Citroen Relay wipers fault

[pogo001]

Hi.
I couldn't find a descent Relay van forum, and as I am a member on here for cars, thought ide ask here.

I fitted a new wiper motor 6 months ago to my 2008 Relay 2.2 hdi van, and they have been working ok. Today, I noticed that if I use any stalk position except fast, the wipers move, stop, move stop, bit by bit, all very spurious movements. If I put them on fast, they work. If I hold the flick position, they work. They wont park. So, the motor must be working ok. Can anyone shed any light on this problem?
Cheers

[elma]

Check the captive nut at the bottom of the arm first, they can work loose. It's nice if it's something simple like that.

[pogo001]

Do you mean the wiper arm nuts? I will, but doubt both have loosened exactly the same. Also, I lifted the arms, and the motors not turning as it should.

[GiveMeABreak]

2 Possibilities that come to mind:
A) Comms Unit under the steering wheel controls that is faulty, or B) the wiper motor / ECU is playing up. Can't tell which, if any of these it may be, but if you post up your VIN I may be able to rule out one, the other or both!

[elma]

That is what I meant, I had not understood the problem fully. Marcs suggestion now sounds far more plausible.

[pogo001]

The VIN is VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]. The linkage is ok, I leaned and greased when I changed the motor a few months ago, and the arms are easy to move by hand.

[GiveMeABreak]

The VIN is VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]. The linkage is ok, I leaned and greased when I changed the motor a few months ago, and the arms are easy to move by hand.

Very unlikely to be mechanical - electrical most likely is the issue - now Sod's law, Citroen Service is down at the moment, but I've had a look at my offline system and and this has a 'multifunction control unit' there under the steering wheel, albeit different to others I have seen. So it is a possibility that the contacts on the wiper stalk control could be worn.

I can't see an ECU on the wiper motor or assembly anywhere and there is no mention of a master / slave system that I can see - seems pretty basic, So next I tried to look at the wiring diagram, but unfortunately, like the Nemo, there is always a problem getting the RPO number on the commercial vehicles from the system. I have the warranty start date, but the wiring diagrams database needs an RPO number which I don't have. Can you determine if there is one anywhere? On the cars it's normally on the central pillar with the paint code and tyre pressures etc. Without this I can guess, but is may not be accurate with all the combinations of these vans there are!

[pogo001]

What is an RPO number? Ill look tomorrow in the light. Is it likely to be labelled as such?

Although the wipers work on flick and fast, they will not self park. The van has done about 100k miles. Do you think worn contacts could be the problem? I haven't had any problems until yesterday since changing the motor. It would be my imagination however, but last few weeks, they seemed a little slow until the van had run a while. I put this more down to battery/ charging potential problem rather than wiper problem.

[GiveMeABreak]

The RPO is the build date. If you can, just locate the tyre pressures label and take a picture if you like. That should help.

[Hell Razor5543]

Tee RPO number will be four or five numbers long, followed by two letters (although one factory has the code 81). The numbers are the count from a certain date (1st January 1980), so will give you the date the car started its' life, while the letters are the factory code. Here is the Citroen date calculator;

http://www.citroen-ds-id.com/gen/Gen_Organr.html

It also shows you where you can find the RPO number on various models.

[pogo001]

Ok cheers.
I will look tomorrow, but according to that link, the citroen Jumper (as its called here in France) or Relay in the UK was built in Italy and doesn't have the number on the body. Ill see what I can find.

[GiveMeABreak]

Maybe not, as I suspected. The commercials are slightly different. If you can't find one, I'll improvise to get an near date code.

[xantia_v6]

Looking at the wiring diagram for the Boxer, which I presume is the same, the electronics are in the switch. The motor assembly does contain 2 relays, one controlling the power, the other controlling the speed, I would suspect that the low speed contacts of the speed control relay may have failed, this would probably also prevent parking, as it is done at low speed.

Thinking a bit more, it is a 3 brush motor, with one common common brush, one for low speed and one for high speed. I think that the low speed brush is either worn out or sticking in its holder. If you open the motor up, you will see 2 brushes opposite each other. These are the common and low speed brushes. The high speed brush is the third, and the low speed brush is the one nearest the high speed brush.

[pogo001]

Ide hope its not a case of wear after 6 months lol. Luckily, it is dry and cold at the moment, so hopefully fix it before rain.

[GiveMeABreak]

That's one reason why I didn't think it to be motor related, as I assumed it was a new unit and not used? 6 months would be way too early for a failure as you say.