Wipers won't turn off

[jimbeattie]

A strange thing is happening with my 2000 4.4i, the wipers won't stop. I turned them on to rain-sense and when it stopped raining they kept going. I turned them to off and still they kept going. I fiddled with the stalk but nothing would stop them short of turning the engine off. Now they seem to come on all by themselves at random times regardless of the weather and the switch position.

Short of moving to the north west (where it wouldn't be a problem I'm told) what can I do to fix this?

[Zulu95]

New stalk? The stalks are cheapo junk like so many other things in the BMW parts bin. My OBD button gave up around 40K miles and I had to fit a new stalk.

[jimbeattie]

Thanks for the tip. My OBD button has quit too. How easy is it to replace these stalks do you have to take off the wheel or can you access from behind it. I notice a phillips head screw on the top cover of the steering column and was wondering if that can be removed without the airbag going off.

If you have any ideas or links with instructions it would be great. I've looked at a few parts suppliers but they don't list these stalks so it looks like the dealer.

[Zulu95]

I think autopartsgiant listed them but it was a while ago. I didn't actually do the fitting but it was a simple job from all accounts. If you can try to take pics and write an article for the home page.