I'm looking for any ideas why my wipers don't work on high only. The work on all intermittent settings, on low, and also in spray/clean mode. As soon as i put them on high they stop completely. Once they stop, they don't work in any of the other modes. The only way they start to work again is to turn the car off and back on.

Here is the background story. Over the last year or so, I have been getting the slow/stuck wiper problem so about a month ago I took the wiper transmission out and determined that in fact one of the spindles was seized. I left the transmission in my garage and a few days later I got in my car after some solid rain and found about two inches of water in the driver's side foot well. Unknown to me, one of the bolt holes for the wiper assembly leads right through to the passenger cabin!! I had all types of electrical issues that were resolved by replacing the comfort control module (which was toasted) under the drivers side carpet.

Yesterday I finally got back to the original problem (wipers) and replaced the transmission with a new one I got from the dealership.

Could I have a broken relay or something? Any ideas why they would not work on high only?

I know that was a bit of a story but I felt that it was important to provide as much info as possible.

Thank you.

 

Well......the control module that runs the wipers is right under the dashboard behind the knee panel, if you take that panel off it should be a grey one with a bunch of circuit breakers attached to the top of it. I would pull the electrical connectors on it and make sure water didn't trickle down onto that module and cause corrosion as well. Other than that have you checked the fault codes with your VAG COM?

 

Thanks for the info. I had pulled that panel and already took a look under the dash and didn't see any corrosion/damage but I will check again.

I've thought about buying VAG COM but I just can't seem to convince myself spend the money for it. I'd rather find someone (other than the stelership) that has it already and knows what they are doing to take a look for me.

Is VAG COM able to tell you what the error codes mean or does it just give you the error code then you have to look it up somewhere else?

 

The VAG COM is a reversed engineered version of the dealers $5,000 VAS 5052 scan tool, so it can do absolutely everything you can think of and much much more. Its worth every f&%ing penny. Not only will it tell you what code it is, it can tell you how to diagnose it for the most part. YOU NEED a VAG if you plan to DIY, there are times i will refuse to help members because they won't buy one.