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Front windscreen wipers not working while stationery ???

Posted: Sun May 07, 2023 8:08 pm
by BlackSwan83
Hi all and thanks in advance for your replies.

Last week i purchased a 2019 vw polo 1.0 tsi.
While in the car park shopping it had rained but could not get the wipers to work with ignition off, ignition on and engine started.
I was worried a fuse was blown or worse but once i started driving forward they worked again.

Is this by design or a fault or setting? It seems mad i should have to drive forward a bit with limited screen view to activate the wipers?
The car has only 9000 miles on and came from dealership.

Kind regards Sam

Re: Front windscreen wipers not working while stationery ???

Posted: Mon May 08, 2023 12:08 pm
by J+silva
My does the same.

Re: Front windscreen wipers not working while stationery ???

Posted: Mon May 08, 2023 4:41 pm
by grazuncle2
I have the same model/year.

The wipers work fine with just ignition.

Re: Front windscreen wipers not working while stationery ???

Posted: Mon May 08, 2023 5:01 pm
by SRGTD
BlackSwan83 wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 8:08 pm Hi all and thanks in advance for your replies.

Last week i purchased a 2019 vw polo 1.0 tsi.
While in the car park shopping it had rained but could not get the wipers to work with ignition off, ignition on and engine started.
I was worried a fuse was blown or worse but once i started driving forward they worked again.

Is this by design or a fault or setting? It seems mad i should have to drive forward a bit with limited screen view to activate the wipers?
The car has only 9000 miles on and came from dealership.

Kind regards Sam
What position do you have the wiper stalk in.
  • first position is the rain sensitive / intermittent position
  • second position is the slower of two continuous speeds
  • third position is the faster of the two continuous speeds.
There’s also;
  • a single flick wipe function; press down on the wiper stalk; the wipers will perform a single sweep and the wiper stalk will move back to the ‘off’ position.
  • a switch on top of the wiper stalk to adjust the sensitivity of the rain sensitive / intermittent setting.
When you were parked up with the ignition on, if you had the wiper stalk in the first (rain sensitive / intermittent) position and on the least sensitive setting, then there’s a good chance the wipers wouldn’t sweep across the screen unless it was raining quite hard - hard enough for the rain sensor to detect rain on the screen (hope that makes sense). If you had the wiper stalk in the second or third position, then it sounds as if they may not be working correctly.