Citroen C5 X7 Windscreen Wipers

[Gastomato]

Hallo from Norway

Have been frequenting this forum off- and on for the last years, finding help and info on small and big issues with my C5 X7.
Want to thank everyone contributing for the wealth of info on this site!

This is my first post. - I like the quote from John Cleese that goes "We have a Day here... it's called summer" - Nothing could be more true regarding climate where I live, here on the northwestern part of Norway. The last weeks have been a blaze of snow, horizontal and vertical.

In the middle of this, the wipers on our families C5 stops working.

My wife was driving in whiteout conditions with our two boys in the back, wipers scuffling away the snow and then suddenly the left side (driver) wiper stops short- just barely lifting. It only judders upwards not going anywhere. The right wiper (pass.) is doing nothing. Luckily, it happened as she was about to drive into a local gas station. So the speed was low, and she was able to park the car safely. Phew!

Have been reading the thread here, and want to check if my car is part of the wiper recall as mentioned- that would have been something!
The VIN for my car is: VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]

I have a Citroen dealer in the neighbouring town as well as a local enthusiast that I think has got the diagnostic tools needed.
I am also looking into the most affordable way of purchasing an original spec wiper motor(s). I see these from Valeo comes up- are these OEM or original spec?

(Not a direct link below, just the part number)

VALEO 582659
VALEO 582660

Cheers, thanks again for any help!
-Idar

[GiveMeABreak]

Hi Idar

I have checked the 2 relevant recalls (1 being a faulty windscreen trim that can come away and the other being failure of one of the windscreen motors), but none of these apply to your vehicle as they were only relevant for vehicles that were built in 2009. Yours was built 6th January 2010.

As for the parts, please see below:

(1) Front Right Wiper Motor, part: 6405KZ, £430.02
(2) Front Left Wiper Motor, part: 6405LC, £430.02

Prices are of course UK which include our VAT @ 20%, so just to give you an idea.

There are some in France:

https://eurofrance24.com/wiper-motor-ri ... 69512.html


But at least with the correct part numbers, you can do some research.

[mypinknee]

Hi find issue to fix wiper motor .when open bottom cover ,with pcb and gear ,on motor spindle find magnet which moving axial when wiper not work . find this magnet must fix and not moving . I apply a drop super glue to fix this part to motor spindle on position where blue line go in green line in picture . ,when faulty magnet part moving axially show in by yellow arrow . After this intervention wiper work fine again , don't forget to seal cover .
Moderator note: Click photo ↑ to enlarge, to see marked detail

Sorry to be dim, but I cannot work out where the magnet is. Is this a picture of the inside of the actual wiper motor?

I took the offside unit out greased and cleaned the wiper shaft and link - as per the excellent video posted by rust&oil ( During the process I could not see anything that might give access to this magnet. Anyway the motor seems fine in that it does a full sweep. It is the nearside that only moves a tiny bit. Is this a motor (as in) mechanical problem - in other words get a new wiper motor, or is it an electronic management problem? There seems to be terrific confusion over which is which. The arm only moves about 25º Which isn't enough for a full sweep of the screen.

Would anybody care to make a guess as to whether the problem is the motor, a magnet somewhere I cannot find, or the electronic control?

[mypinknee]

Hi find issue to fix wiper motor .when open bottom cover ,with pcb and gear ,on motor spindle find magnet which moving axial when wiper not work . find this magnet must fix and not moving . I apply a drop super glue to fix this part to motor spindle on position where blue line go in green line in picture . ,when faulty magnet part moving axially show in by yellow arrow . After this intervention wiper work fine again , don't forget to seal cover .
Moderator note: Click photo ↑ to enlarge, to see marked detail

Sorry to be dim, but I cannot work out where the magnet is. Is this a picture of the inside of the actual wiper motor?

I took the offside unit out greased and cleaned the wiper shaft and link - as per the excellent video posted by rust&oil ( During the process I could not see anything that might give access to this magnet. Anyway the motor seems fine in that it does a full sweep. It is the nearside that only moves a tiny bit. Is this a motor (as in) mechanical problem - in other words get a new wiper motor, or is it an electronic management problem? There seems to be terrific confusion over which is which. The arm only moves about 25º Which isn't enough for a full sweep of the screen.

Would anybody care to make a guess as to whether the problem is the motor, a magnet somewhere I cannot find, or the electronic control?

I think I have just found the answer which tells me where the magnet is! Here:- viewtopic.php?t=59504&start=15

[mypinknee]

Still trying to solve my problem. The righthand wiper sometimes works - sometimes not. I bought a replacement lefthand wiper with the part number shown on the diagram in another post here. 53569612 (see photo) Took out the motor that was there and found it had the same part number as the driver's side 53570912. Anyway I put the replacement one in and it does not seem to work.
While I was trying to fix the things I took out the sometimes working driver's side motor and looked at the magnet in there, I moved it to the position shown elsewhere in discussions about C5X7 wiper motors and glued it. Put it all back together, re-installed it and it works okay. I have not given it a long test to see if it sometimes doesn't work - as that feature is quite random.
Oh and just for good measure I did a BSI reset - which didn't change anything!
Since the part number is the same on my nearside wiper motor as the driver's side I have thought I could just try swapping them over to see if that tells me anything! My existing nearside wiper arm moves about 5º - I don't know what that means. Should I try checking the magnet in there too?

[Estately]

Hi,
Just to add my 5 penny worth, the part numbers off the black motor cover for our C5 X7 exclusive are 53579012 and 53571012 but sorry not sure which is driver's or passenger side. The date is March 2013, it is a 2013 plate car. The cover does not have Valeo cast into it as shown on your photo.
I assumed that the electrical connections were not interchangeable or given the master and slave - if they did physically plug in, would not work.

However I do think that it is worth popping the "C" clip off the wiper shaft, examining it with a view to cleaning it up and re packing with grease to ensure that any mechanical resistance is kept to a minimum. Similarly keep the well under nut that holds the wiper arm free from debris.

After re greasing both motors and moving and thread locking the passenger side magnet all worked as expected.
The motors continued to work on a daily basis and have now been tested during a 4 hour run in sleet snow and spray on the way to Newhaven where the wipers were running at higher speeds. We also ran into extended periods of very heavy rain in France with no wiper issues. Fingers crossed they continue to work ok.

Hope that helps.
Andy.

[mypinknee]

Hi,
Just to add my 5 penny worth, the part numbers off the black motor cover for our C5 X7 exclusive are 53579012 and 53571012 but sorry not sure which is driver's or passenger side. The date is March 2013, it is a 2013 plate car. The cover does not have Valeo cast into it as shown on your photo.
I assumed that the electrical connections were not interchangeable or given the master and slave - if they did physically plug in, would not work.

However I do think that it is worth popping the "C" clip off the wiper shaft, examining it with a view to cleaning it up and re packing with grease to ensure that any mechanical resistance is kept to a minimum. Similarly keep the well under nut that holds the wiper arm free from debris.

After re greasing both motors and moving and thread locking the passenger side magnet all worked as expected.
The motors continued to work on a daily basis and have now been tested during a 4 hour run in sleet snow and spray on the way to Newhaven where the wipers were running at higher speeds. We also ran into extended periods of very heavy rain in France with no wiper issues. Fingers crossed they continue to work ok.

Hope that helps.
Andy.

Thank you - it all helps. I will investigate that magnet and grease the wiper shaft. It is odd that it moves just a few degrees as if it is getting a signal, so maybe the magnet is slipping. I found it really hard to remove the so-called non-serviceable cover on the driver's side, but once inside I found the circuit board was as clean as could be. The place where the wiper motors sit is a real dirt collector. I've been cleaning them out for years! I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks.

[Stickyfinger]

I have a pair of wiper motors.....the Slave is good, the Main has a "problem"....but it has NOT been wet inside.

[mypinknee]

Thank you - it all helps. I will investigate that magnet and grease the wiper shaft. It is odd that it moves just a few degrees as if it is getting a signal, so maybe the magnet is slipping. I found it really hard to remove the so-called non-serviceable cover on the driver's side, but once inside I found the circuit board was as clean as could be. The place where the wiper motors sit is a real dirt collector. I've been cleaning them out for years! I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks.

Update.......I have now super glued magnets in both motors and after a BSI reset both wipers now work! I think the small amount of movement I was getting on the nearside motor was entirely due to the magnet slipping and therefore misaligned. I found warming the sealed unit where the magnet is located with a hairdryer made it easier to separate the part.
Thanks for everyone's help.

[Gastomato]

Just want to chime in and say thanks for the help! Wipers are now working well

I got a new left hand side wiper motor off a french seller on ebay for about 200 euros, with some added sales tax to the Norwegian government of course

I was anxious about changing it myself, not being technically inclined, but after reading through the various threads on this subject here on the forum I finally "manned" my self up as they say here and got to it.

I would say that just doing a clean wiper motor replacement on a Citroen c5 x7 is absolutely within reach for most of us. If you can follow the directions given, and have the tools available. Cheers! Now on to the next fix...

[GiveMeABreak]

Thanks for the update.

[bumpy001]

Hello all,

First time posting here although as with many others Ive read plenty already.
Also in common ive just had the dreaded wiper system faliure. In hindsight it started in the cold weather with an instance of the passenger wiper being lazy one morning despite wiper being released from frozen screen prior to operation. Yesterday had second instance - after a week of no use of car but a lot of rain, we had no wipers at all. Wiper control stork feels fine, dash board 'auto wiper' message normal, washers operate normally so we know where this is going.
My plan, check battery voltage, fuse and then do the BSI reset .....grasping at straws but have to try the easy.
C5 is registered in Sept 2009 so I should do the recall check, is there an official way to do this?

Then onwards to taking it apart, I can't see it getting new wiper motors - in insurance terms that would be a right off despite its realtive low mileage.
Seems from the excellent contributions above some attention to the existing wiper motors might be worth the effort.


Thanks,
bmp.

[GiveMeABreak]

Will need your VIN to determine if it is in the affected vehicle range. Please post your VIN in full without spaces - it will be automatically masked from public view after submitting your post & will only be visible to staff.

[bumpy001]

Will need your VIN to determine if it is in the affected vehicle range. Please post your VIN in full without spaces - it will be automatically masked from public view after submitting your post & will only be visible to staff.

Hi Marc,
Thank you for taking the time to reply, and offer to check V.I.N. for recall. I've subsequently seen some rules of the forum, I'll get to donations shortly.

Here's my VIN: VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]

Turns out RH wiper has some life in it, LH none. I left the wiper stalk in high speed wipe mode when I walked away from it last, frustration I suppose. Away, started the car this evening, RH wiper did a 3/4 sweep before it realised the LH wiper was continuing its hissy fit
I'd do vehicIe scan if I had the kit but for now I'll have to continue with my belief its the LH wiper motor at fault.

Thanks,
Byron.

[GiveMeABreak]

Ok, so I have checked and I can't put the prefix of the VIN here as you won't be able to see it (masked), so I've just used the last 8 which is all you need to see that your vehicle is outside the recall range:

Affected VINS were From 9L518753 to 9L541864

Yours is 9L553718