Golf 6 front windshield wipers not working, motor OK

Good morning.
I'm running out of ideas when it comes to my windshield wipers, and since the local is rather an incompetent company, I'd prefer to solve the problem myself.

Starting situation:
Last week, I went on a ski trip to South Tyrol. The entire journey was plagued by extremely bad weather... 750 km with the windshield wipers running constantly... but everything worked perfectly. Unloaded the car at the hotel, sprayed the windshield with the windshield washer fluid one more time, and parked the car in the parking lot.
And then it remained like that until Friday morning, with temperatures ranging between -10°C and +5°C.
Before getting in, I checked to make sure the windshield wipers weren't frozen, and everything was okay.
Got in, started the engine, loaded the car, and drove off... everything went smoothly.

The road was still a bit wet as I was driving up the Brenner Pass. I wanted to verschandeln the windshield, so I turned on the windshield washer, and the pump was working and spraying, but the wipers weren't moving. Tried all the positions on the stalk lever... nothing. The rear wiper works, the windshield washer works, but the front wipers don't.
Stopped at the next available spot, quickly wiped it verschandeln with a cloth, and then headed to a gas station. VCDS running:

1 error in the BCM:

00153 - Wiper motor, driver's side (V216)
004 - No signal/communication.
Okay, I'm ready. Please provide the German text you want me to translate.
Environmental conditions.
15:00, Game.
Voltage: 14.45V
one
one
Size 50, sold out.
"aus"
"aus"

Fuse checked in the Elsa system: F31 located in the engine compartment. 30A. Okay. "I tried replacing it with a different 30A fuse, but it didn't help."
Battery completely disconnected, waited 5 minutes, everything reconnected: The front windshield wipers are still exhibiting the problem described above. Error message: Dead.

Okay, the weather was good, but I didn't feel like dealing with ADAC (German automobile club) or its Italian counterparts, or a VW workshop in South Tyrol, so I decided to drive home.
Overall, it went quite well. I cleaned the windows with a cloth during each break and it was all done.

Back home on Saturday, I continued troubleshooting. I disassembled the windshield wiper arms and the water reservoir cover and inspected the cables and connector of the motor. Everything looked okay visually. I printed out the wiring diagram and used a multimeter to check the connections. There was battery voltage on the red/white 2.5mm cable, and the brown 2.5mm cable was properly grounded. The purple/white cable coming from the BCM, which is green/white in my car, is showing 8.8V. This voltage doesn't change depending on the position of the steering wheel controls, but I don't know if it's supposed to (please don't judge me – I'm not a trained automotive mechanic).

I then removed my windshield wiper motor and connected it to my brother's Golf 6... and it works perfectly on his car.


Does anyone have any ideas on what else I could do to further narrow down the problem? Should we order a new BCM directly?


Best regards,
Lars.

Apparently, the windshield wiper in your car model is controlled via the LIN bus. This means it receives commands through communication and also reports any errors. Measuring things can therefore be a bit more difficult.

However, your BnSTG (presumably a diagnostic tool) apparently cannot communicate with the windshield wiper motor. Since you've already tested the windshield wiper motor on another Golf and it worked fine, there's obviously something wrong with yours (unless there was a temporary fault in the wiper motor itself). Therefore, the wiring and power supply should now be checked for loose connections. If that doesn't work, try swapping the BnSTG with your brother.

If you're not confident in your own troubleshooting, you can always borrow your brother's engine and try it in your car, just to be safe.

PS: Regarding the power supply, it's possible that it provides 12V without the windshield wipers activated, but that the voltage drops under load (when the windshield wipers are turned on).

Greetings.
Guste.

Hello Guste,
Thank you for your advice!

Okay, the windshield wipers are controlled via the LIN bus.

I decided to start by checking the wiring and re-examining everything.
A colleague mentioned that he had experienced a similar problem with the steering column switches before. I don't want to rule it out immediately, but in my opinion, it doesn't quite match the error code.

BnSTG swap... well... I think they are noticeably different, although the windshield wiper linkage should be the same. Let's see when my brother gets back from work.

Is my brother bringing his engine to my place? That doesn't have to be the case. It was quite a hassle to get it out.

Best regards,
Lars.

Okay, it's me again.

I just went outside again.
The same voltage is present at connector T52b, pin 33 on the BnSTG, as it is at the small cable connected to the wiper motor. Therefore, everything should be in order between the wiper motor and the BnSTG.

What makes me a bit suspicious are the measurement data blocks in the BnSTG.
Block 016 Wiper.
Steering column wiper switch: no communication
Front wiper requirement: no communication.
Windshield wiper end position: no communication.
Wipe cycle counter: no communication.

According to the wiring diagram, the left and right steering column switches are connected to the steering column electronics control unit (J527). However, it is not listed individually in VCDS, which prevents you from querying the measurement blocks for all the switches.

The windshield washer (front and rear) and the rear wiper are working, so I'm just going to assume that the problem isn't with the contacts in the steering column switch for the front windshield wipers.

The feeling of helplessness is increasing .

The steering column control unit (STG) in my (older) Passat has address 16, if I remember correctly. However, in your case, it might also be implemented as a subsystem of the Body Control STG (BnSTG). It should definitely be findable in the car's diagnostic scan.

If you did not create the image above yourself, you should delete it as soon as possible. Copyright infringements are not tolerated here.

Since the RLS (Rear Light System) shares the same LIN pin as the windshield wipers, I would check if the wipers are still functioning. If so, then the BnSTG should be intact, and the wiring is likely to be quite interesting.

First, I would disconnect the battery and then reconnect everything at your place. After that, perform a full system scan, delete all found file system problems (FSPs), and then run another functional test.
It would be annoying if the problem was only with the windshield wiper control unit or the body control unit, and you're troubleshooting like crazy when everything is actually working again.

Greetings.
Guste.

Regarding the wiring diagram: Thank you .

RLS sensor is working! At least the light turns on as it should when you cover the sensor, and the windows close when you spray water on them.

The battery is currently disconnected. I'm warming up now, and I'll provide the next status update shortly. Everything is put back together again.

Best regards,
Lars.

EDIT: For those who can read...: Yes, I also have a Stg16. As soon as the power is back on, I'll check the switch positions.

Soooo.

Battery reconnected, system scan performed, error memory cleared, another system scan performed, but the wiper error persists, and the windshield wipers are still not functioning.

Stage 16: Extended measurement data:
Lo and behold: The various steering wheel lever positions are displayed correctly.

So, it could only be the wiper motor or the BnSTG...

The thing is, the windshield wiper motor worked for my brother, so why isn't it working for me?!
Against the motor and in favor of the BnSTG, the fact is that I have voltage present at the LIN input of the BnSTG. However, how this information is used within the BnSTG is beyond my knowledge.

Does anyone have a brilliant idea?

Buy a BnSTG or buy a windshield wiper motor?

Okay, so if that were my car, I would carefully check the wiring to the windshield wipers. Especially if the wiper works when installed somewhere else.

Don't forget the fuses...

Problem found and fixed!
I will write out the exact solution tomorrow... it was something related to the cable from the BnSTG to the wiper motor... you have to figure that out when you still measure a voltage .

Good morning, everyone.
I just wanted to follow up on the solution to the problem!

The culprit was the LIN bus cable running from the BnSTG to the windshield wiper motor.
I cannot understand why I was able to measure voltage at both ends (i.e., at the motor and at the BnSTG), which should only come from the RLS, but the wiper motor still didn't function. Someone is probably stealing bits and bytes along the cable's path.

Yesterday afternoon, while "googling," I found a post in the Skoda Octavia forum that addressed the same problem, although it involved a different error code.
There was the following error:

Quote:

02071 - Local data bus. 004 - no signal/communication

The author resolved the issue by running a new cable from connector T52b, pin 33 on the BnSTG, to pin 4 on the windshield wiper motor. I simply did the same thing, and sure enough, it worked! The engine is doing what it's supposed to do.

Note: Run the new cable parallel to the existing one, not instead of it! The old cable must remain connected because it provides the connection to the RLS; I had initially disconnected it, and then my RLS stopped working.

This morning, I went to the because, while removing the water tank cover at -10°C, I had damaged the retaining tab, and I explained the problem to them. Master craftsmen and customer service representatives looked something like this:

In this sense: Thank you for the help, and if anyone else encounters this problem, hopefully this much searching can be avoided for them.

Best regards,
Lars.

Thank you for the feedback!