Hi
Just wondered if anyone has experienced this problem before and found out how to rectify it.
The wipers creep up from the home position all the way to the top and back again, very slowly.
It's an intermittent issue.
I have tried the light switch and wiper switch/stalk in all combinations and there is no combination between auto wiper, auto lights etc....
When the issue occurs I have stopped the car and manually held the wiper arm and there is no resistance to the wipers moving - as though a power leakage to the motor is powering the wipers at say 2% power.
If anyone is interested I am also looking at selling the car for £10k. It is mint and has jag history to 78k, now has only 90k miles. Silver, black leather Sepang wheels.
Thanks for reading
Jim

 

Might be the stalk.

 

The wiper motor is controlled by 2 relays in the underhood box. One for hi/low speed operation, the other for on/off. That would be the only part that would allow current through to the motor. Barring a wiring problem that has shorted power to the wiper.

Pull relay R4 and see if it still happens.

 

My 2004 XJ8 does a similar thing except it only creeps up about 6-8 inches and I lose the power assist steering. it might be reverting to the "highway" level of assist as the steering is still usable but with greater effort. And this only happens when I use the wipers. When I start the car the steering effort is fine, but when I turn on the wipers the the steering is affected. Otherwise, the wipers rest in the 6-8 inch position. Annoying but not critical. BTW, I also get the "DSC-Trak Control" error and the red warning light that's been blamed on everything from TPS/throttle body's to wet weather (which is when this all started), but they go off when traveling under 10 mph. But no restricted performance so I'm still driving it.

I'll get around to looking at it one of these days and when I do, relay number 4 will be on the list.

 

I suggest you check the drain under the cabin filter and the earths (grounds)

behind the headlights.

 

Just use search. Very well-known problem. It's a corrosion in moving shafts where arms seat. May help a little lube and cleaning in light forms of problem or complete swap of linkage in hard forms. I went through this. In any case you have to remove completely the linkage which is time and/or money consuming procedure thus its better to think how not to do this twice as I had to. I'd suggest to find used linkage in good condition or new one if you find a good offer.

 

Problem solved (finally)! And easier than I thought it would be. Should have done this a long time ago.

In the past I've tried replacing the throttle position sensor on the MAS, replaced the battery with the one recommended from Home Depot and "shorted" the battery cables. None of these improved the situation and the cheap thottle position sensor actually made things worse so I slapped the original back in.

Finally got around to the main grounds behind the headlights. Everything looked fine, no corrosion or anything, but the cable behind the drivers side headlight was very loose. Tightened it up a bit and all maladies went away! Hooray! Hardest part of the whole thing was removing/installing the long plastic radiator cover. I suggest everyone at least check the nuts for tightness (but not too tight!). might just prevent future problems.

Big thanks to the whole forum but especially meirion .