Wipers have a mind of their own.

ripplyuk

I’ve noticed this problem since Christmas and it’s getting worse. Normally the wipers follow the normal pattern ie; 1st position for wiping every few seconds, 2nd position wiping constantly, 3rd position fast. Now, they immediately go to ‘constant’ in the first position. Sometimes moving the lever up to 2nd position and then back sorts it out but not always. At times they come on on their own, without me turning them on. Today they wouldn’t turn off at all until I turned the car off. 

Does anyone know what is likely to be the problem and if it will be expensive to fix? I hate going into garages not knowing anything at all. Also, is a regular garage able to fix this or do I need to take it to volkswagen? 

AdrianC

Whether you need to take it to a VW dealer or not depends. If it's a VW, probably. If it's a Ford, they might be less than helpful.

Does the car have autowipers? Are they on? Is the windscreen by their sensor clean and undamaged? Is there condensation inside the sensor?

Electrics on even vaguely recent cars are nowhere near as simple as they used to be - the wiper motors are controlled by computer, not simply switched by the stalk. It might be a stalk issue, it might be a computer glitch, it might be wiring damage or corrosion, it could be a list of things.

I think I'd be starting by talking to a decent local autoelectrician.

ripplyuk

@AdrianC I should have said it’s a Volkswagen! 

No, it doesn’t have auto wipers. The rear one comes on when I reverse but that’s it. 

I don’t know any auto electricians. In fact, I’ve never even heard of one. Would volkswagen have one? 

jimjames

What's the age of the car? I wouldn't be going to a main dealer for one that's more than a few years old. Local garage should be able to advise of fixing it if it's an older car

ripplyuk

jimjames said:

What's the age of the car? I wouldn't be going to a main dealer for one that's more than a few years old. Local garage should be able to advise of fixing it if it's an older car

It’s almost 7yo but it only has 23,000 miles. I was hoping it would last a bit longer before having problems like this. I’d prefer to use a local garage but I think with electrical stuff I’d have to go to the dealership. 

AdrianC

ripplyuk said:

It’s almost 7yo but it only has 23,000 miles.

Why do people think this is a good thing?

ripplyuk

AdrianC said:

ripplyuk said:

It’s almost 7yo but it only has 23,000 miles.

Why do people think this is a good thing?

I don’t. 

If the car had 100,000 miles and developed this problem, I’d get rid of it. With 23,000 it’s harder to know if the car is just becoming worn out or not. 

cymruchris

I had an old BMW 3 series that did exactly that. It was a little relay/control module under the dash that had given up the ghost. At the time I got a used one for a couple of pounds and got it changed over in a few minutes, and it lived happily ever after. It could be something similar.

EssexExile

I'd search out a VW forum and see if it's a regular problem, they may even tell you the remedy.

GrumpyDil

Definately search VW specific forums as a quick Google search suggests that wiper issues aren't that uncommon.
Might be worth seeing if anyone is local to you and can do a scan with a decent OBD scanner. I use OBD11 which is designed for VW cars and may return error codes which help identify where the issue is. There are of course other scan tools but the cheaper ones don't read car specific codes

Lmc74

I have this problem on my vw polo 5 years old 17k miles. Wipers wont switch off stay on intermittent.  Took it to vw as had to go on computer to be diagnosed.  Worn wiper switch £300 to fit replacement. It rains a lot here so not fixed it yet!