I had to switch off the car’s ignition just to stop the wipers.
BHPian ashivas89 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I have been facing a weird issue in my car since the rains hit BLR. Wipers started to come on randomly even in parking garages. Initially, I thought it could be the rain sensor picking up on random water droplets, but no, not the case. It still occurred when it had been bone dry for 2 days straight + after my disabling auto wipers in-car settings. Although I have been unable to reproduce it, I suspect that it happens whenever I hit a modular bolted-on speed breaker or rumble strip.
Has anyone faced this and been able to reproduce it and fix it? let’s compare notes, please…
Update 1:
The problem has gotten really bad and reproducible now.
Symptoms:
- The wipers do not respond to my varying speed in the intermittent setting, they run at the lowest non-intermittent speed. They respond to the higher speed settings though.
- Sharp expansion joins and speed breakers in parking lots trigger the wipers. I need to try different combinations of flicking the stalk to get them to stop. Worst case I need to stop the car on the side of the road switch the ignition off and restart the car in order for the wipers to stop.
I found one video where the chap diagnoses a related issue for a last-gen Polo systematically.
I am planning on driving the car to the ASC in a week or two to get this sorted. Hopefully, the fix is as simple as replacing the stalk module.
I will post an update on the outcome.
Update 2:
The problem got really out of hand on Saturday. Every time I would engage the wipe function, the wipers would come in full swing and not turn off until I turned off the ignition.
Imagine the pain of this happening on a day interspersed with drizzle.
This is apparently not uncommon on VAG cars (just google the issue). It is hilarious that known issues continue to exist for years in VAG products. Do not buy these cars until their USP (confidence-inspiring driving dynamics, snappy gear shifts, engines that deliver more than what is promised on paper, ASMR-inducing door shut sounds and most importantly safety) and your priorities are perfectly aligned. Not a peaceful ownership experience.
Therefore, I gave up, cancelled my plans, took an appointment and drove the car straight to the ASC on Sunday. The Service Advisor took a look at the issue along with the floor in charge. Since the issue was so reproducible, both readily admitted that a warranty claim had to be made. They requested me to bring the car back in on a weekday so that there is minimal lead time in raising a warranty claim and also the master technician is only available on weekdays.
I did precisely that. Drove the car back in on Monday morning, handed it over and went to work. Thirty minutes later the SA created a WhatsApp group with the CRM and floor in charge and added me to it + created a running repair ticket and sent me a link to approve it. The link also contained a video of the car’s interiors, exteriors, engine bay and the problem being reproduced.
I had requested the SA to provide regular updates and he has been doing exactly that.
2 hours later, the master technician diagnosed the issue as being a major fault with the wiper stalk module (as suspected). They then raised a claim with Skoda. I was then told that it would take a day until they received a recommendation from Skoda HQ as to how to proceed. Meanwhile, the SA accommodated my request to store the car indoors with all the windows shut.
This morning I got a call again saying that Skoda has approved the replacement of the stalk module that the part is on its way and that the car will likely be returned on Friday.
Sensing my disappointment, he offered to reassemble the steering and return the car to me. I decided that it was too much of a hassle to collect the car on Tuesday evening, only to return it to them on Thursday and collect it back again on Friday.
I plan on doing a surprise visit to see the state of my car this evening.
Update 3: The issue seems to be fixed!!
Communicated with the CRM (the SA was on leave) and arrived at the SC this afternoon.
I was shown that the stalk assy./combination switch was replaced. Checked if it works as intended and it did.
They had also taken care of some “campaign” items like the driver-side window rollback bug fix, airbag-related software update and replacing the original owner’s manual with a new updated one.
I then had to wait for about 45 minutes for a “warranty procedure” to be concluded.
Since the steering wheel had to be removed from the spline to get to the combination switch, I insisted that I wanted to test drive the car and see if it tracked straight and true after reassembly before signing on the dotted line.
The wheel was listing ever so slightly towards the left while driving straight. The Floor In charge who accompanied me also drove the car and admitted that the angle was off.
He proposed wheel alignment, but I flat-out refused and asked him to have the steering wheel spline joint checked.
As suspected they had not installed the wheel correctly. It is very easy to misalign the steering wheel when sliding it onto the spline although there is usually a marking pointing towards the right orientation. The alignment was off by one gear tooth of the spline.
After fixing this, we went out on another test drive, nothing felt out of place and I finally took delivery of the car.
Got the car washed at a proper car wash place and got the interior surfaces foam cleaned and vacuumed for good measure ( I never get our cars cleaned at ASCs).
Takeaways:
- While a practically new car has no business having such gremlins, props to the team at Raja Skoda ASC Mahadevapura (Whitefield, BLR) for being mostly professional, very courteous and accommodating of all my requests (being careful about where they park my car, keeping the windows rolled up, etc.)
- They were attentive and open to nearly every suggestion from me and acted on my inputs swiftly (especially the steering wheel issue).
Here’s to hoping that nothing else crops during the rest of my ownership.
Keyword: Why my Slavia's wipers wouldn't turn off: Here's how it got fixed!