Can I assume that the usual problems of water getting into tailgate switches and rear wiper motors happen to all Freelanders irrespective of whether they have the old tailgate finisher or not?
The reason I ask is that last night the rear wiper stopped working. It eventually came back to life but I suspect it's on it's way out. Annoying since the tailgate switch was replaced not that long ago.
I had been thinking of replacing my MY10 XS manual with a recent auto but having had my fair share of problems recently I was wondering what the point would be. So i was wondering if the later vehicles with chrome pieces were any better in this regard.

Stoob

If the wiper has stopped working, disconnect it, pull the fuse, there has been an instance where one seized up and caught fire.
If you do a search, there are not many threads regarding the rear wiper, it is not a regular occurrence, certainly none with the Chrome strip, I doubt if it makes any difference as the wiper drive is through the glass and not the tailgate. Iirc, LR have said it is caused by owners who pressure wash that particular area. Also a certain model Ford Fiesta shares a similar motor and you can swap the gears over

Hi ad210358,

D'oh! I feel silly now. I hadn't thought it through had I?
The wiper motor has nothing to do with the finishing strip.
Yes I am concerned about the fire risk. It was working fine this morning
Though. I've had a good look through some threads here so
I'll be looking at a fiesta motor should I need to.

Stooby

Some have taken the old one apart and cleaned up the internals and regreased and has worked fine

Well I finally got around to tackling this yesterday.
Thanks to the forum members who have posted photos and shared their experiences meant that even an inept idiot like me managed to clean out the wiper mechanism.

I tell you what though, I hate taking trim off because

a) It usually requires a bit of force to undo snap fit clips etc and sounds horrible.
b) You get so see how crude and simple things look behind the trim and
c) Putting it all back together is always much harder than taking it apart.

Stuart