100 Rear wash/wipe

[rob hod]

    Just to report that I've fixed it. Funny how things are much easier to
fix in daylight after a good nights sleep and a ponder.
 It turned out to be nothing more than the column switch. I took the top off
the original relay to see if it was visually ok inside
which it was. Then I fitted in its socket and with the ignition on I
manually pressed the relay lever arm. The washer and wiper
sprang into life, - Huzzah!. Then I turned my attention to the coloumn
switch. I found the fused feed to the switch and with a length of wire and a
deep breath bridged it to the wire feeding the relay. Another success. I
gave the switch and multiway plug a good dousing in switch cleaner, left it
to dry and recinnected and hey presto!. I must admit that I was surprised
that it was the switch as every single other function on the coloumn stalk
was working perfectly, goes to show you can assume nothing in these cases,
maybe the problem was in the plug connection rather than the switch itself.

 Looking back I found myself wondering why this was the last thing I
checked, then I remembered. - the previous owner had sent it into the main
dealer to fix this and a couple of other problems. The invoice that came
back said, and I quote verbatim "Investigated rear wiper fault. Fault found
with wiring loom. Requires stripping for further investigation" What a load
of BS that was. These were the same people who ran up a £200 bill for
investigating a poor starting problem and missed an ignition coil connected
the wrong way round.

    Just for the record I thought I'd list a few things I found out along
the way in case it helps someone else sometime;

    Avant rear wash wipe;

    The circuit is not listed anywhere in the Haynes manual for the 100. In
my manual for the 80/90 and coupe I found it listed, but with different
wiring colours. This is what I found on my '88 2.0E 100;
     Two fuses are involved in the circuit. Fuse 15 supplies current to the
column switch, which has a push and hold to activate the washer pump and
activate the wiper relay. The feed from switch to relay is green and yellow
and goes to the L connection on the relay and on to the washer pump which
only operates when the switch is held down-. The relay is listed as J31 and
is located on the aux. relay board under the rh dash behind the parcel
shelf.  The second fuse (18) gives the power feed to the relay on
blue/white(8/15) and continues to the tailgate to provide the self parking
supply. The relay itself has an IC controlling the intermittant wipe and the
latching on and off. Relay socket 4/31 goes to earth on brown and socket
2/53 provides the main power to the motor on Red/Yellow.

    As far as my coupe is concerned the circuit is the same but for some
reason with different wire colours. I checked Fuse 18 and found that it had
blown when I used the relay from the 100 in it. I have no idea why, so I
still have a slight reservation about it. However its working fine for now.

    Thanks to those who sent advice on this one

rob
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence C Leung <l.leung at juno.com>
To: <rob3 at hod3.fsnet.co.uk>
Cc: <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 6:17 AM
Subject: Re: 100 Rear wash/wipe


> Time to suspect the steering column switch. If you have a wiring diagram
> and an assistant, see which pins at the relay (relay removed) should be
> activated (12V) when you run the switch through it's positions. This
> should be push and hold for the situations that require that (such as the
> "wash" or single wipe mode) or in the detent for those positions. YOu may
> be able to clean a dirty switch with Stabilant or somesuch. Also, check
> the wires at the firewall between the stalk and relay/fuse block, and the
> relay terminals within the block (stabilant helps here too).
>
> LOL
>
> LL - NY
>
> On Wed, 15 Nov 2000 23:11:50 -0000 "rob hod" <rob3 at hod3.fsnet.co.uk>
> writes:
> >
> >    Just wondered if anyone could cast some light on the following
> >problem;
> >
> >    I have an '88 100 avant 2.0E. The rear wash and wipe don't work.
> >
> >    First I checked the wiper motor works. It does, both on the main
> >supply
> >and on the 'park' supply.
> >
> >    Then I checked the wiring through to the multiway connector near
> >the
> >n/side rear light cluster. All OK.
> >
> >    Then things got interesting. I decided to try substituting the
> >relay
> >from my 87 coupe's rear wash/wipe.
> >    Still I had no luck. So as a double check on the relays I put the
> >one
> >from the 100 in the coupe. The wiper got half way through its cycle
> >and then
> >stopped. I substituted the original relay and it still doesn't work.
> >The
> >washer does still work.
> >
> >    I wondered if the relay from the 100 has gone wrong in some
> >bizarre way
> >that causes it to wreck something else in the
> >    system, - it certainly seems to have stopped the coupe's wiper.
> >
> >    Any thoughts ? (By the way I have checked the fuses)
> >
> >    Cheers
> >
> >
> >        rob Hod
> >
>