A fortnight ago whilst driving in rain my wipers stopped mid-wipe. Pushing the wiper stalk up to 'fast wipe' got them going again and they didn't cause me a problem for the rest of that journey, working normally on 'standard wipe' speed.

The next day, when I got into the car the front wipers wouldn't operate at all, regardless of stalk position, but the rear wipe and both front and rear washer fluid switches still worked perfectly. After much swearing and shouting at the car and manually scraping the condensation from my window they sprang back to life part way through my journey, but again only in 'fast wipe' mode and only when they wanted to work.

I searched the internet for probable causes and had a good poke around with the wiper mechanism and couldn't find an obvious problem. Thinking that a failing motor may be tripping a safety cutout somewhere I went with my gut and bought an OEM wiper motor mechanism (LR072415, £122) and swapped it ... it wasn't the solution.

I called out the RAC in the hope they could find a solution that wasn't apparent to me. RAC plugged in and ran a diagnostic check, but nothing was obvious from their scan, so we wiggled some wires together and unsurprisingly didn't solve the issue. He then suggested an auto electrician and waved me goodbye.

I then opted for a new wiper relay (LR003750, under £4) from Land Rover but that hasn't cured it either.

I have taken the wiper stalk off the car and opened it up, it looks to be in good condition and visually operates correctly, there are some posts around other LR's having gunked up wiper stalks, but the design of this one means that it couldn't occur for me.

I'm booked in with a LR specialist tomorrow for another poke around. I'm fearful that a problem with the Body Control Module may be the culprit, and that sounds expensive!

At present, it seems that once i exceed 40mph and then repeatedly switch them on and off eventually they spring into life, but that clearly isn't a solution for the long term so I'd appreciate any comments or sympathetic noises please, and will update with a solution when I get one.

Is the linkage at fault, a pivot going over centre and jamming perhaps ?

freelance said:

Is the linkage at fault, a pivot going over centre and jamming perhaps ?

Click to expand...

The motor and linkage are all together as a unit, which I replaced and it didn't cure the problem. Thanks for the reply though

Check any and all plugs & sockets running to the wipers. I have known the pin inserts to move backwards until no, or intermittent, contact.

If you switch on the wipers when stationary, then give the wipers a manual push, do they then work?

Can you get a meter on the wiper motor and see if its even getting voltage?? Can you temp rig 12 volt to the wiper motor to test it?
A meter is just over ten pounds and will be useful in the future.
Just swapping stuff becomes expensive.

Thanks for the replies so far everyone! As I said before, they SOMETIMES work when I select 'fast wipe' once I've been going for a few minutes, negating a permanent power failure, and I've tried pushing them and it didn't get them going either.

We've been plugged in at the LR specialist this morning. The car can't 'see' the park position switch, which is apparently part of the electronics in the wiper stalk. New stalk (LR024629) now on order via ebay for £40. It would seem that the car needs to know they've finished the last cycle in order to start the next one on any mode other than fast wipe, hence the problem I'm having. The specialist did a hard reset of the ECU and they did their first wipe and then reverted to their new normal behaviour! If the new stalk doesn't sort the problem out then it seems likely to be a wiring fault somewhere, which isn't going to be easy or fun to find and cure. On a positive though, the Landy specialist hasn't come across this fault before on a Freelander so I'm either 'unlucky' or 'pioneering', whichever you choose I guess!!!

Fingers crossed. Was there any position sensor that you saw when changing the motor?

Sorry I've not updated but I didn't really have any news. The new wiper stalk arrived and I've fitted it ... it didn't cure the problem. I've been to visit my local Land Rover main dealer today and spoke with a really helpful technician. He tells me that they had one in a few months ago with the same problem and when they finally found the issue it was a wiring fault where it passed through the bulkhead into the cockpit behind the glove box. I probably looked horrified at the thought of a new wiring loom, because he then informed me that they managed to repair the existing wiring and it wasn't a big job.

I'm booked in next week, a snip at just £175 for the first hour.

Its like going to the dentist. Hopefully sort it