Windscreen washer electrical fault

Hi everyone

An electrical gremlin has crept into my K-reg GTi Rivage somewhere. Hoping someone can help me track it down.

Driving along in the rain yesterday with the wipers on intermittent, they stopped working in the down (parked) position.

Swapping a couple of fuses about seemed to get them going again, but no washer pump. And pulling the stalk (to activate washer) didn't activate the normal few swipes of the wipers. Actually, holding the stalk towards me created a burning electrical smell and wisps of white smoke from the steering wheel cowling. Eek.

So I suspected the pump had gone and was pulling too many amps. But no, pump works as expected when connected (via a fuse) straight to the battery.

Weirdly, without the pump connected, the normal few swipes do happen when I pull the stalk, but not when I reconnect the pump. And connecting a multimeter to the pump connector, there seems to be nothing when pulling the stalk. Ground from the pump connector seems good.

I suspect I'm going to have to remove and inspect the stalk unless anyone's got a better suggestion? And that probably means removing the steering wheel, yes?

Cheers all
Dan

either it is the stalk switch which is know to become misaligned,  or the wiper relay.

relay #357955531 or #3B0955531 is programmable delay.

oem is VW #321955531A

Cheers, I'll investigate both, starting with testing the relay.
Dan

Thanks Briano, relay was fine. Cleaning up the stalk contacts seems to have sorted it as per
https://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&type=misc&id=electrics_2%2Fwindscreen-wiper-screen