Mercedes vito compact 111cdi 2006 (w639) wiper stalk problem

[owen120566]

Hi,
ive just signed up here hoping to solve a problem that i have,
my wipers only work when the stalk position is on for the right hand side indicator which last night made it dangerous to drive home in the rain as i had to have the indicator on.
okay so straight to the point - i dont mind buying new stalk (£66) and a new relay (£12) which is all good, but trying to locate in the main fuse box the relay is confusing as mine is different to the owners manual i have - i have taken a picture of my fuse box and a picture from my owners manual and will post both up here as a reference and hope that someone can help me and might have the right diagram for mine,
(i have watched a youtube vid on changing the stalk and that looks simple enough with care)
just this diagram problem so i know what is what in the fuse box of mine.

 

[Dec]

Try removing relays 5 and 6, I think the are for the intermittent wiper, see if that stops the indicator problem, you will lose the intermittent wipers while the are out, speeds 1 & 2 ...slow and fast... should still work.

Dec

 

[owen120566]

Hi Dec,
removed 5 and 6 and van wouldnt start - so i put back no5 and van started and the wipers worked without the indicators on,
i still have to wobble the wiper/indicator stalk to make the connection - but your reply has saved me losing time at work next week,
so a big thank you for that.
what im going to do is order a new stalk and relay and then do it at my leisure next weekend.
(made me wonder why the hell it needs a relay in the first place (scratching head in puzzlement))
thanks mate that really helped me

 

[Dec]

It needs a relay to bring the wiper blades back to park position at the bottom of the windscreen, if you don’t have the relay the wipers will STOP DEAD wherever on the windscreen the are when you switch the wipers off at the stalk switch.

You don’t need a relay, removing it was just to see if it will allow the indicators to stop flashing when the are not supposed to.

Dec

 

[owen120566]

part two ---- more scratching head in puzzlement in a very good way,
i sorted out my pipes which was blocked and replaced one of the Washer Hose Connectors,
just to get another job out the way and i see a forum earlier about taking the end of the stalk off
and cleaning, so i did that and re-sprung the contacts and used a bit of WD40 and put back together,
and to my surprise ------- all works perfectly in every position (1st 2nd and 3rd)
like nothing had gone wrong.

question to Dec (and a big thanks again) do you think i should replace the no6 relay?

what a crazy day - in a good way!!!!!

 

[owen120566]

Hi Dec,
okay gotcha i understand

cheers,
Owen

 

[Dec]

part two ---- more scratching head in puzzlement in a very good way,
i sorted out my pipes which was blocked and replaced one of the Washer Hose Connectors,
just to get another job out the way and i see a forum earlier about taking the end of the stalk off
and cleaning, so i did that and re-sprung the contacts and used a bit of WD40 and put back together,
and to my surprise ------- all works perfectly in every position (1st 2nd and 3rd)
like nothing had gone wrong.

question to Dec (and a big thanks again) do you think i should replace the no6 relay?

what a crazy day - in a good way!!!!!

You only took relay 6 out to see if the indicators would stop flashing, there must be a short in the base of the stalk that's triggering the indicator when the wiper is operated. If you put relay 6 back in again won't the indicator fault return?

I don’t think there is anything wrong with relay 6, you just can’t use it till you replace the wobbly stalk.

Dec

 

[owen120566]

Hi Dec,
your right, i thought all had gone right and back to normal but without the relay, but in the morning it was back to the fault,
so im waiting now for the postman to drop off the new stalk and i brought a new relay (just to ease my mind)
so thanks for the advise and hopefully all will be good once fitted.
cheers,
Owen

 

[Arryzed2]

This might be an old post now but it might help someone in future.. I had this exact same problem today whilst traveling on holiday in Wales, the rain started but the wipers didn't, I had noticed the day before I was having problems with the washers. The fault is caused (as I found out after removing the stalk on the side of the road) by wire breakages from stalk switch to base, why it works when use the right hand indicator is purely because when the stalk is moved in that direction it compresses the wire back together again. I've had to do a temporary bodge as I didn't have a soldering iron, but it's easily repairable if you like fiddling and fixing.
I'll repair it properly when I get home... See pictures