Hi all my windscreen wipers stopped the other day all of a sudden nothing moved the stalk up down - nothing switched off took key out restarted all ok anyone had this before?

YES

It wasn't too hard a fix other than the wiper relay on the BMW cars is in a box that's behind the battery, so that has to come out first... Once that was out it was real easy, just open the box and change the wiper relay and then ask Geoff Capes to put the battery back

So the simple answer is your relay is knackered, but I don't know where they are hidden on the later cars... in fact I'm not even sure the later cars have a wiper relay  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

Just had a look.... there is some good news and some not so good news...... Good news is the wiper relay is for 2002-2009 and is cheap as chips ..... first example I found.... https://www.britishparts.co.uk/products/8964-relay-YWB000060G

The bad news is you'll need to remove the battery to get at the dud relay  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

Its still working at the moment but off on another 2000 miler soon so will buy a relay and swap just in case have had battery in and out a couple of times as put a new one in every two years regardless ta for info

trust me it's the relay and it will fail just at the wrong moment

The first time mine went I was in the fast lane M25, around the A3, and it was tipping it down... how I never hit anything going across 5 lanes blind I'll never know

Then it started working again and I just thought it was a ffrr thing and went on my merry way.... it did it again a week later when I was towing a 3.5 trailer in some lanes

From what I understand the relay sends a park signal to the ECU on every sweep, when the relay gets old the contacts burn and the signal is sometimes not sent... the ECU then goes in to hump mode and shuts everything down for a 1 minute or so... But the duff relay does manage to send the signal most of the time... so the wipers will work and make you think that all is ok and your having a dose of Roverphobia.... Trust me your not, the relay is duff and it will fail again, and most likely when it's raining hard... just when you need wipers

I learnt the hard way and was very lucky not to have a ding.... Please, Please get it sorted asap, especially because of your geographical location... the M25 is no place for temperamental wipers... I was very, very lucky to get away with wiper failure..... The dangerous bit is the bloody things don't stay broke, unlike a normal car, they come back to life and have another go at killing you  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

Hi guys are you saying it should be done fairly regularly? I have only owned mine for just over 1 month and am worried if it's a common fault?
Thanks Wills

My wipers fail when they run more or less constantliy for half an hour or so. Shut down and restart the car don't help but after 2-3 minutes they start if I stop and start the wipers with the switch on the steering column (or restart the car but I HAVE to wait a few minutes).

I had a feeling the problem was related to wiper motor overheat since I had to wait a couple of minutes for it to cool down but there are no thermoswitch found in the workshop manual.

Thanks for the tips about the cheap and easy fix  "Plentraktoren/Garden tractor": 2008 L322 TDV8
"Project": 1990 90 County 300tdi

This happened with my 2004 car, intermittent fault, I assumed it would be the relay as it usually is, but it turned out to be something else, found by diagnostic machine, I'm afraid I can't now remember what it was though, so worth running a diagnostic check before doing the relay. Only Range Rovers since 1988

I would say that if your car has 110K + then you should be thinking about changing the relay, just in case... lets face it, it's a £15 item and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to change it, although being built like a brick s*** house will be an advantage

In the grand scheme of things it represents a very small cost, compared with the cost of wiper failure on a busy road..... even though I didn't hit anything and lived to tell the tale, I still reckon that it cost me £37 in total..... £15 for the relay £8 for the packet of cigarettes that were chain smoked whilst in shock and £14 for new underwear

Relays are consumables, the contacts burnout, they use them so that your switches don't burnout..... in the good old days they would change your points at every service... they are a mechanical relay, and they had a condenser to suppress the spark (which most relays don't have) and make them last longer... about 6K

Most of the reported failures are on ffrr's that have covered over 110K in the UK... I dare say that some ffrr's that live in sunnier climates will exceed that time scale... but over here I would go by the mileage not the age... as the wipers will have been on more with a high mileage car  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!