Intermittent wiper issues?

[Dortreo]

Hi, is anyone else having issues with the auto wipers? They don’t seem to sense rain at all so will turn on for a few wipes then turn off. On Auto Low, the pattern of wiping is frenetic then stops and doesn’t respond no matter how much rain is on the windshield. Auto Hi acts the same way. The regular wiper settings work fine. I’ve reset the car hoping that might fix it.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Hi, is anyone else having issues with the auto wipers? They don’t seem to sense rain at all so will turn on for a few wipes then turn off. On Auto Low, the pattern of wiping is frenetic then stops and doesn’t respond no matter how much rain is on the windshield. Auto Hi acts the same way. The regular wiper settings work fine. I’ve reset the car hoping that might fix it.

When you got your PPF did they also ceramic or do any other coating on the windshield? My auto low is too slow, auto high works great for me.

 

[hmp10]

Hi, is anyone else having issues with the auto wipers? They don’t seem to sense rain at all so will turn on for a few wipes then turn off. On Auto Low, the pattern of wiping is frenetic then stops and doesn’t respond no matter how much rain is on the windshield. Auto Hi acts the same way. The regular wiper settings work fine. I’ve reset the car hoping that might fix it.

I used to find that auto wipers worked pretty well on all my cars. However, the cars I've bought in recent years (Honda, Tesla, Lucid) all seem to have problems with auto wipers. All three of them do what you describe: frenetic wiping followed by long periods of nothing, despite continuing rain. I wonder if it's because these systems now work through computer software rather than through a pulse switch connected directly to a sensor?

 

[Dortreo]

When you got your PPF did they also ceramic or do any other coating on the windshield? My auto low is too slow, auto high works great for me.

No on PPF but I think yes on ceramic? But how could that cause an issue? And they cut around all the sensors without me even asking.

 

[Dortreo]

I used to find that auto wipers worked pretty well on all my cars. However, the cars I've bought in recent years (Honda, Tesla, Lucid) all seem to have problems with auto wipers. All three of them do what you describe: frenetic wiping followed by long periods of nothing, despite continuing rain. I wonder if it's because these systems now work through computer software rather than through a pulse switch connected directly to a sensor?

What I’m observing is that if the wipers don’t get activated by continuing rain, they go into rest position and then you need to turn off the wipers then turn them on again to get a response. I’m guessing the sensor isn’t seeing the raindrops properly or stops looking for them after a while.

 

[Minnesota Mike]

Hi, is anyone else having issues with the auto wipers?

Yes. Just drove in the rain for the first time today. Quite poor rain detection on the auto modes, especially when the car is not moving.

 

[Unmutual]

Yes. Just drove in the rain for the first time today. Quite poor rain detection on the auto modes, especially when the car is not moving.

Same here, but poor when moving, too, on both auto low and auto high

 

[WildRide47]

Same here, but poor when moving, too, on both auto low and auto high

Same here as well.

 

[stratus]

Yes, not ideal, long pauses between wipes.

 

[Gandalf]

I had similar issues- didn't sense the light early raindrops at all (and had to use the manual wiper button several times). Tried fiddling with the speed buttons, the hi/low buttons etc, but suddenly they started working reasonably well in low throughout the little rain squall. We live in Colorado where rain isn't a very common phenomenon, but it would still be nice to know that they actually work.

 

[OCDC]

Add me to this list today. They had been working fairly well for the past several weeks as the storms have rolled through, but today on the drive into work, nothing. Had to keep pressing the manual wipe button even during a heavy flurry. I did a valet reset when I parked. Hopefully that solves it. I'll post the results at lunchtime.

 

[Negan1000]

Add me to this list today. They had been working fairly well for the past several weeks as the storms have rolled through, but today on the drive into work, nothing. Had to keep pressing the manual wipe button even during a heavy flurry. I did a valet reset when I parked. Hopefully that solves it. I'll post the results at lunchtime.

Both auto intermittent settings are almost useless. Too long or the rain sensing is not very good. These need improvement. Also would be good to add adjustment to the Auto intermittent settings like I have in my Mercedes.

 

[chinesejpl]

I wonder if it has to do with how the wipers/car are/is "sensing" rain with the tech cars because the same issue is present in my tesla but not Toyota or audi. My only guess was those don't have an actual camera that is doing double duty as driving/lane centering but only detecting rain. I assumed for the auto pilot or lane centering, that the camera needs to ignore a certain amount of noise or else it'll be too sensitive? That's my opinion at least.

 

[OCDC]

I wonder if it has to do with how the wipers/car are/is "sensing" rain with the tech cars because the same issue is present in my tesla but not Toyota or audi. My only guess was those don't have an actual camera that is doing double duty as driving/lane centering but only detecting rain. I assumed for the auto pilot or lane centering, that the camera needs to ignore a certain amount of noise or else it'll be too sensitive? That's my opinion at least.

That's my guess too, or they have a dedicated rain sensor that uses IR or ultrasound. I'm usually a fan of dedicated hardware to do a given task, but I come from a hardware design background, so I'm biased. I've seen a lot of designs that don't work well (or fail outright) because they ask too much of the wrong hardware/sensors/interfaces to do a job. "We can fix it in code" they say...

Add me to this list today. They had been working fairly well for the past several weeks as the storms have rolled through, but today on the drive into work, nothing. Had to keep pressing the manual wipe button even during a heavy flurry. I did a valet reset when I parked. Hopefully that solves it. I'll post the results at lunchtime.

In response to my valet reset from earlier, I'm not sure the full reset was necessary, but it seemed to have solved the problem. In any case, that's one of those issues that would give me pause if my wife had been driving, for example. I'm not sure she would've been able to cope with it gracefully.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I wonder if it has to do with how the wipers/car are/is "sensing" rain with the tech cars because the same issue is present in my tesla but not Toyota or audi. My only guess was those don't have an actual camera that is doing double duty as driving/lane centering but only detecting rain. I assumed for the auto pilot or lane centering, that the camera needs to ignore a certain amount of noise or else it'll be too sensitive? That's my opinion at least.

This is an interesting idea. I have no idea how the sensor works, but I’m wondering if it was tested/calibrated to the stock windshield without ceramic/PPF/whatever coating we’ve put on it? Maybe coatings we’ve applied affects it? My wipers auto-sense is definitely unpredictable, while regular slow is too slow and fast is too fast. It’s almost like they designed the system to make me feel like an unreasonable Goldilocks for wanting the wipers to clear the rain at exactly the right frequency. It’s not that big of a deal though, if it ends up wiping too slow then I just lightly press in the stalk button and it does a single wipe. Or drive faster cuz then the ceramic coating on the windshield works better.

 

[Negan1000]

I do not like the auto intermittent wipers and that was before ceramic coating..

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

the variable speed wiper idea can not be improved Lucid: you ain't that smart

 

[Volund]

It's actually worked great for me.
Light rain, it doesn't work very well. But I've been in a pretty good downpour with rain/snow over a course of 6 hours, and it worked great for me.

 

[OCDC]

The theme I'm sensing is that its behavior is inconsistent from car to car. Some folks have golden samples, others are all over the map.

 

[hydbob]

The theme I'm sensing is that its behavior is inconsistent from car to car. Some folks have golden samples, others are all over the map.

I would argue that the wipers behavior is consistent and the variable is the personal preference of the user.