Windscreen wipers slow, then stopped working.

[Shirespeed]

The front windscreen wipers on my Polo (9n (2008) were slow to wipe the screen 1 day, which I put down to the battery maybe being a bit low, as the car hadn't been driven in a while, also that sap from the trees were making the screen sticky.

A couple of days later, my wife said the wipers weren't working at all, and had parked themselves halfway up the screen, although they did eventually return to their normal parked position.

Ive removed the scuttle, and scooped / hoovered about 5l of dead leaves and compost out of the plenum, cleaned the accumulated dirt from the mechanism and the wipers seemed to work fine. Spraying the various joints and spindles with some spray oil 9not WD40,which is not oil) while the wipers were running (no wiper arms attached) made the speed noticeably increase.

Im going to drive the car for a while and see how they behave, but obviously I dont want to be stuck miles from home in the rain with no wipers if they stop working again, and be forced to reverse home!

My question is, do people think the wipers will keep working now that the mechanism had been cleaned and lubricated, or is that just a quick fix and in reality new mechanism will be required?

[amer6R]

Hi,
I had a similar issue on my 6r. Wiper were to slow. You greasing the linkage joints wont help. You need to disassemble it, and where the spindle ( part that has thread to attach the wiper arm) you will have to remove the c-clips, and push it out. There is a bronze bushing and it gets rusted.
I'd recommend to push it out with a shop press, i have tried to hammer it out, but the threads cracked from hitting it. And it was full of rust.

If you manage to disassemble it, then clean the rust and pack it with grease. dont forget the orings.

[CarbonChaos]

Hi, I’ve had this issue on my 9n3 and as said the spindles seize up ,i lubricated them but this was only a temporary fix.I ended up replacing the linkage with a new genuine part .

[amer6R]

Hi, I’ve had this issue on my 9n3 and as said the spindles seize up ,i lubricated them but this was only a temporary fix.I ended up replacing the linkage with a new genuine part .

Last two images show the part that you need to push out from the housing. if someone wants to attempt a repair. On a 6r there is like a plastic gromet/ washer that goes on the spindle before the wiper arms and it greatly reduces water going into the bushings.

[littlepolo]

Keep an eye on the indexing of the wipers for park and operation. There could be some variance with a new motor assy.