Possessed Xantia!

[RichardW]

Those French electrics and the cold weather.....

If I brake and indicate at the same time, the rear wiper comes on. It then continues to come on when I either brake or indicate. But only for a while, then it has enough, and goes off for some vin rouge or something, till we get the brake and indicator combo again. Cool

My guess is an earth fault somewhere. Could be to do with the dodgily wired towbar (not me!); or a cable fault into the boot door; or a dodgy earth at the rear; or a dodgy earth at the steering column; or...; or....!

Could be fun to find

[Xantidote]

I go with your suspicion of a poor earth somewhere. I assume all the brake and indicator bulbs are working OK? The indicator stalk switch is not giving problems, is it?

My first try would be to run a temporary earth lead from some good easy access point in the boot, to whatevers easiest to find, but probably each of the rear light clusters in turn.

[Xantidote]

I knew your post rang a bell, but had to check back in my records, which concerned a vaguely similar problem I had with the indicator switch on my S1.

I started having rapid clicking noises after using the indicators, and after a while, the problem was there all the time. Seemed to go away for a period when I pulled the flasher unit and cleaned the contacts. Ended up pulling the indicator switch apart, and found wear in the switch contacts. Cleaned up as best as could, which sorted problem for a good year, but then problem back again. In all this time, the actual external flashing of the indicator lamps was exactly as it should be, so OK drive wise.

I was bemused when I tried to fathom out the Haynes wiring circuitry for the hazard lights, but can't blame Haynes - blame the french. Then by chance, checked the rear lights whilst the rapid clicking was going on, and noticed the rear wipers trying to move jerkily across the rear window.

Fed up by this stage, and knowing the indicator stalk switch on borrowed time, I replaced it with one from GSF, and - Bingo. Problems all sorted.

Hope yours is as simple, but not so long winded

[VertVega]

Those French electrics and the cold weather.....

Cold? In UK? No way

...If I brake and indicate at the same time, the rear wiper comes on....

If it were my Xantia, I would first suspect that some wires have plastic shields damaged
in the outlet (tailgate <--> car body).
When the brake lights are on then some other wires also become energized
Estates are more likely to have this "feature" and it is more likely to be caused by the right side outlet (driver's side in UK ).

[Clogzz]

Had an open earth in the driver’s side rear cluster from a water leak, and it caused the driver’s side brake light to go out with the right-hand turn signal.

[citronut]

i have also seen were someone put a twin filament bulb in the wrong way around, causeing the front side lamps to light as the brakes were applied,

regards malcolm

[RichardW]

I'm now suspecting an earth fault on the steering column earth, where ever it is. This morning, the rear wiper was running in perfect synch with the fronts on intermittent, even though it was turned off!

[CitroJim]

Stereo wipers

Richard, if you need any circuit diagrams to help resolve this, let me know...

[RichardW]

Stopped working completly this morning, but then this evening working again, and 'responding' to various inputs

Having studied the wiring dias in the BOL earth point MC10 seems to be a likely culprit as this takes the control earth for the rear wiper along with front LH indicators, and front wipers plus others. Can't see a link for the brakes, but hey, no WD for ABS in BOL! Helpfully though BOL doesn't actually tell you where the earth points are so can anyone shed some light on the location of this earth point? I'm wondering about the big plate behind the battery?

[Xantidote]

If it were me, I'd be checking every earth point I could see, in desparation.

So yes, why not check the large earth plate connections by the battery, to ensure all contact faces are bright metal. Even if the problem's not there, you've eliminated that area, and it might save an earth problem with another circuit in the future.

I'd also scrutinise the earth cables at the crimp eyes, in case there's corrosion within/under the crimping.

Odd that you're reporting varying fault conditions - could it be a partial break within a flexing cable, with some of the wires making/breaking the circuit when they feel like it? (bit like Vertvega was suggesting)

You will win in the end!

[falling-out-with-my-car]

I am loving the cold British weather my rear windscreen wiper has never worked in the six years I have owned my xantia estate suddenly at the onset of snow and freezing temperatures it springs back into life.

[RichardW]

I never did get to the bottom of this, as it started behaving after it warmed up, and I dried out the boot carpet from leaking door membrane. Again

However, we have a new one now If I flick the switch on and then off, the wiper struggles across the screen juddering, and sometimes stopping. However, if I leave the switch on (or even turn it on when the juddering has started) then it works perfectly. Go figure that one out Boot is NOT wet this time. Must be an earth fault - need to study the wiring diag again, and see if there are different ones for park and switch modes. But if anyone's got an electrical location diag, and knows where MC10 is.....

[falling-out-with-my-car]

All my electrical glitches that involved the rear wiper either working or not working were resolved by removing the relay
behind the rear wiper motor and soldering the three pins back to the circuit board the relays break from the closing of the boot /hatch doors it is a common fault apparently. remove the cover of the relay and hold the circuit board under a strong magnifiying glass you will see the crack in the board where the spade connection pins join the board, ths has caused no end of weird things happenning in my electrical system all of which are now gone for good.

regards Nigel.

[xantia_v6]

Your original and current faults are probably both caused by a faulty time delay relay in the tailgate, likely the result of condensation on the pcb.

The leakage currents make the circuit sensitive to minor glitches on the supply which cause the relay to energise when it shouldn't. This may have caused arcing on the relay contacts which are now intermittent causing the pausing etc.

[falling-out-with-my-car]

I still think its worth checking the relay for damage to the pin edge of the board which would effect the glitches listed above by xantia_v6