No Strength In Window Wipers, Headlights(Earth Connection?)

[sgstanding]

Hi guys,

2003 TDCi

For a while now I've had a problem that when I have my headlights on, my window wipers really struggle wiping the screen, as if theres not enough force to slide them across. It only happens with my headlights on normal and high beam, with side lights it's fine.

Some days it will be fine but then I'll jump in the car the next day and it'll be back to it, and very rarely 'fixes itself' while driving.

Seems to have happened since I tried taking the earth connection from the battery off the body, it was so rusty that the bolt head just snapped off. I re-attached it to another connection a couple of inches away.

Also not sure if connected but sometimes parts of my dashboard do not light up but giving it a little knock will fix this problem, I've had it all out and cleaned the connections to no avail.

Wondering if anyone else has experienced these or if they know what could be the causes?

Thanks

[jeebowhite]

earth is the berst place to start, check the earth point next to the battery, give it a clean and make sure that it has a clean connection.

[sgstanding]

That's what I did when it snapped, new bolt, washers and scrubbed the connector with a wire brush.

The only thing that I can think of is where I've attached it back on to isn't meant for an earth connection, although it looks exactly the same and shouldn't make a differene as long as it's connected to the body? If that's correct..

[Stoney871]

As long as the metal is bare with no paint or lacquer on it you should be ok.