I was driving home yesterday when something odd happened with the Windscreen wipers on my Fabia. I tried to use my front windscreen washer and my back windscreen wiper moved. I soon found out that moving the wiper control up and down did nothing and trying to use the back wipers did nothing either.
After some research on the internet (Google is my best friend) I found that this was due to blowing a fuse. This happens when you try to use your windscreen washer when it is frozen. If this happens to you then don’t worry, you can just swap the fuse and you will be fine.
Skoda Fabia Fuse Panel
Skoda Fabia Fuse Panel Ledgend
The fuse box on the Fabia is located behind the driver side door on the main dashboard panel, next to the stearing wheel. To open it just find the little notch in the bottom half, pop your key in there and twist it. The whole thing should come off, but it is a little tricky.
To get things working again just replace fuse 21 with a 10 amp fuse. If you don’t have a fuse handy you can swap the broken one (make sure it is broken) with fuse 32, which controls the back windscreen wiper. This will mean that you can drive to your local fuse shop and pick up a fuse even if it is raining.
To get the fuse panel cover back on just put in the panel by lining up the three hooks on the straight edge and push it towards the front of the car. Once you have it nearly in place you can either hit it in with your fist or just close the door on it.
To stop this fuse blowing you need to make sure that your washer fluid is not frozen before you use it. You can always increase the concentration of the fluid to prevent this from hapening during the winter.
[Update: Images taken from Fuse Panel Layout fabia-vrs.com. If you have any Fabia problems then take a look, it's a good site with lots of information.]
Thanks Phil…..Fuse 15 was blown swopped it with fuse 4 interior lights to get me away ,both 10 amps. Happy christmas and thanks. Kevan
Phillip your a star. The same thimg happened to my wife’s car this morning and tried fuse41 but nothing. Then changed fuse21 and up and running again No Skoda garage open untill 4th of Jan near where i live so saved my marrige !!!!!! Thanks again and Merry Christmas.
Thanks Philip. This put me in a bad mood just after Christmas Day lunch so I thought I would check the internet to see how much it would cost to fix my burnt out wiper motor etc. 15 minutes later after some confusion caused by the left hand drive pictures in my manual I have changed fuse 15 and the wipers are working again.
Skoda really should warn people about this as it is clearly a bit of a weakness in the car’s generally very good design.
Merry Christmas to you and everyone else who reads this. Euan
Need toget a “proper” photo or pic for fuse layout, and the legend…. the one posted on here does not show up good enough to read all the fuse related locations….
Rear Wash Problem, ??? Skoda Fabia 1.9.sdi 2001 Y reg….. (and probably many others since then…..
Open Bonnet > Remove Engine Cover > Look under Air Filter box, right hand side of engine bay . see a small pipe going into bulkhead, and one hanging about loose? fix the loose one on the end of the one in the bulkhead, (push fit) and then try rear washer….
Replace Engine cover
Shut bonnet, and see where you have just come from through nice clean rear screen . ! ! !
Merry Christmas,,,,, Happy New year !
Many thanks. Replaced fuses 15, 32 and we are back in action. Excellent advice
Thanks for the help on this Philip.
Fuse 15 worked for me, Thanks
Many many thanks….cloud hangin over me at Christmas time and you have brightened me up no ends.may your 2010 be a great one.
absolutely brilliant – so much appreciated. just rang and cancelled garage appointment, they couldn’t look at it for a week anyway! I’m back on the road – so chuffed. Thank you Mr Norton
Thank you SO much for this – like the others I had no wipers, checked 41 and it was fine. 15 was the blown one. Thanks a million for the tip – I’d never have thought of checking the others.
Wipers stopped working on Pennines (A66) yesterday afternoon in heavy snow. Had to stop every 10m to wipe screen with towel.
Spent 2 hours this morning a. trying to find the fuse box, b. Then trying to find fuse 41 because the picture in the manual is the wrong way round.
Gave up and googled “skoda fabia vrs fuse box”. 2 minutes later, found fuse 41 was ok, don’t have a fuse 21, did have a fuse 15 but no headlight cleaning system !
Replaced 15 after seeing this post and it all works fine again.
Thanks everyone, so helpful. Was thinking wiper motor burnt out and huge bill coming.
Simon
Just wanted to say thanks – suspected it was a fuse (because lots of the Fabia fuses seem to blow!) but after checking 21 and 15, turned out to be 15. Would have been stuck without the pictures and the text.
Many thanks, hours saved!
AP
Mine rear wiper and washers stopped working this morning – swapped fuse 15 as i have no fuse 21 present in the fuse box and the washers started working again…. BUT…
If i try to get the rear washer (pushing the stalk down) i get front washers same as when i pull the stalk up!? any ideas anyone??? Pretty please?!
)
Cheers in advance
I would have a look at the rest of the fuses. Just make sure that they are all ok.
Had the same problem this morning, on a 55 plate Fabia, Skoda Dealers were no use, this solution worked perfectly on my car, what did we do before Google?
Cheers
Giles
I have had the exact same problem with my front wipers… tried changing fuse 41 but it wasn’t broken. I have been tearing my hair out for an hour on the internet trying to work out what could be wrong as both the water pump and the front wipers were out – and then I found this website… I changed fuse 15 and 4 as the interior light is never used anyway and hey presto! Now I just need to work out what im looking at with the ‘engine cover’ and ‘filter box’ and hopefully ill have a rear washer that works too!
Had loads of problems with Sons 1st car, swapped the fuses and the windscreen problem was fixed. Just waiting for next problem now but thanks for advice
Thanks guys, fuse 15 worked for me too!
Hi there, had the same problem last night exactly how described.
Thanks to this forum I have sorted it but I replace fuse 15 which is a 10amp fuse. Thanks very much
Thank you so much!
This happened to me yesterday & I hoped it would be the fuse but I would have been replacing fuse 41 in vain. Your fuse 21 tip worked, now if somebody would just clear the snow off the road I would be on the road.
Thanks again!
I had the same on the 23rd of December. We started our trip from Chessington to Brighton to drop off Christmas presents. On the motorway it started to rain/sleet and you guessed it the wipers stopped working. We pulled over to the hard shoulder and were joined by the police in a matter of seconds. I´m normally a very organised person but for some reason I had taken the car manual out of the car so had no idea of which fuse it would be. After leaving the mway and having an escort to the local sevice station I phoned the AA. They quoted a 5 hour wait, so after putting the family on a bus back to Chessington I waited. Two hours later the guy arrived, looked up the fuse diagram on his computer but could only find the fuse numbers that might be the culprit. By now it was dark and even with his led torch we couldnt see the ever so tiny numbers on the fuse holders so we tried them all and at last we found no15. I have now printed off the fuse box diagram from above, one copy to stick on the inside of the fuse cover (skoda should have done this, it is so basic) and another inside the manual. I mobile internet for the laptop is in order!
thank you very much, Philip, you`ve made my day!
Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou. I just thought I would search the web on the off chance. I too thought the motor had blown. I swapped fuse 15 with 32 and it worked. I was so pee-ed off you have just made my day.
I’ve had the same problem with front wipers not working and rectified it by swapping fuses 15 and 32 (no rear wiper for now), but does anybody know if there is a fuse for the washer pump as it doesn’t appear to be working either. I realise it could be frozen, but I would expect to hear the pump working and I can’t hear anything. Does anybody know where the pump is situated? Thanks in advance
Had a similar problem driving home on the motorway today. Had to replace #15 (10 Amp fuse, listed as “Headlight cleaning system, window wiper” in the diagram above). Swapped this with #4 (“Interior Lighting”) until I get myself a replacement tomorrow.
Saved the pain of a visit to the dealer (who didn’t have any 10A fuses left when I phoned anyway)!
Top class advise – for some reason owner manual had position 41 for front wipers on a 20 FUSE – Luckily for phil and the internet – have now saved web page incase anything else doesn’t work as it seems my handbook isn’t correct!!!! Cheers
Fantastic, you’ve just made my day Mr Norton, thats so much for going to the trouble to do this, I’ve been trying to get my car down to the garage, but what with the snow, havent been able to get in as I didnt want to risk not being able to clear the screen on route. Been using my wife’s car instead for the last 3 days, luckily she was off sick from work!
For me, I didnt have a no. 21 fuse, but it was the no. 15 fuse, that’s the one labelled “Heated Windscreen Washer Nossles” which of course I dont have on my car, so never even considered looking. Ive got a 2004 Fabia Comfort. I had bought some fuses, but of course the red 10amp is the smaller one for these parts of the fuse box, so just used the interior lighting one instead. Looks like you can also use the reversing light too, but i guess that might be illegal in police eyes!
I live in Cornwall and have been snowed in pretty bad the last few days. I was using my wipers after the first big freeze on Monday 4th on the way to work, I knew the washer was frozen, but out of habit, pulled the wiper wash. DOH, and then they stopped working, but the back one just wiped. I thought that was odd, but i’ve had some funny electrical strangeness with this car since I bought it. Its otherwise very reliable.
1. Air flow blocker – when you use it, it sometimes switches off and then you cant switch it back on again. Very annoying when you are stuck behind a smoking moster of a lorry/tractor/old dog of car.
2. Heater – sometimes gets stuck on hot. Fine in the winter of course, pain when all you want is cool air.
3. Windows – the controls sometimes reverse, so right controls left and left controls right.
Anyone else have this strangeness?
Anyway, Grant – great tip to print out the fuse diagram, I stuck it with prittstick on the back of my fuse cover, works a treat
previously I was battling with the diagram in the manual the whole time which is of course for left hand drive (if you shine a torch through the back of the page its the right way round, kinda of!!)
Keep safe people
06 Skoda Fabia VRS front screen washers – Fixed! Just what the Dr ordered! Replaced 32 with 15 and all was hunky dory!
Embarassingly the hardest part was finding the fuse box (I have 0 car skills), picture of where that is would have saved me 5 minutes head scratcing!
Life saver – have my MOT on Monday and no doubt would have been screwed by the garage!
Thanks, again.
My windscreen wipers broke as I was driving home in the snow yesterday. Went and bought a replacement fuse for 41 – didnt work. I have just replaced fuse 15 and what do you know. You are all geniuses!!!!!!
Thank you!
Thanks Phillip Norton, have just swapped the fuse’s and my front wipers are working again. This information has saved me time and money.Was worried that the motor would have to be replaced. People like you are real star’s. Thank you very much.
Swopped 15 with 4 and hey presto,it worked.Well done to all those who helped.
Hi, What are you? Fantastic!
Same problem here and have just fixed it, many thanks.
PS.. Also have a wife who stops working in frosty weather, any ideas?
I’m an autoelectrician and lots of faults can be sorted by checking
ALL fuses as modern cars control systems are often fed by several sources!
PS. guess how many calls I’ve had with wash/wipe faults this week?
30 at least!All caused by frozen washer liquid!
thanks alot for this its really helped me and got me going again
, althought it took me a while to find the fuseboard maybe i didnt look hard enough!
Cheers for the help,
My wife did this the other day so it’s great that I could fix it before she went to work
Same thing happened to me. Front wipers stopped working for no apparent reason. Replaced fuse 4 (interior light) with fuse 15, and it worked! Thanks a million. You’ve saved me a hefty garage bill.
Hi
Just like to add mine to the many thanks on this site. Fabia X-plate. Spent ages the other night with a torch trying to find fuse 41 only to find it wasn’t blown. Just checked fuse 21 and lo and behold it’s the culprit.
You’ve saved me a trip to the garage with this excellent article!
Andy
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I had exactly the same problem and was all set to take it into the garage tomorrow. When I phoned them they were already setting me up for a replacement motor. Swapped 15 with 32 and problem solved.
Thank you!
I wish I’d seen this page last week.
It would have stopped me looking foolish at the garage (not main dealers luckily).
I’m writing this information in my manual for future reference.
Thanks this worked perfectly!
!
Would be nice if you acknowledge the source of the images you’ve used on the website Philip.
thanks for the information was very helpful and save me time ///
@Stu Apologies for that, I originally picked the images up from a forum somewhere so I didn’t know the original source. However, now I do so I have added an update which links to your site.
If any of the rest of you haven’t seen http://www.fabia-vrs.com then take a look, it’s got quite a bit of info and is a good resource.
Front wipers on Skoda Fabia not working and all fuses good.
Anyone know where the relays are???
Thank you! Sorted out my back windscreen wiper this way great help – your blog was the first result for broken skoda windscreen wipers
Thanks – didnt have heated headlight jets on my 06 VRS Fabia, but used 10A fuse 32 to replace broken fuse 15. Sorted.
we have tried all the suggestions on this blog they were very helpful thanks but the window wipers are still not working we have the spray but not wiper movement, we find it abit strange that the motor and the fuse could go at almost the same time or is this less unlikly than we thaught is there anything else we can try before we go out and get a motor?
This also happen to me too – it was fuse 15 which had blown!
many thanks to Philip (& all…)
We just had the same problem & this ‘thread’ came to our rescue!!