Audi rear wipers include a rotating jet assembly with two nozzles. The washer stream is always directed just in front of the wiper as it rotates. The Audi A4 Avant has a wiper motor dimensionally identical to the .:R32 version, but includes a modified washer tube assembly to incorporate the rotating jet. Unfortunately, you cannot just swap over this plastic tube from one motor to the other for this conversion, so the entire motor has to be swapped.
Remove existing rear wiper arm. Remove Cover Cap and undo the 13mm nut. Carefully remove the existing wiper arm. This may require some gentle persuasion/penetrating oil etc if it is corroded to spindle.
Remove interior lower panel from hatch to access the wiper motor.
Remove electrical plug from wiper motor.
Remove connection for washer supply on back of motor. Note where the black C-clip is sitting in relation to the two flattened sides of the grey connector. This is the locked position:
Simply rotate the black C-clip 90 degrees and that will unlock the pipe. It will pull straight off with no tension on it now. This is the unlocked position:
After removing the connection, turn the C-clip back to it's original position, ready for installing to new motor.
Remove wiper motor by undoing the three 10mm securing bolts and withdraw wiper spindle from rubber grommet guiding it through glass. Replace the rubber grommet now if you wish to. Note that the grommet is angled to the glass and the rectangular indentation on the outside points to 12 o'clock position when installed correctly.
At this point - test fit the washer connection to new Audi motor.
NOTE:- DO NOT try to force the connector onto the pipe if it does not click on properly!
If pipe does not install easily with an audible click and lock into place, refer to the instructions below under Modifying Pipe Connection. If pipe does click into place okay, remove pipe again by unlocking C-clip and proceed to mount the new motor.Install new Audi motor. Tighten the three 10mm securing nuts to 8 Nm
Re-install electrical plug - the electrical connections are identical on both motors.
Re-install connection for washer supply. Firstly turn the the black C-clip 90 degrees back to its original locked position as noted above. Push connector onto the new motor until it clicks. This connection should now be watertight.
Install new Audi wiper blade into the new Audi wiper arm by clipping into place.
If you are using the 380 mm wiper blade with the tip that extends slightly past the edge of the glass as noted below, test fit the arm loosely on the spindle and make sure the tip does not hit your spoiler now.
Install new Audi wiper arm and blade assembly. As you tighten the brand new arm down, the splines inside will cut their own thread as the nut is tightened. Tighten this 13 mm nut to 12 Nm. Ensure the arm remains level in the "parked" position as you are tightening down the nut, as it will try to spin around slightly until the splines grip properly. Note that the Audi arm will "park" closer to the bottom of the glass, compared to the parked position of the original VW wiper arm. The Audi wiper blade tip should be 20 mm above the bottom edge of the glass when installed correctly.
Push new jet assembly onto the end of the wiper spindle poking out of nut until it audibly clicks into place.
Install new Audi cover cap by clipping into place.
Operate rear washer to test new motor for leakage at pipe connection prior to re-installing the inner hatch liner.
On my new motor the connector did not push fully home, nor click audibly to lock in place. After comparing the two barbs on the old and new motor I noted that the barb on the new motor was very slightly longer than the old motor pipe barb (less than 0.5 mm longer but long enough to stop the connector pushing home fully). I carefully filed down the end of the barb on the new motor just enough to match the length of the old motor. This then allowed the water supply pipe to click on correctly. Only file/sand enough off to achieve the correct matching length to your old barb. Thats all that needs to be taken off.
I put this difference down to manufacturing tolerances of the plastic barb. No one has reported this issue previously.
There are a number of different length blades used on various models of Audi & VW that use the same fixing for the blade to the arm. Therefore by careful selection you can optimise the wiper arm sweep to suit the .:R32 rear glass. Note that due to the design of the aero wiper, the tip extends about 5 mm past the end of the rubber at each end.
Below is a list of some wiper blade lengths from various models that are suitable for this conversion. The measurement is taken from tip to tip.
Part Number Model Overall length
8R0 955 425 Q5 330 mm
8V3 955 425 A3 8V Sportback 350 mm
7P6 955 427 7P Touareg 366 mm
8X3 955 425 A1 3-door 380 mm
Initially I installed the Q5 wiper blade and it sweeps approximately 25 mm less glass at the outer tip compared to the OEM VW blade.
If you want a "stubby" look for the wiper arm this would be a nice choice. This arm combination is approximately the same as the popular VW Polo/Golf V wiper arm conversion.
Overall shot of Q5 wiper arm and Q5 blade:
The A1 3-door version rubber sweep is identical to the original .:R32 sweep.
As you can see in the photo below, the A1 blade tip extends past the edge of the glass at top of window, but it still clears the .:R32 rear spoiler no problem at its closest point. The rubber blade sits fully on the glass with about 2mm to spare, which was the measurement of my original .:R32 wiper blade.
I cannot comment on any clearance issues to any other rear spoiler designs. In any case, I would recommend checking the clearance to your spoiler before operating the wiper with this blade, due to possible tolerance differences in the spoiler attachment position on your hatch etc.
Overall shot of Q5 wiper arm and A1 3-door blade:
If there is any doubt about the tip hitting a spoiler, the next best blade would be the 7P Touareg version. The Touareg tip would be 7mm shorter at each end, so the tip would also be within the edge of the rear glass at all times.
Overall shot of Q5 wiper arm and 7P Touareg blade:
This is a photo of the components required for conversion. Q5 arm and Q5 blade illustrated.
See Blade Lengths section above for list of suitable wiper blades.
8E9 955 711 E Audi A4 Avant (2001 - 2008) Wiper Motor. Also fitted to A3 8P (2004 -2010); Q5 (2009 - 2010) and Q7 (2007 -2014)
8K9 955 985 A Jet Assembly
8K9 955 205 Cap
8R0 955 407 1P9 Q5 Wiper Arm
Optional Parts
The existing rubber grommet for window glass and the securing nut on .:R32 can be reused, but I chose to install new ones whilst I was converting assembly.
6Q6 955 758 A Rubber Grommet for Rear Glass
N 015 083 15 Hex Collar Nut for Wiper Spindle
Additional note
The recommended wiper motor has an intermittent sweep time of approximately 8 seconds, similar to the standard .:R32 wiper motor. If you want a shorter intermittent sweep time, the Audi Q5 (2011>>) wiper motor 8R0 955 711 B appears to be identical shape to the recommended motor, but the intermittent sweep time has been shortened to approximately 4 seconds.