Replacement rear wiper motor for B5 estate

[RichardJRL]

Hello,

I've taken over maintenance duties for my dad's 1998 Passat B5 estate. It has a number of problems but the one that's got me stumped at the moment is how to cheaply replace the rear windscreen wiper motor. The little brass tube that carries the water the last inch or so to the squirty nozzle has sheared and its twisted, jammed remains are impeding the rotation of the wiper's shaft. Water is also ending up in places it shouldn't be as a result of this too.

The local VW dealer wants £131.56 for a new rear wiper motor which I thought was too pricey and as I've bought cheap 3rd party lock modules that work perfectly, I thought it would be easy to get a 3rd party wiper motor too.

The part number on the old motor is 8L0 955 711 .

I purchased a replacement 3rd party motor for £36 (price increased since) off ebay but it didn't work
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152234183795

Or rather, it wouldn't stop working. As soon as the key was turned in the ignition to power up the electrics, the rear wiper started working on intermittent mode, and that's all it did regardless of the driver's wiper control position. The only way to stop it wiping was to turn the electrics off and as soon as they were turned back on, away it went again. Oh, and it parked the wiper on the right, not the left side which was what the original motor did.

I then put the original damaged wiper motor back in to check I'd not inadvertently fried the wiper control electrics - everything OK.

I reasoned that the replacement motor didn't work because the part number had a "B" suffix to it that the original didn't have. I returned it for a refund and went back onto ebay and found one without the B suffix:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1x-OE-Quality ... TB:GB:3160

I even contacted the seller specifically to confirm that I would be sent a 8L0 955 711 and NOT a 8L0 955 711B ... but despite this they sent me a 8L0 955 711B (although it was obviously from a different manufacturer to the first one).

Anyway I tried it. This one parked the wiper on the left, and when the car's electrics were turned on - nothing happened so it was looking promising, but when the rear wiper was activated from the driver's control, it started wiping on intermittent and would not stop regardless of switch position until the car's electrics were turned off. I returned it for a refund,

So, that's two different 8L0 955 711B parts and neither of them work properly - although they fail in slightly different ways!

I'm kind of reluctant to buy an old VW one out of a scrapped passat of similar age, given how many other original parts are starting to fail in this car now. So can anyone recommend a cheap 3rd party wiper motor that they know will work properly in a B5 passat?

thanks,
Richard