UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi all,

On Friday evening my front wipers started to come on by themselves without even touching or moving the stalk. The car does not have a rain sensor or automatic wiper option so its not that. Even when moving the wiper stalk up to any of the other options and back to the off position the wiper continues like its on the first option which is intermittent and does not stop but the fast and moderate options work fine.

Yesterday it only happened once but today the first issue was the fault was still present but then suddenly they would not work on any setting and then 5 min later they worked fine but then would not turn off.

Having a quick google around people with similar issues say its a common issue and the wiper stalk and indicator stalk needs to be replaced as its whole one unit. Is this correct? and would the steering wheel and airbag need to come off? Cant see it being the relay or fuse as they sometimes work.

The car has only done just under 30k miles so would not expect the part to fail so soon would you and the Car is out of warranty since May this year.

Its the 3rd issue with the car so far in 12 months. First was the DRL not working from new and then the AC system packed up.

I have an extra 3rd party warranty which I can use at VW and non VW garages as long as they are VAT registered. I have a regular garage that I normally use so was going to pop the car into them tomorrow as I just don't fancy dealing with the VW dealer again as they seem to talk themselves out all the warranty work and it was a battle last time with them.

Another issue is I have a 400 mile round trip in next week to do and cant risk driving with it like that not knowing if it will suddenly stop.

Thanks

If you are going to replace the stalks you have to remove the airbag, steering and slip ring. The stalks are on both sides are one unit afaik.

Do you have a 6R or a 6C Polo?

If you have a 6C, I have seen this guide on how to open and clean up the contacts for the wiper blade stalks.

https://youtu.be/w4CWH5p5VWM

I don't know if you have time and will to try to fix the existing part, versus replacing the unit.

Sent from my MI 5 using Tapatalk

The wiper stalk controls were an issue for similar aged Skoda Fabia in the past so I'd think that it is a stalk contact issue.

This nonsense with small bits of contact material coming off and sticking to the stalk lubricant and eventually causing a contact bridge to form has being going on with VW Group for over 20 years - probably because they are still using the same parts manufacturers now as they did back then!

Edit:-early on, it was only the indicators that used to give trouble and some people managed to "wash" the problem away using switch cleaner spray without taking any parts off, though maybe in this case the troublesome area is enclosed a bit more.