[Weeble]

The front wipers on my new R56 had a ‘fit’ today. They were working fine then all of a sudden they stopped in the upright position. I fiddled with the wiper control and then they went completely crazy, first going fast, then slow and then stopping. Now they don’t work at all!

I rang the BMW emergency line to report the problem. When I was talking with their representative she told me that they would arrange for a technician to come out and he could fix it. She said they carried spare wiper motors with them so this should not be a problem. However, when I told her my car was only 1 month old she put me on hold to talk with her supervisor.

When she returned she told me that that there was a known problem with the R56 and the car had to be returned to my dealer immediately. I’m now waiting in for them to turn up with a courtesy car so they can take my car away. Very worrying.

My R56 is an MCS and is one of those that sat in ‘Quality Control’ for 2 months at the end of last year. I had noticed a problem previously with the rear wipers, if they were left on when car ignition was cut and the key removed they would not come back on when the car was restarted. Instead you had to manually turn them off then on again from the wiper stalk. I wonder if there is a software bug.

I have the IPod kit fitted and had read that there had been problems with this software. I wonder if this is related to my wiper issue.

I’ll post more news as soon as I have it.

[tiger333888]

Quote: Originally Posted by Weeble (original)

The front wipers on my new R56 had a ‘fit’ today. They were working fine then all of a sudden they stopped in the upright position. I fiddled with the wiper control and then they went completely crazy, first going fast, then slow and then stopping. Now they don’t work at all!

I rang the BMW emergency line to report the problem. When I was talking with their representative she told me that they would arrange for a technician to come out and he could fix it. She said they carried spare wiper motors with them so this should not be a problem. However, when I told her my car was only 1 month old she put me on hold to talk with her supervisor.

When she returned she told me that that there was a known problem with the R56 and the car had to be returned to my dealer immediately. I’m now waiting in for them to turn up with a courtesy car so they can take my car away. Very worrying.

My R56 is an MCS and is one of those that sat in ‘Quality Control’ for 2 months at the end of last year. I had noticed a problem previously with the rear wipers, if they were left on when car ignition was cut and the key removed they would not come back on when the car was restarted. Instead you had to manually turn them off then on again from the wiper stalk. I wonder if there is a software bug.

I have the IPod kit fitted and had read that there had been problems with this software. I wonder if this is related to my wiper issue.

I’ll post more news as soon as I have it.

sorry to hear of this my friend. Out of interest, does your car have the rain sensor feature? If so, could this be the problem?

[Weeble]

No I don't have the rain sensor.

I've just taken the car to my dealer and swapped it for a courtesy car. When I was there the BMW rep told me that they had a lot of problems with wiper motors in new cars. This included new BMW 3 & 5 series cars as well as MINI's.

I've been told I should get my car back on Monday.

[tiger333888]

i see. My MCS was built Dec 06 and the wipers have worked impeccably since day 1 - fingers crossed this remains...good luck with the fix. At least it's a known issue and that's half of the problem solved!

[craigd]

one of my problems is a very noisy passenger wiper motor.... it may be related..

[Weeble]

My dealer has told me that I should get my car back on Thursday. Apparently there aren't any wiper motors in the UK for the R56 so they've had to back order it.

So its a few more days for me in the Mini Cooper R56 they have loaned me (brand new, only had 3 miles on the clock). It's a bit werid dropping down from my S to the Cooper. I did have a Cooper previously but its amazing how soon you get used to the additiional power.

I seem to spend a lot more time changing gear than I did in my old Cooper which I guess is down to the 6 speed box. This is not an problem in the MCS as there is less need to change gear so often given the extra torque.

[Weeble]

I got my car back yesterday, it took the dealer a week to get the part, apparently there weren't any wiper motors motors in the UK so part was obtained from Germany. Dealer also carried out 'ash tray' recall and I also picked up my glove box divider that I'd ordered. I'm a happy (fast) bunny once more.