front wipers stop working

[Bartek]

Hæ
I have 2001 Bmw X5, and i have small problem whith front wipers somtimes they Stop working and 3 hours later start again... that always happends
in bad whether... ??
Bartek

[UCrewX5]

There are a couple of possibilities that could be causing this.

One is the bolts holding the wiper motor have worked themselves loose and simply need re-tightening. See http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/...wiper-fix.html

Another possibility is the wiper assembly has simply worn out and needs to be replaced. That is what happened on my 2001 X5 and is not as easy (or cheap) of a fix, but it is not beyond the skills of a good DIYer.



p.s. - there is a good reason why this only happens in bad weather - it's the only time that you use the wipers Once the wiper motor binds, it will shut down for a period of time and then reset itself. Hence the reason you see them working again after letting them sit for a while.

[wallyx5]

When mine stopped working it was pouring down rain. It turned out the bolts had worked there way loose. I tighten then and continue to check them every now and then.

[bdstott]

I also had the loose bolt sydrom. But after seeing the way they blocked the wipers, I don't know that that could be an intermittant problem.

[Bartek]

THX gays
i will try everythig now dosen´t work... i will check another wipers motor tomorow... hard to drive in Iceland without wipers

[JohnD]

There is a relay for the wipers - mine went bad and I had problems with the wipers stopping and starting again

[Bartek]

somebady know where is this relay...color, number??

[Vsmvince]

Wiper relay

[Bartek]

yeah wiper relay
anybady??

[BlondyFA]

This forum has been extremely helpful with my wife’s X, so much so that we may actually keep the thing now.

Researching the wiper issue I found the loose bolt syndrome at the assembly was not the issue as those bolts were tight. The assembly worked fine which means that the problem had to be at the wipers themselves. Sure enough, those bolts were loose and took about a minute to tighten and no $300 dealer visit.

Thanks again and there are some pictures of the bolts that caused the wipers to lock up I n the middle of a KS super-cell.

JC