A customer recently purchased a 2010 Ford Ka. He was very happy, but the rear screen wiper was not working. I arranged for the Ka to be brought in to me the following week.

A couple of days later, he called back to say that he thinks he has a good idea of the problem. He went on to say that it looks like someone has fitted the wrong rear wiper motor. He had removed the rear panel in the tailgate, and could see the wording on the motor clearly marked it out as a Fiat, Lancia or Alfa Romeo part.

I told him to pop along and I would check. I thought this was much easier than trying to explain to him that his Ford Ka was built in the same factory in Poland as the Fiat 500, and does share a wide range of the components with the Fiat.

When I checked the problem out, the wiper motor was in fact good. A poor earth connection to the tailgate via the loom was at fault. This was also affecting the rear window heater, but that had not yet been picked up by the owner.

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