BMW 520i Touring E61 2010 windshield wiper not working and fixed

[sebastianzhang]

This forum has helped me many times, it's time for me to share some experiences to help others.

I am living in Finland, the whether is pretty cold, I got a BMW 520i Touring E61 2010, 2 weeks ago I found the front windshield wiper stop working. Quickly checked fuse F16 in the front glove box, it was good. My scanner does find problem in the wiper drive system. p11.jpgFrom some hints in this forum, I managed to check the relay. p7.jpg20200429_201948.jpgAll my electrical knowledge has went back to high school, so I watched lots of videos, thanks Youtube.

The relay seems working after test. then next step is to check the wiper motor. It did take me 2 weeks to figure out how to take the motor out and check it. The most steps can be found in this link, https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...eplacement.htm. I have skipped from 13 to 18, as I can just get motor out without took the arms out. p18.jpgp17.jpg I borrowed a special pulling tool to get the block inn the fig 10 out, you definitely need it.

Took off the gear cover, no signs of wear and tear, no damage. I cleaned contacts and put cover back, tested use a DC power supply. Based on the wiring diagram contact 1 for "-" contact 3 or contact 4 for "+" but motor has no movement. then I tried to connect contact 3 for "-" and contact 4 for "+", the motor runs continuously. Seems the motor is working somehow. So I decided to connect motor to the car tried to use the car switch, but the motor only moved once then stop moving afterwards, no matter how I tried.

Lots posts in this forum suggests motor could be replaced. But I want to try one more thing. I disassembled the motor, (the black cover with magnetic). However when I pull the shaft out there are 3 contacts dis-positioned from the rotor, it is damn hard to put the shaft back, but i figured out how. Anyway , nothing seems wrong inside motor, moved some wire connection.

So i put motor back together, hook on the power supply, this time the motor works with connection between 1 and 3, also works between 1 and 4. one is high speed , one is low speed. So I guess it must be the contacts inside motor, maybe it was dirty , maybe it was something else. I don't know. Now it seems working, I reinstalled everything back, did few running checks between steps, wiper works on 3 different modes every time.

Finally the wiper works as before, I only spent 10 Euro just to get some windshield rain repellent stuffs so I can still drive a bit in case of raining without wiper, because I took the wipers out for more than 2 weeks.

I can only insert 5 pictures here. more pictures and videos to follow.

thanks for reading this post, I hope it helps.

[sebastianzhang]

Annotation 2020-05-11 205804.pngAnnotation 2020-05-11 205803.png20200511_210109.jpg20200509_222931.jpg

[sebastianzhang]

not sure how to add videos
here are some test i have done

[pbonsalb]

I recently had the linkage break at the drivers side wiper. Apparently this is common and there is a repair kit to replace the broken rivet. The repair kit is sold by someone in the UK and I did not want to wait so I bought a new wiper arm assembly.

Not sure what I will do if I have motor problems, but If I decide to take it apart I will look at those contacts. On other cars, I have had magnets come loose and re-epoxied them. The motor sounds terrible if a magnet comes loose.

[sebastianzhang]

Just hoping those problem will never happen again.