Water leaking out of tailgate when tailgate opened.

[Steve D]

I’m getting water leaking out of my tailgate when I open it. It’s coming out around the panel that stores the warning triangle and drips into the boot. Coincidentally (or maybe not) my rear wiper is playing up too - stopping intermittently and not in the correct position. I’m wondering whether it’s being affected by water ingress. Has anyone had this happen before?

 

[NHN]

Wiper motor is gone by sounds of it, but check as pipe may have popped of & damaged electrics, usually motor needs replacing & clean the pin ends of the connectors if it's corroded a bit.

 

[Steve D]

Just an update on this - may help someone else in the future. I popped the panel off of the tailgate and it was obvious what my problem was for both faults. The washer water that is piped through the wiper motor had been leaking into the motor and dripping out of just about every orifice. You can see the rust/corrosion at just about every joint on the motor. New motor needed so going to sort that next week. When it’s all done I’ll have to open it up and see what state it’s in.

 

[Steve D]

Just an update. Replacement motor arrived today - I opted for a secondhand genuine Valeo unit for £55 off eBay instead of a new Chinese copy at £60. I don’t have much confidence in some of the cheap electrical tat on offer. It literally is a 15 minute job, if that, but I did have to borrow a wiper arm removal tool off of my mate. I’ve never in 50 years had to use one but as this one was going through glass, I didn’t want to yank it too hard. Anyway, I opened It up to look inside and you can see that the washer water had got inside and mixed with the grease. The culprit seems to be a seal that is fitted to the washer pipe connection. I don’t know whether the seal can be purchased separately but if not, I suspect it could have been sealed up with some instant gasket or similar. I've cleaned it out and I’ll let it dry before regressing it and putting it back together to test it out when I’ve got nothing better to do!