u/mrnecree

I bought my 2006 e61 with an intermittent wipers glitch. Sometimes they would go haywire and refuse to stop when prompted a single swoosh. Or sometimes they would stop in the middle of the windshield and refuse to elaborate further.

I also got a used replacement wiper linkage complete with a motor, it was in the trunk of the car. On further inspection, the motor was a wrong one (maybe LCI, I don't know), so it didn't work when installed after buying the car.

Back then I just stuffed the old linkage back in and lived with the glitch. Today, out of curiosity, I opened up the replacement motor. Turned to be a very simple and straightforward job. I found it full of corrosion sludge, completely munted.

So I ripped out the motor from the car, opened it up as well, gave it a clean, replaced the grease, polished the contacts and threw it back on. Works like a charm now.

After you go through the hassle of taking out the wiper linkage, the rest is really simple, just six small bolts, and you get access to the whole mechanism. It has four contact pads and a copper contact ring on the plastic gear. Clean the contacts, clean out the dirt and sludge, grease up the motor screw and save yourself money on the replacement.

EDIT: just realized what else I missed last time when attempting the job. After you're done with the motor, throw the assembly back on the car, plug the motor in and check if it works BEFORE putting the wipers on and assembling everything that goes on top of the linkage. Seems obvious, but I managed to miss it.

I replaced the following on my 525d E61 in my driveway:

- front struts
- top mounts
- bump stops
- dust boots
- front lower control arms
- front tension struts
- outer tie rods
- rear air springs

Did a rough alignment, too, cause the new SKF outer tie rods were shorter than the old ones.

Drives like new, tested her on the highway and in the mountain twisties. Holds like she's on rails, feels planted and composed, would never tell she's twenty years old.

That's basically it. Ask me anything.

A river view just for fun.