if they will rectify it?

If i have to fix it myself what sort of cost am i looking at for a rear wiper and how big a job is it replace? I'm somewhat confident doing these sort of jobs. I've changed entire headlights on older cars in the past and electric window motors.

Cheers!

 

[Walone]

The rear wiper on my 14 plate is playing silly buggers. It seems to do almost a full sweep and stops. If i leave the stalk pushed away it will usually return by itself. Sometimes it works fine and others it just stops and starts. It's even worse if its in that mood and i go to reverse with the front wipers on! I can see that other people have had the same issue but only one has commented that putting in a new motor fixed this. Sadly my car is well out of warranty by now, although its not the only issue I've had with the car, currently the DAB is terrible. I mentioned this during its first major service (and first under my ownership) But nothing was done about it.

Is it worth getting it serviced again with the dealer but kicking up a stink about the wiper and DAB to see if they will rectify it?

If i have to fix it myself what sort of cost am i looking at for a rear wiper and how big a job is it replace? I'm somewhat confident doing these sort of jobs. I've changed entire headlights on older cars in the past and electric window motors.

Cheers!

I'm thinking the problems may be related. I'm sure the DAB antenna is in the rear window and I suspect that the wiring loom to the tailgate is broken causing both faults.

 

['& Son' managed]

^^Agreed ^^ An intermittent electrical short to the wiper is likely to cause interference with
it's neighbouring radio antenna. First suspect would be a split/crushed part of loom nearby,
if not a lose or otherwise dodgy earthing point.

 

[YorkshirePud]

thanks for the replies so far guys. Any hints as to where i could look for myself to see if this is the case? I assume ill have to remove the grey interior trim. What's the best practice for this?

 

[Walone]

thanks for the replies so far guys. Any hints as to where i could look for myself to see if this is the case? I assume ill have to remove the grey interior trim. What's the best practice for this?

If it's a break in the loom wiring it's probably in one of the two flexible hoses going to the tailgate. I'm not conversant with the routing of the wiring to the front of the car but if there are connections in the lower 'A' post/footwell area they may be loose or corroded through water ingress.
There is a link to workshop manuals somewhere on this forum.

 

[Mr Pig]

Pretty sure this is not a break in the wiring, it's a well known Leon fault. Our 2014 leon has suffered this issue a few times and here is my guess as to what is going on, based on what happens.

I don't know for sure but my guess is that in the motor assembly there is some sort of shaft position sensor. What I think happens is that contacts get corroded/dirty/icy or otherwise contaminated and the controler can no longer reliably tell where the shaft is. The result is that it stops the motor in the wrong place.

Two things typically precede this fault. The wiper not being used for a long time and/or cold weather. The standard solution is to replace the motor. I prefer the cheaper solution, which so far has worked every time.

Just run the wiper! Next time it's raining heavily enough to keep some water on the back window leave the wiper on. It may continue to behave erratically for quite a while but eventually you will notice it starting to return to normal. Once fixed it tends to stay that way for a long time. My wiper misbehaved the other day and that's the first time I've seen it do that for over a year at least. I think that running the wiper a lot cleans up the contacts in the sensor.

Like I say, just a guess but so far this has worked for me, probably about four times I think. Costs nothing to try it anyway?

 

[kazand]

Remember when checking the wiper doesn't work if the boot is open...

 

[Mr Pig]

Remember when checking the wiper doesn't work if the boot is open...

Neither do the lights, and therefore the rear parking sensors you have just fitted which you are now thinking are faulty. Ask me how I know that... ;0)

 

[kazand]

Neither do the lights, and therefore the rear parking sensors you have just fitted which you are now thinking are faulty. Ask me how I know that... ;0)

I found out on the MK2 when fitting an LED reversing light...

 

[Walone]

Pretty sure this is not a break in the wiring, it's a well known Leon fault. Our 2014 leon has suffered this issue a few times and here is my guess as to what is going on, based on what happens.

I don't know for sure but my guess is that in the motor assembly there is some sort of shaft position sensor. What I think happens is that contacts get corroded/dirty/icy or otherwise contaminated and the controler can no longer reliably tell where the shaft is. The result is that it stops the motor in the wrong place.

Two things typically precede this fault. The wiper not being used for a long time and/or cold weather. The standard solution is to replace the motor. I prefer the cheaper solution, which so far has worked every time.

Just run the wiper! Next time it's raining heavily enough to keep some water on the back window leave the wiper on. It may continue to behave erratically for quite a while but eventually you will notice it starting to return to normal. Once fixed it tends to stay that way for a long time. My wiper misbehaved the other day and that's the first time I've seen it do that for over a year at least. I think that running the wiper a lot cleans up the contacts in the sensor.

Like I say, just a guess but so far this has worked for me, probably about four times I think. Costs nothing to try it anyway?

Lets hope you're right.
The reason I jumped to the wiring fault is because of the poor DAB reception as well.

 

[YorkshirePud]

Thanks for the continuing input guys. I sincerely hope myself its not the loom! The few times i used it on the way home last night of course the rear wiper behaved itself ha. The DAB is a concern now that people have mentioned it could have been linked. Other mentions i have seen regarding the dab involved people getting the entire rear windscreen replaced to fix the issue.

I really wish i had pushed these problems when the car was still in its warranty, both its original one and 12 month seat approved one.

 

[Walone]

Thanks for the continuing input guys. I sincerely hope myself its not the loom! The few times i used it on the way home last night of course the rear wiper behaved itself ha. The DAB is a concern now that people have mentioned it could have been linked. Other mentions i have seen regarding the dab involved people getting the entire rear windscreen replaced to fix the issue.

I really wish i had pushed these problems when the car was still in its warranty, both its original one and 12 month seat approved one.

If you have previously reported these issues while the car was in warranty then I think you could still have a case for a warranty repair.

 

[YorkshirePud]

If you have previously reported these issues while the car was in warranty then I think you could still have a case for a warranty repair.

The conversation i had with Johnson's SEAT in liverpool was "The DAB hasnt worked well since i got it, maybe the head unit needs a software update?"

i was told it would be looked at as part of the major service. It was not. A month later the car nearly committed suicide as there was an issue with the timing belt and sprockets. I was rather upset by this and have not really been back in touch with Johnsons since. (they did fix this issue.)

 

[Mr Pig]

The few times i used it on the way home last night of course the rear wiper behaved itself ha.

You need to leave it running.

Last night it was raining quite heavily as we were driving home from Glasgow. I left the rear wiper on. Within a few minutes it was working almost perfectly, maybe about half of the time stopping an inch or so away from the end position. After about ten minutes it was perfect and stayed that way all the way home.

Wait for the next rainy drive, leave it running and it will fix itself.

 

[YorkshirePud]

luckily (!) it chucked it down here last night so while i went to the chip shop for tea i used the rear wiper as much as i could. i didnt leave it running as it would have been dragging over a dry screen BUT after about a minute of misbehaving it started behaving fine if left to run for a bit or if activated on demand. ill make a note of leaving it running when it next chucks it down.

 

[Rooster]

You need to leave it running.

Last night it was raining quite heavily as we were driving home from Glasgow. I left the rear wiper on. Within a few minutes it was working almost perfectly, maybe about half of the time stopping an inch or so away from the end position. After about ten minutes it was perfect and stayed that way all the way home.

Wait for the next rainy drive, leave it running and it will fix itself.

Spot on, i regularly use the front and rear wipers and washers, and cycle the windows once a week as well!

 

[Mr Pig]

My wiper stopped randomly this morning! Left it on and literally within about a minute it was sorted.

I'd like to get an old motor and pull it apart to see exactly what the issue is. Moisture, corrosion, I bet you could come up with the permanent fix.

 

[YorkshirePud]

Well it's gone back to misbehaving again. sigh. Cars passed its second MOT today which is a good thing at least!

 

[Mr Pig]

Well it's gone back to misbehaving again.

So is mine! Car's making a liar out of me.

 

[SuperV8]

So is mine! Car's making a liar out of me.

Did you ever get to the bottom of this?
I have noticed mine (ST) a few times parking on the wrong side - then after some use seems fine again.