A4 Avant (B6) Wiper problem - anyone any ideas?

[BigBazza]

Evening All!

My Wife drives a 2004 2.5TDi A4 Avant which is beautiful and goes like a train, but we have a niggling and ongoing problem with it.

The front wipers are struggling to do a full sweep, almost as if the drag on the screen is too much for them. Sometimes they stop about 6inches before park then park themselves after a pause. I can just imagine them packing up altogether when she is on a rain soaked motorway somewhere!

Possibly the motor but on a 60k 3 yr old car? A mate suggested it might have been a recall thats been missed by previous owners, but from searching I can only find wiper recalls on Passats of that era (Co-incidence?)

Any help or advice gratefully received before I go and hand over an internal organ to my local arsey Audi dealers!

[DMH@VWG]

I had a similar problem on a car years ago - can't even remember what it was: might have been a Chavalier SRi...

Turned out it was the wiper relay packing up and was therefore dead easy (and pretty cheap) to fix.

Probably worth seeing if you can find a generalist auto-electrician first-off rather than carting it into the main dealer?

[Dr G]

Had an Allroad do this recently, squirt of grease on the rack helped but needed replacing to fix permanently.

[Martin_Bpool]

The wiper linkage can sieze on the Mk4 Golfs/Boras.

http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/thread/671392.aspx

HTH

[The_Gza]

Yup - sounds like the wiper linkage to me. Had exactly the same symptoms on my MkIV Golf and a replacement wiper linkage solved it.

[BigBazza]

Before we bought it this year it had say at the garage for 5 moths, probably just a lack of use!

Thanks for the advice, i'll strip it down this weekend.

[00161wj]

9 times out of 10 its the wiper linkage

[Vee]

The nut which secures the linkage to the revolving motor arm will be loose. Eventually it will fall off.
As you need to open it up anyway, grease the links and tighten up the nut.
Job done !