Windscreen wipers won't turn off

[albert_j]

I have a Polo 2016 and when I got in my car today my wipers were on constant and I could not turn them off. The stalk is in the off position but they will not stop going. I've tried just turning off the car with the stalk off etc but they will not stop.

The stock still "works" in the sense I can use washer fluid and enable the back one.

Weirdly; if I stop in the car in traffic they slow down significantly, and when the car is in reverse the back one starts.

Any help with this would be appreciated

[RUM4MO]

Normally, it seems that the weakest part in the wiper system on these cars is the stalks.

If you had VCDS or similar, you could check to see if this problem showed up in "output testing" - ie if the stalk input changed when the stalk was moved from OFF to ON.

Edit:- never be fooled into thinking that as the rear wiper works in reverse (that just means that the controller thinks that the front wipers have been switched one, or the washers both work okay, that it is not a stalk failure.

[Tracendaz]

The front wipers slow down by one stage when the car stops in traffic. So if the wipers are on fast they go to slow when stopped, if on slow they go to intermittent etc, and then resume when the car moves away again. It is the same on our VW up, although we hadn't spotted it until someone pointed it out on the VW up forum.

[albert_j]

Just for anyone finding this post - took it to a garage who found out it was the wiper stalk, £222 for parts and labour.