I'm not sure whether to post this here or in the A3 forum, as I don't know if the A3 wiper motor is specific to just A3s.

I just purchased a 2007 A3 with 3500 miles on it. The only service history was that the wiper motor was replaced. The day after I bought it, the wipers stopped working and the wiper motor and wiper control had to be replaced. I don't know what happened with the previous owner, but I know that I only used the wipers to clean the windshield (there was fluid, and everything worked) and then after the first few snowflakes (there was no ice on the windshield).

I've seen a couple of random comments on the internet about Audi windshield wipers failing and wondered if there is any sort of known problem, in general or specifically with the A3.

 

Its not common as of yet to have problems with A3 wiper blades or arms, the A4 on the other hand always has problems with the wiper arms.

 

The only problem on the service history of my pre-owned A3, as mentioned above, was a wiper motor that had been replaced. It then failed, as I mentioned above, shortly after I purchased the car, and was replaced again, along with the control unit. The motor just failed again and was replaced again. I complained that the part should not fail so often and they did some additional troubleshooting and found that there was a faulty relay that did not show up in the computer diagnostics. I mention this in case anyone else has a similar problem.