Mister Bally

No luck for me with the AW site search function.

Not 100% dead but working less than 50% normal. A "pulse" cycle runs slow, one wipe, then not a full return. Have to turn switch off then on to "park" the blades. Then, to run a cycle, have to turn on and three upper pulses (must be a stepper motor) then a pause. Have to turn off then on to cycle once.

If car is off for an hour, they work good for a few cycles.

Anyone have this out of warranty and what was replaced? It appears that the motor and ECu are one nice unit. Before I assume it is the motor assembly, Has anyone seen any mechanical binding?

No difference with the blades in the "air".

Fortunately, I have my Beetle to drive as a spare vehicle. But, I've been driving it a lot lately and i had a rental Beetle in Philadelphia for a few days. I'd like to have even more fun in my A8!

That motor assembly sure looks expensive!

MP4.2+6.0

I remember this a bit on the board a few years back from Gina's posts off and on. Here is a thread with a lot of responses you could look at. My sense from the past is it was that integrated motor assembly you mention.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...ght=gina+wiper

Mister Bally

Thanks, I will be going in today or tomorrow to look for binding linkage or the connector partially off (keeping my fingers crossed). The Bentley manual has no real troubleshooting procedures for the wipers that I could find. The removal procedure references a "Guided Fault Finding" page that doesn't seem to exist. At least not via the search or any steps I could find in the index.

What sucks is that my '01 Beetle that I've had since new has perfectly working wipers with a $140.00 motor while my '04 A8 has a $500 motor that I'm having trouble with.

MP4.2+6.0

Had to replace it on C3, plus the stalk once or twice when morons broke it off trying to "shift" the tranny {and, it was a stick!). Amazingly, never failed on any of the notoriously unreliable C1's I used to maintain in tons of miles--probably the old VW (or 411) sort of motors.

Mister Bally

UPDATE: It is not a loose electrical connector.

I Took the assembly out (what a PITA) and unlinked the motor shaft. Motor assembly is fine. The linkage is binding big time. It turns out the steel shaft for the passenger side (shorter shaft) is corroded to the hole /tube in the aluminum casting. I was able to beat it out but only after heat with a torch and penetrating oil. I will hone the hole in the tube and grease it with Hydrotex lube. I have the feeling that will give me a year or two. Parts are unavailable. The whole mech, minus motor/ECU is a $404.00 item from the old price list. A Bosch part.

Very disappointed that it failed seven years after the car was built. Unacceptable failure for a car in this price range.

Mister Bally

REPAIRED! Turns out there are brass sleeves pressed into the casting. The one closest to the center of the car was the corroded one. I used a dremel "cylindrical" bit to hone the brass sleeve/race. I greased everything well and resassembled. Put it all together and A-ok. Cost: Pennies worth of grease and a few hours of my life. I also took both camshaft sprocket covers off and checked the timing belt. Still looks good with 115,000 miles on the clock.