Part No: 0 390 201 571 (984)

Hello all,
looking for a little advice and just getting this off my chest.

My wiper motor stories.
Wash wipe didnt work. Fixed it.
Then it leaked outside. I fixed that, then it leaked inside. I fixed that.
Then the gears inside the wiper motor failed. I bought a replacement online 2nd hand for less than £50. It turned out it was non-working as well. I built one working out of the two non-working ones.

Now that working unit has failed due to the metal worm gear destroying the nylon cog again. If I leverage the wormgear to apply more pressure to the cog it works. So I tried to make a shim to hold the worm in place closer to the cog, but after three hours of phaffing about in the cold for the thirtieth time on the tailgate, I had had enough.

Has anyone got a solution to this useless piece of crap that is this wiper motor. Who ever thought having water running through working lubricated gears was a good idea needs to rethink things. More so, putting a sharp metal wormgear against a nylon/plastic cog is another idiot idea as is holding the worm gear in place with a tiny bracket that hasn't enough pressure to hold the worm against the gear - another bad design.
A while back I saw that there was a refurb kit, it might help, but am not sure my worm gear is going to connect securely to the cog, or concerned it might just eat another cog. It might be a better option than this....

I went online. Second hand from £300 - £399. Ish. Im not going to pay £400 for a unit that might only last a few months.

Add to that a flat battery and I am having a sense of humour failure today. Would like some sound advice to get this sorted once and for all.

I am starting to think a "grommet" might be the best solution.

The wiki does not have anything I haven't already done a dozen times unless there is a recent update on this subject I missed.

I might try the replacement white plastic gear.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RANGE-ROVER-VOG...2538488520

Reviews are a little worrying. Does anyone have any info they can share? Maybe a link to one they have used to repair that did fit and did work?

Thanks
Mark

Hi Mark
In the same situation tried a replacement white cog off ebay don't think the magnet is strong enough for it to home correctly and also not meshing correctly.
the saga continues

Regards Ian

Hi Ian,
I am starting to wonder if it is possible to have a 3d printer do a "one-off" run and whether it would be cheap enough, or hard enough wearing.

Mark

Nothing to stop you using the unit as a wiper motor only, disconnecting the troublesome wash water and then installing a washer nozzle under the spoiler to the side of the wiper with the wash water connected to it.
I've disconnected my wash water for now and will be fitting an independent nozzle shortly.

I had the same problems and what with battery discharge issue separated the wash as above. I also gave up trying to get it to park correctly. Help got CAR OWNER VIRUS!

nicedayforit wrote:

Nothing to stop you using the unit as a wiper motor only, disconnecting the troublesome wash water and then installing a washer nozzle under the spoiler to the side of the wiper with the wash water connected to it.
I've disconnected my wash water for now and will be fitting an independent nozzle shortly.

Bleeper man. Have a look at this, see if it helps you line it up. It took me a while, but in the end i got the unit to park properly.

Click image to enlarge

Having had no luck with this elsewhere, today I am going to dismantle the car and unit again and get the cog out and try and find a close match on ebay and order one.

I have seen recon units for £300-400 and all they have done is replace the cog. I am spitting feathers about this. They buy the broken units for about £10, put a £5 cog in and 20 minutes of their time and think that is worth an additional £385. At that rate, they are earning £1155 an hour for each hours worth of repaired items they sell.

Other similar motors for other cars can still be bought made by Bosch for as little as £25 and the pirates on ebay are just exploiting the situation by pricing the one we need as high as they can and when someone desperate, daft or wealthy enough comes along and pays £400 they think their price is justified by "well, they do sell for that much"...which has now set the price level by selling it to the people willing to pay way over the odds. This does not mean that the price is fair, it just means the greed of the ebay sellers has set the price at the very highest that anyone anywhere is willing to pay.

Not only that, Land Rover as a brand have left all L322 owners high and dry. Hence, I am really cheesed about this. In 30 years of owning cars, this is the first time I have ever been unable to source a part, or an alternative one, that is vital to an MOT pass and that is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth.

I'll report back on success with the cog.
Mark

^^ Rear wiper is not a testable item for Mot so no need to worry on that score.

^^ At least that is a bit of good news. Thanks.

Spent the morning so far ringing around trying to find the part. No joy at all. Might actually persuade me to trade the car in.

Contenders..
Gran cabrio
GT continental.

I must me mad.

I have just started to look at replacement L322s. Clearly I am mad.

I have contacted 17 different suppliers who list these on Google. Some in the USA, Germany, Austria, UK, Italy.

So far no success.

Apparently Land Rover have also obsoleted a lot of parts for the Disco 2 and 3 recently as well.

Ordered...due Friday.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322546617810

Will report back.

Therapy time.
In the middle of a working day, the new cog arrived and I thought "How long can this take, the wiper is not on the car, the trim is off....It should be 2 mins to get the wiper motor off the car, 2 mins to open it. Swap the cog, reassemble and bob's your uncle, all done in 10-15 mins no sweat".

How wrong I was. Once the motor was open it took 30 minutes to get the old cog out of the unit and bent three tools, my clothes and my kitchen is covered in grease. Then the new cog was too tight a fit so I had to drill out the centre hole, now I have grease and nylon shavings everywhere. Eventually the cog went on, and the unit would turn the wiper spindle. I wasn't hundred % certain on the parking position, but think I remember that the magnet should align it as long as it starts roughly in the right place. Put it all back together.

Did it do anything when the wiper was switched on? No, it did not budge an inch. I remember this from the many many previous times I have fixed this motor and the motor's initial replacement, and all it needs is taking apart and refitting a dozen more times and eventually the unit may or may not decide to work again. Almost as if the computer sees a fault and stops trying to power the motor. Either that, or the gears are in the wrong position it cannot move. I've had enough of it for now. I'll remove the spoiler again, and take the wiper off again and see if it spins then. If not, I'll have to dismantle the unit again and try and re-position, then reassemble everything again and test. Repeat ad nauseam again and again until I turn to dust.

The tail gate area has been the bane of my life with this car. I do not joke when I say I must have been in there 30 times.

Dry January is just about gone out of the window.

Parked on a cliff, I am seriously thinking about this, engaging drive and stepping away from the car. Its like that relationship we have all had with the stunningly attractive partner. When it goes sour, it hurts. I am so fed up with this car now. It is a feeling that might pass, but right now I am full of negativity towards the thing, such a simple thing should not cause so much grief, oh hang on, I bought a Land Rover, course it should!

SC, I feel your pain. Had one too many failure with my TDV8, and while I'm fairly handy with a set of spanners and was always able to fix it myself, I'd lost all confidence in the car. So, after repairing the last failure getting the car (For the time being at least) back to 100%, I made the decision to sell. So it's now with a new owner who got a very well sorted car, I just hope it's proving more reliable for them.
Bottom line is me and the Mrs do a lot of road trips with mountain bikes and canoes and so on, but I just lost all trust in it being reliable and not not letting us down a long way from home.
There just comes a time when enough is enough.
Love the brand though so forgive me, but I now have a late Discovery 4 with lowish miles and a full main dealer history, which is proving absolutely brilliant. Fingers crossed.....