e39 Touring rear wiper

[Scamp's Walker]

Opened glass of rear window, shut it and went to use the rear wiper. Mootor is turning but wiper is not moving, also have no washer fluid coming out of rear nozzle. Are they connected, is there a fix?

[Denis O]

The wipers do jam up over a period of time. You will need to remove the wiper spindle and give it a good clean and lube it. Once back together it should work fine if your motor is OK.

I doubt the washer is connected. You've probably had a pipe come loose. Is there water appearing in odd places after you've sprayed the rear wash?

I did an A4 Avant once and the pipework ran down the offside rear quarter. Not sure which side the BM runs but once you find the pool of water the loose pipe won't be far away. Obviously make sure the washer motor is running first. I think there are 2 pumps. 1 for the front and 1 for the back. You'll hear it working if it is.

[Scamp's Walker]

Hi, thanks for the advice, will try it in the morning. Wiper appears to move freely but the post that connects into the motor in the tailgate from the window does not seem to be locating at all

[T-bagger]

Hi,

The wiper mechanism is located into a hole in the motor by a small spring loaded peg, these are supposed to pop back out if the mechanism and motor are misaligned. These get stuck but it is poss. to free them off with pliers and WD-40.
As for the washers, if it's not blocked, the pipe usually pops off up inside the top of the tailgate. If you carefully remove the black plastic trim on the inside of the glass lid there is a small plastic panel which will pop off. Behind there is an aerial/3rd brakelight signal seperator which removes with one 8mm nut. With this out of the way you'll be able to access the plastic washer pipe, I find clipping it back together and putting a small cable tie around it stops it happening again.
If it turns out to be none of these drop me a message and I can advise further.

Regards

[BOR]

I had an embarassing one on a 3-Touring. Checked the spring-loaded peg, went to dealer, dealer popped cover off top of spindle and tightened the loose nut.

Could be the spindle nut.

[Scamp's Walker]

Thanks for all the advice guys, as the weather is going to get worse over the next few days I had better get it sorted sooner rather than later. Am going to check the rear pipes out first but noticed that the washer pump was making a slightly stangled noise so I am guessing the problem may be in the front at the washer bottle. I can't see any washer bottle though?! Is it accessed from underneath?

Going out to check the spring loaded pin as that seems the most likely at the moment. My front washer pipes keep popping off in the cold weather so will do the cable tie trick on the rear ones as well, if they have not already been done.

Yes it was the sprung pin not springing back out and, as you said, deft use of a pair of pliers and WD40 and I have a rear wiper again. Checked for water around the glass etc but nothing evident so am guessing that the problem is at the front end

Edited by Scamp's Walker on Monday 3rd March 21:40