It's raining here in chicago and when I turned on my windshield wipes they went through the motion they're suppose to but VERY,VERY slow and sometimes pausing in the middle for a few seconds before resuming in "sloth mode." If anyone can provide any info it would be greatly appreciated. I don't think ir's much to the system besides wiper blades,switches and a motor. where is the motor and how do I get to it?

 

Make sure the windshield and the wiper blades are clean. Try using Rain-X.

 

See this DIY: http://www.audiworld.com/tech/ext54.shtml

There was another one with pictures somewhere, but I can't remember where.

-w

 

hmm i wonder if im gonna have these probs deff book marking this one

 

they get slow because the bind at the pivot points, i got away with just staying all the pivot points with a penatrating oil one of my buddys cracked his winshild when he pulled the wiper off, they are on their right and its spring loaded so if u do take them off be carful i would just try spraying them first then turn on and spray agine to work it in

 

had the same problem...i replacedthe wiper transmissionyesterday, they run slow because the older models dont have a rubber cover over the wiper mounts like the new ones, they actually had a recall a few years back... water gets in and they can barely move, once u take it all apart and try to move it by hand its surprising how hard it is to move... i just bought the whoel thing brand new so as not to mess up the motor and switched and it works perfect.. i took it off the first time and used wd40 like some1 said but it worked until the next time it rained so i suggest u get it replacedi bought the part from audi for $89CDN and did the work alone... took about 1 hour (first repair i did alone) most of the time was spent takign all the crap off...

the cracking the windshiel thing the guy above said is the warning i got from the dealer telling me that he better do it for me... $300 quote from them

 

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/misc44.shtml With pics.

 

You replaced the linkage for 89 bucks!? Holy hell... I paid like 140 -- I've got a B5. Crazay!

 

I just tried to take my wiper arms off and holy $hit are they ever hard to remove. Before messing with it further and risking damage to the entire assembly not to mention my windshield, the the efficiency expert in me came out (the lazy guy) and I decided to troubleshoot properly.

1. Remove cowling
2. Spray as many pivot points on the assembly as possible with *WHITE LITHUM GREASE, not **WD40
3. Activate the wipers with the wiper arms flipped up and the HOOD DOWN!!!!!
4. are they movingbetter than they did before? If yes move to step5. If no, you may have to do the pain in the A$$ procedure in the links above.
5. Keep spraying on the pivot points with the lithium grease wjile wipers are on and try to get things moving faster andsmoother.

Fortunately I was able to free up the arms and now they are running way better but for methis is a treatmentand not the cure. Ultimately, I'm saving up some cashto have the wiper assembly replaced (minus the motor, it's fine as long as you didn't burn it out) professionally.

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* I chose litium grease (or white grease as Canadian Tire calls it) because It is water resistant and lubricates while still being thin enough to spray onto the parts I needed lubing.

** WD40 hardly lubricates anything. I used to be a bike tech and we NEVER used it for chains, even on the crappy bikes. It is great for freeing up seized parts and quieting the noisy door hinges of your house but DON'T use it to lube something like a wiper arm assembly.It could actually make things worse by thinning out any grease on the joints and drying out the while thing.

Hope this helps

 

After executing this procedure I had to redo it to correct some galled threads. Doing it twice I found that if you can move the motor position to 6 o' clock it makes it incredibly easy to remove from its mounted position. When looking at the assembly installed the motor linkage should be pointing towards you. This will fold up the arms and make them very easy to remove. Unfortunately, if you cannot move the motor at all this will not work.