Windscreen Wipers Operate When Car Is Locked (R10 Relay)

[gibbsy]

Hi all

I have an 05 plate ford focus and over the past few days i have had an issue where the windscreen wipers operate, which in turn sets off the alarm, once i have locked the car up. It was very annoying so i decided to leave the car unlocked however it continued to happen and didn't set off the alarm but did discharge the battery.

I have since recharged the battery and now leave the car disconnected until i need it, pretty annoying.

The windscreen wipers start up within 60 seconds of turning off the ignition and while im disconnecting the battery the R10 relay, in the auxiliary fuse box in the engine bay, keeps on firing, you can feel it. However the R10 relay appears to be for the 'Heater/Blower'. I know this cannot be correct because when i remove that relay the heater/blower still works but so do the windscreen wipers.

My first item to change will be the battery, its been on the car for about 5 years so its the first thing to try.

Also an R10 relay doesn't appear to be much more than £5 so i will also change that.

Has anybody experienced this?

Has anybody found a fix?

Does anybody have any other ideas?

I will run a 'self diagnostic check' as i'd expect a few errors to come up.

[jeebowhite]

Have you checked for any signs of water ingress? I suspect that this might be playing a part and shorting out the connection, this could be triggering the wipers to go off.

CHeck both the engine fusebox and the passenger one as well/

[gibbsy]

thanks jeebowhite i have done a search on this forum and seen somebody had something similar a while back so I have taken a hair dryer to it.

Im going to leave the battery disconnected again overnight and all day tomorrow and then connect everything back up Saturday and see what happens.

I did hit one quite big puddle the other night, hard to miss at the moment, and this might have ingress into the auxiliary fuse box in the engine bay and as you say might be causing a short.

Would be good if that's it.

[jeebowhite]

Should be all that there is too it. I would take the hairdryer out there a few times and just dry it out as much as possible. You cant overdry it, but the slightest moisture might be enough to short it!

Let us know how it goes!