i have a 98 xjr, uk spec, so the wiper parks to the right,or should do. driving up the M4 in heavy rain that changed rapidly from downpour to drizzle and back, my wiper suddenly stopped in the upright position. not good to seeing where your going, turned them off and back on again and all was well. or so i thought, rain stops so i turns off the wiper, the wiper now makes up its own agender and keeps on going for at least 20 more wipes and stops in the far left, [i have right hand drive so wiper should park on the right] flick the switch to single wipe the screen and it wipes 8 or 9 times and stops 3/4 across screen. turn it back on/off quickly to park the wiper.... it now will not stop.... 30 or so wipes later it parks up as normal? now get some light rain, switch on intermitant wipe and it randomly goes from 1 wipe/park to multiple wipe/stop where it feels like. [never in the same place?] when this misbehaviour happens the only control i have is between normal and fast speed, cannot even turn it off? i have done the turn off ignition,back on again, wiggle the switch about, swear at it, threaten it with the scrapyard, you know all the normal stuff... am now stumped and would really be grateful for any help/ideas because i am out of any .

 

Hi Andrew, I suspect you have water in the electrical connection to the wiper motor. It lives in the plenum chamber in front of the windscreen. Cover can be removed after removing wiper arm.
Let us know what happens.

 

Ive come across same VERY annoying fault!

Turns out the wiper relay is integral to the wiper motor assembly,
so replacing the whole unit cured the problem; hope this helps

 

1st off a thankyou to fred 60 and rob xjr6, have not fixed the wiper yet, it is blowing a gale in london and dont want to loose/ dammage the bonnet.
taken the wiper off and the trim panel underneath, was amazed at the amount of dirt in there, washed it all out and there was quite abit of surface rust, thankfully not any holes, but if left much longer it would have been out with the welder .
so if you have not looked under that trim panel now would be a good time to do so, you might save yourself some work or expense
.it will only take 5 /10 mins to have alook.

 

My car is us spec and did the same thing. Turned out being the wiper motor. Apparently the park switch went bad so the computer didn't know what was going on.

 

It does sound like the park switch ......... I will say that the wiper relays were a very common problem ........ both of my cars had them replaced while under warranty ... but this often caused the wipers to stop mid wipe ... not run on as if they are always trying to park.

The dealers did not test the relays they just replaced both of them -- I believe they are the same relay. I would swap them and see if anything changes before I did the motor.

 

i swapped the two wiper relays round and still had the same problem, i cleaned up the earthing stud directly below the two relays and hey presto wipers back to normal.... so i put all the trim and wiper back on feeling all smug with myself, shut the bonnet turned on the wiper and.... bugger back to square one! think it is the park switch as suggested a couple of times. will have a look after a cup of coffee.... will let you know the result.

 

I'm having the same issue with my wiper and decided to purchase the relay. I just don't know where the relay happens to be located. I don't have the original owners manual.

Thank you,

 

the relays are located on the lefthand side of the radiator mounting, by the air con tube. there are 2 the same. on my car the one nearest the rad is the high/low speed relay the other is the on/off relay

 

Hi, I had same problem last week. Mine was remedied with jiggling the wiper relays, behind the radiator, in their contact sockets...
Warrick.

 

Thank you Andrew, I didn't even think about there being 2 separate relays for different functions. I didn't see that bit in an earlier post. I haven't done much in the way of "shade tree repairs" but with wealth of knowledge on this forum I suspect that will change.

Jim

 

well i finally sorted out my wayward wiper... found out the price of a new motor and after recovering from the shock [over £600] decided to open up the motor on the car. not a difficult task, just release the six plastic tabs around the motor, and gently tilt the front edge towards the bulkhead. do not try and totally remove as there are two wires at the top edge, i just used a mirror to look under the lid. there is a micro switch [park switch] and metal circuitry which on mine was covered in grease from the bevel drive from the motor. a few sprays with contact cleaner and a clean up with some cotton buds i stopped for a coffee and ciggy while the feeling came back to my fingers [it was trying to snow]. thawed out i clipped the cover back on the motor and hey presto..... wipers stay on,the intermitent works as do the wash 4 wipes and a drip sweep and the single wipe feature. such a simple and easy fix, i am at a loss to work out why it took me 3 weeks to sort out!

 

I have exact same problem so I will look here 1st, thanks for the post I will let you know if it fixes my problem too.

Jay