2011 E70 X5 35i windshield wiper malfunction--

[greg328]

Hello all,
Yesterday, driving in rain for an extended period (road trip), the wipers began to malfunction--they would stop in various places on the windshield and not respond to lever input controls. Then, after waiting a few minutes, I could get them to run again, but still would not follow the control inputs correctly--speed, intermittent rain sense, etc. Once running, I could not turn them off, until they stopped by themselves, usually about 20 seconds in. In various windshield locations!

Anybody have any idea what's going on? I've located the front wiper relay in the passenger compartment fuse/relay box. I removed it (small green one) and examined it--took off the cover, all looks well, no burned spots but admittedly, there are internal parts not viewable once the main relay cover is removed.

Anybody have previous experience with this sort of thing? Could it be the control stalk?

I can get the relay for $20 on Ebay but would rather wait until I get feedback here. Thanks in advance!

Greg
Austin TX USA

[ard]

Prolly read this...

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...system/XgsXD5x

Haven’t spent any time looking, but there are a ton of complexity.

SZL and FRM are both known to fail.....

HTH

[greg328]

I appreciate the link--looks like there are several modules that may be at fault---I'll connect Carly tomorrow and try to see if a code was thrown. This could get interesting---!

I have a third-party warranty on the X5, I may have to get them involved--if they'll cover it!

Greg

[josiahg52]

Hopefully electronics are covered by your warranty. Common ones are power train only.

[pshovest]

This would happen in my E39's if I was in rain sense mode and rain was falling fast enough that wipers would only stop for a second or so before restarting. Seems like the wiper motor was overheating. Switching to low speed solved the problem after cooling off for 15 minutes.