Fix walkthrough for faulty wipers

[silverapple]

Thanks for the detailed fix on the wipers. new car to me and last night driving home in the rain and having the wipers not park properly was to say the least disconcerting. Your description, timing and pictures were great. Thanks again.


Happy Z4 owner

[Adeline Z4]

Great Fix!!! Thanks CHRIS. Indy shop said $250 for the whole motor assembly. This was free other than time.

[EAT5]

I wasn't able to fix it for over a year, great to know a tool exist.
Thank you for the heads up.

[simonshaw]

Hi Trembler.

Followed your fix for the wiper park fault and it worked a treat.
Many many thanks. Saved me a small fortune.

Regards Simon Shaw.

[Berko]

My wipers were not stopping at right position. After reaching the bottom they were moving up a bit (basically they were stopping late). First, I tried this and it didn`t work. Then I changed the wiper relay, now my wipers work perfectly. If your problem is just the wipers stopping late, first try the relay. It is located behind the fuse box.

[marinocs13]

Great thread! Just did it and everything is working perfectly now. Only took me about 15 minutes.

[rutlandboy]

This worked Big time Thankyou....
I did have the problem of getting to wipers off..!! this is due to a chemical reaction between the the steel wipers and the ally mounts.. just apply oil on them after taking the bolt off then tease them it may take a while but you just need to brake the reaction..

[TR6BobNF]

Great post - Thanks! Did the procedure today on my '04 Z4, which I just got in May and it worked just fine. Before, I could not even get the damn things to shut off til they just felt like it and then they would park at 1 o'clock. Inside, mine was badly corroded so it had water issues for a long time before I got the car; probably fully immersed. A critter had nested in the wiper motor area and the accumulated junk along with the rest of the stuff that finds its way in there had completely plugged the drain tube. I cleaned off the grease blobs and used the Dremel to clean everything up. It does not look as good as the forum pics but it looks a heck of a lot better than it did before. Attempting to post a "before" pic,
Regards,
Bob

Great post - Thanks! Did the procedure today on my '04 Z4, which I just got in May and it worked just fine. Before, I could not even get the damn things to shut off til they just felt like it and then they would park at 1 o'clock. Inside, mine was badly corroded so it had water issues for a long time before I got the car; probably fully immersed. A critter had nested in the wiper motor area and the accumulated junk along with the rest of the stuff that finds its way in there had completely plugged the drain tube. I cleaned off the grease blobs and used the Dremel to clean everything up. It does not look as good as the forum pics but it looks a heck of a lot better than it did before. Attempting to post a "before" pic,
Regards,
Bobhttp://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb379/tr6bobnf/Z4WiperMotor.jpg

[PeterZ]

You can use a battery terminal puller to remove the wiper arms. No adhesive required for reinstallation. ISTR the torque for the nut is 13 ft-lbs.

[bigun]

Big thank you to trembler for the great instructions and pictures. My symptoms were: wipers would not return to the bottom of the windshield; sometimes they would stop and would not work again unless the ignition was turn off and on again. Sometimes they would keep going when you shut them off.

9 months ago, i had taken my '03 Z4 to an independent shop. They charged me a healthy sum and did not fix the problem.

I don't do much work on cars, so it took me over 3 hours for this job, and i had several setbacks.

First, i had a lot of trouble getting the wiper arms off the bolts. i used WD40 and then oil, then finally i gave both the bolts and the arms several sharp knocks with a hammer. The hammer did the trick. Of course i did not have a special tool for this, and it really wasnt needed if you use a hammer and a large flathead screwdriver to help pry the arms loose from the bottom.

Next i had trouble with the 4 plastic screws that hold the plastic cover on. Especially #4. I didn't have the correct skinny screwdriver for this, i wound up using a small philips head screwdriver for the first 3. The 4th screw is recessed, so i had to use a flathead screwdriver to pry it up a bit before unscrewing by hand. Since they are plastic screws you can do this.

After that it was pretty smooth. I was initially upset that i didn't seem to much grease in the gap as the picture show. I looked pretty clean. But i got a paper towel and wiped it thoroughly, and i did get quite a bit of grease off the gap. I also wiped the rest of the surface as the instructions indicate.
Reassembly was easy and i was relieved to see that my wipers worked perfectly when done.
Thanks again to all for the help. I hope these notes help someone else who doesn't work on cars much.

[Joshua01]

Just wanted to say a massive thanks to Trembler for taking the time to put pics and a walkthrough solution to the windscreen wiper problem with intermittent wipe. So far it looks like it has solved the problem. Certainly when I opened up the casing there was lots of grease all over the 2 contacts and the gap between the plate.
Wishing you all the best and thanks for being a hero!

[ZeattleDave]

You guys rule! Just got a new-to-me 2006 M Z4 and the wipers actually did exactly this before a friend and I left the dealers parking lot. Should be an interesting project.

Dave out

[TCZ4]

Can someone post a picture of how the wipers should be once put back together? Meaning the angle at which they should be properly resting when off. Is the Driver's side arm parallel to the ground or angled further down? I ask because it seems my wipers are blocking a bit of my view of the road, could be my seat position, but just seemed odd to me.

Thanks

[IVI]

Thanks OP! This is exactly what I've been looking for, great step-by-step!

[MrMilo]

Thank you

This info worked a treat, done within the hour. Trembler your a star, if it wasn't for people like yourself giving top notch advice we would all be a lot poorer!! Cheers pal

[y2kbmwhehe]

Big thank you to trembler for the great instructions and pictures. My symptoms were: wipers would not return to the bottom of the windshield; sometimes they would stop and would not work again unless the ignition was turn off and on again. Sometimes they would keep going when you shut them off.

9 months ago, i had taken my '03 Z4 to an independent shop. They charged me a healthy sum and did not fix the problem.

I don't do much work on cars, so it took me over 3 hours for this job, and i had several setbacks.

First, i had a lot of trouble getting the wiper arms off the bolts. i used WD40 and then oil, then finally i gave both the bolts and the arms several sharp knocks with a hammer. The hammer did the trick. Of course i did not have a special tool for this, and it really wasnt needed if you use a hammer and a large flathead screwdriver to help pry the arms loose from the bottom.

Next i had trouble with the 4 plastic screws that hold the plastic cover on. Especially #4. I didn't have the correct skinny screwdriver for this, i wound up using a small philips head screwdriver for the first 3. The 4th screw is recessed, so i had to use a flathead screwdriver to pry it up a bit before unscrewing by hand. Since they are plastic screws you can do this.

After that it was pretty smooth. I was initially upset that i didn't seem to much grease in the gap as the picture show. I looked pretty clean. But i got a paper towel and wiped it thoroughly, and i did get quite a bit of grease off the gap. I also wiped the rest of the surface as the instructions indicate.
Reassembly was easy and i was relieved to see that my wipers worked perfectly when done.
Thanks again to all for the help. I hope these notes help someone else who doesn't work on cars much.

Sorry to bump it up again
The 4 plastic screws are bloody nightmare to take it off.
Even with a flat head driver, I stripped all 4 screw head, now I am really screwed....
How did you guys take them off so easy?

[craig48]

Great write up! Thanks

[th41004]

I realize this an old thread. I am a new owner and love the forum, wealth of information. My problem: Wipers do not return to park and washer not working. I performed the above procedure but it did not resolve the issues. I am thinking relay?? Are there two relays for this model and how do I get to them to change them out? I have been searching forums for an hour, but found many different answers. Thanks.

[wobbert]

Thanks for these instructions; I just followed them for our 2003 Z4 with the stalling wiper problem with few problems.

Some hints for anyone else trying this:
1) Mark the current location of the wipers on your windshield with a grease pencil so you can put them on in the same place. After the repair, the wipers are going beyond the top of the windshield; I'm not sure if they were doing this before the repair.

2) The four expanding rivets were already abused from a windshield replacement; I couldn't unscrew three of them and cut them off instead with side cutters. Buy replacement rivets before starting the repair. Don't try installing the new rivets by screwing them in; use a mallet to lock them in place.

3) The windshield cowl - the plastic cover over the motor and wiper mechanism - does have fragile posts on the back edge that can break. A previous windshield replacement broke at least a few of the eight posts holding the back edge of the plastic windshield cowl down; when I did this work, I broke a couple more taking it off. I ended up buying a new windshield cowl ($290 at the dealer vs. $200-$220 online) so I could finish the job the same day. I might have been able to repair the posts with contact cement but chose to buy the part. I suspect a real repair shop would have broken this if they went to replace the wiper motor.

4) I found lots of grease on the contacts, making me believe that this is the correct fix. I threw some of the grease back on the worm gear. Photo of wiper motor circuit board here:

http://imgur.com/dXnM1Db

[caverdave]

Brilliant fix for my Z4 wipers after 3 years of intermittent faults! My wipers were resistant to removal too. I sprayed with WD40, levered up gently with a spanner, and tapped the bolt with a hammer - gently. The wipers popped off a treat. 1 hour tops. Huge thanks for the clear explanation.

[300kplus]

Hi,

If you're wipers suffer from either of the following symptoms, then you should follow this walkthrough to fix them:[*]When the wipers stop on intermittent or single wipe they go slightly back up again before they actually stop.[*]When operating on continuous movement they suddenly stop for no reason and don't start working again for a few mins or until you turn the ignition off and on again.
Mine is a 2004 2.5i Z4 - a friend with exactly the same year/spec car has also just completed the following fix. Someone else I heard took it to a dealer in the US and got charged $300 for them NOT even to fix it!! They even told the dealer about the fix below and they didn't listen.

I found this post to help get me started but thought I would do a full write up as I did it today: http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewto...&sd=a&start=15

This takes about an hour to complete and is an easy fix.

STEP 1
-------
Lift the bonnet and pull off the two plastic caps of the wiper arm ends where they join the body.

STEP 2
-------
Undo the two nuts holding the wiper arms on





STEP 3
-------
Jiggle the wiper arms about a bit and then lift off when they become free

STEP 4
-------
Pull up the rubber seal between the wiper area and the engine bay.



STEP 5
-------
Undo the 4 plastic screws holding the large plastic wiper motor area cover - you will also need to ease out the plastic lugs the hold his on in the same 4 places once the screws are out. Its best to use a thin flat blade rather than a cross-head screwdriver as the plastic is fairly soft and it will grip better - two of them require having the screwdriver at an angle - it will look odd but it will work.

STEP 6
-------
First of all - on the right hand side, pull the plastic cable tube out of the two clips (you will see one in the 3rd image in the last step) - this enables you to then lift the whole plastic cover off that is hiding the wiper motor area - note there are several plastic lugs holding it on at the edge nearest the windscreen - just lift fairly hard and they will come away



STEP 7
-------
Undo the two hex screws holding the whole wiper unit on (they are T30 size).. Don't worry about undoing these.. it may look drastic but its very easy to put back together again!

STEP 8
-------
Release the white plastic catch thats holding the middle part in by the motor. The easiest way to do this is to jiggle the whole mechanism and push the right hand side of the white clip towards the windscreen - you will see it needs to push past a little notch before it comes upwards.

STEP 9
-------
The whole wiper motor and arms unit should now be free to bring upwards out of the recessed area - there is no need to unplug it. However, when lifting upwards bring the edge nearest the windscreen upwards and over so that it actually ends up upside down resting on the edge of the engine bay - you should be looking at the bottom of the motor and gearing as in the image in the next step.

STEP 10
--------
Undo the 6 hex screws holding the gearing housing back on (These are T20 size). Again, don't worry - it may look drastic but its very easy to put back together again!

STEP 11
--------
Lift the backing plate of the gearing housing off... it may feel a bit tight to begin with but it comes off fairly easily. Watch you don't lose the seal in this following image:

You should now see the inside of the gearing.

You will see if you look closely that there is likely to be a grease trail in the gap between the two ends of the metal contacts (highlighted by the arrows below) - This shouldn't be there and its what is causing the problem. When the contacts on the housing cover you just took off go to this area it should stop - but the grease is making the electrical contact continue - hence the odd wiper movements.

STEP 12
--------
With a cloth - clean all the grease from the area in the gap. I also cleaned it from the whole top of the contact area and it didn't seem to have a detrimental effect.

STEP 13
--------
Right - job done... now you've cleaned the grease away, everything should be fine.

Time to put everything back together again in the opposite order from above. Don't forget to make sure the gear housing seal is correctly seated when putting it back together.

I hope this works for you as it did for me and a friend.

Regards

Chris

Hey I noticed this isn't for an E39 I have a 98 540 I... My problem is high gear on the wipers is gone I have no high-speed I have everything else... any ideas thoughts on this? Oh you going to come back

[craig48]

You can use a battery terminal puller to remove the wiper arms. No adhesive required for reinstallation. ISTR the torque for the nut is 13 ft-lbs.

I used this procedure to fix the wipers on our 2003 Z4 about six months ago. I not only cleaned the contact pad but on the opposite side there are 2 sets of contact points which were very dirty. They have been working fine and I can't thank the OP and others enough for saving me many $$$$.
The hardest part of doing this job was trying to get the wiper arms off. I first purchased a wiper arm puller with a side opening and turning knob which would not fit the BMW wiper arms. I then ordered my wiper arm/battery terminal puller from Amazon which had jaws that spread open. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This worked very well but I did have to use a pair of pliers to turn the "T" type handle.

[Tungsten zero]

Hi,

If you're wipers suffer from either of the following symptoms, then you should follow this walkthrough to fix them:

1. When the wipers stop on intermittent or single wipe they go slightly back up again before they actually stop.
2. When operating on continuous movement they suddenly stop for no reason and don't start working again for a few mins or until you turn the ignition off and on again.

Mine is a 2004 2.5i Z4 - a friend with exactly the same year/spec car has also just completed the following fix. Someone else I heard took it to a dealer in the US and got charged $300 for them NOT even to fix it!! They even told the dealer about the fix below and they didn't listen.

I found this post to help get me started but thought I would do a full write up as I did it today: http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=685&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15

This takes about an hour to complete and is an easy fix.

STEP 1
-------
Lift the bonnet and pull off the two plastic caps of the wiper arm ends where they join the body.





STEP 2
-------
Undo the two nuts holding the wiper arms on





STEP 3
-------
Jiggle the wiper arms about a bit and then lift off when they become free



STEP 4
-------
Pull up the rubber seal between the wiper area and the engine bay.



STEP 5
-------
Undo the 4 plastic screws holding the large plastic wiper motor area cover - you will also need to ease out the plastic lugs the hold his on in the same 4 places once the screws are out. Its best to use a thin flat blade rather than a cross-head screwdriver as the plastic is fairly soft and it will grip better - two of them require having the screwdriver at an angle - it will look odd but it will work.











STEP 6
-------
First of all - on the right hand side, pull the plastic cable tube out of the two clips (you will see one in the 3rd image in the last step) - this enables you to then lift the whole plastic cover off that is hiding the wiper motor area - note there are several plastic lugs holding it on at the edge nearest the windscreen - just lift fairly hard and they will come away






STEP 7
-------
Undo the two hex screws holding the whole wiper unit on (they are T30 size).. Don't worry about undoing these.. it may look drastic but its very easy to put back together again!





STEP 8
-------
Release the white plastic catch thats holding the middle part in by the motor. The easiest way to do this is to jiggle the whole mechanism and push the right hand side of the white clip towards the windscreen - you will see it needs to push past a little notch before it comes upwards.



STEP 9
-------
The whole wiper motor and arms unit should now be free to bring upwards out of the recessed area - there is no need to unplug it. However, when lifting upwards bring the edge nearest the windscreen upwards and over so that it actually ends up upside down resting on the edge of the engine bay - you should be looking at the bottom of the motor and gearing as in the image in the next step.


STEP 10
--------
Undo the 6 hex screws holding the gearing housing back on (These are T20 size). Again, don't worry - it may look drastic but its very easy to put back together again!



STEP 11
--------
Lift the backing plate of the gearing housing off... it may feel a bit tight to begin with but it comes off fairly easily. Watch you don't lose the seal in this following image:



You should now see the inside of the gearing.

You will see if you look closely that there is likely to be a grease trail in the gap between the two ends of the metal contacts (highlighted by the arrows below) - This shouldn't be there and its what is causing the problem. When the contacts on the housing cover you just took off go to this area it should stop - but the grease is making the electrical contact continue - hence the odd wiper movements.



STEP 12
--------
With a cloth - clean all the grease from the area in the gap. I also cleaned it from the whole top of the contact area and it didn't seem to have a detrimental effect.




STEP 13
--------
Right - job done... now you've cleaned the grease away, everything should be fine.

Time to put everything back together again in the opposite order from above. Don't forget to make sure the gear housing seal is correctly seated when putting it back together.

I hope this works for you as it did for me and a friend.

Regards

Chris

Worked perfect for me, only problem I had was extracting the small plastic screws, solved it by heating the tip of the slotted screwdriver with a lighter and melting the tip of the screw driver into the screw cap making my own screw slots.

[Rob R]

Took me 4 hours due to difficulties getting the wiper Arms off and one of the mechanism bolts. The 4 cowling screws are a pain because the head is a soft plastic which makes getting a grip to unscrew very tricky. However, persevere if you have these issues because it works ! At least it did for me and I thank the original poster for his efforts in sharing the information. Thanks again !!

[pcnorton]

Quick tip to get wipers off. Nylon strap behind the wiper at the bolt and pull, pops right off.


Paul Norton