front wipers stopped working

Yesterday it was raining of course and just before i got home my wipers stopped working. I can hear the motor struggling and they don't budge. I've checked both fuses(oh I have a 2001 Golf GL) and they work fine. Any suggestions before i have to take it to a mechanic

could possibly be the relay in the fuse box.

Mine went and the motor gets the power but no command to activate.

If you can hear the motor straining & the wipers don't move then theres a linkage binding or frozen bearing in the motor unit.

i just had my wipers stop working recently too. it sounds like the same problem i had and it turned out to be that the wiper linkage seized up. expensive if you go to volks to get it fixed so i would try elsewhere first.

Sounds like I have a similar problem, but wanted to check out one unusual aspect.

The wipers looked like they were straining to do the job after the car was left for one week whilst I was away recently.

Then the other day, they slowed down and soon stopped mid-screen and wouldn't move. But when I left them a few minutes, they moved a little again. This seems to be repeatable. It's almost as if there was a capacitor somewhere in the system which was taking time to charge (I'm sure there isn't one, but it's that sort of symptom).

Just wanted to check whether this sort of behaviour is what you'd expect from a linkage binding or frozen bearing that you mention or whether it's more likely to be a motor fault.

Problem was linkages, not the motor. My garage said that they had had a Golf in earlier this week with the same problem.

Sounds like it's a bit of a weakness, but both cars had done >80000 miles.