Intermittent wipers and rain sensors

[Timmyboybunter]

My wipers have been confusing me for a while now

When I got the car, when not raining hard, I'd move the wipers to the 'intermittent' setting - but then nothing would happen. If I manually move the interval dial up I'd get one wipe, then nothing - for each of the 3 settings. If I manually move the dial down, I get nothing.

(the behaviour of the dial is similar to my Skoda - when increasing sensitivity to rain, it gives you a wipe straight away - but not when decreasing it)

I noticed in Carly that one of the options is for 'Rain sensitive wipers' (or automatic wipers, can't remember the exact wording) and this was selected. I the unselected it, coded the car.... and now the wipers work fine as 'standard' intermittent wipers, with no rain sensing.

My thoughts are: either my rain sensor is broken and Carly was coded correctly, or I don't have rain sensing wipers and someone - possibly even me when fiddling - selected this option incorrectly.

Any ideas?

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Picture of what I thought might be the rain and/or light sensor - it looks slightly traumatised either way!

 

[buzyg]

Probably a build up of grease and crud in the mechanism. They all do it at some point. takes about an hour or so, to dismantle and clean. I will see if I can find the link to how to for you.

 

[buzyg]

Here you go.

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=55535

Hope that helps.

 

[MalNCH]

Mine are the same, so are we saying if I un-code they work as manual intermittent? The higher the setting the more sweeps? If so I'd rather have that anyway..... My eyes can see when they need to be on and at what speed!

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Hope that helps.

Thanks for finding that post sounds like that may well be useful in the future (and my 'park' position can indeed be erratic) - but that's not what my problem is. The summary is: intermittent wipers only work when my car is coded to NOT have rain sensitive wipers.

Mine are the same, so are we saying if I un-code they work as manual intermittent? The higher the setting the more sweeps? If so I'd rather have that anyway..... My eyes can see when they need to be on and at what speed!

That's the crux of my question really, I'm possibly asking it in a very confusing way! As it stands, my car now has perfectly functioning intermittent wipers - on position 1 there is a large pause between wipes, on position 2 the pause is shorter, on positon 3 the pause is shorter still etc. This is with the coding for rain sensitive wipers set to 'off'.

If I switch the coding to 'on', the intermittent wiping just doesn't work at all. Are rain sensitive wipers an option - if so, how do you know they are fitted or not?

 

[MalNCH]

I thought the sensors were on all 3.0i's as standard. Good to know they work manually if the option is turned off, perfect.
BTW mine work on the sensors when they feel like it, which isn't often so that's why I want to switch to manual.

 

[patriot66]

That photo is the sensor and the clear sticky pad is delaminating from the screen. Mine was the same when I bought my Zed 4 years ago. I bought a new pad from Rejel Automotive Ltd for £4.95Also got a spare just in case.

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Good to know they work manually if the option is turned off, perfect.

Yup, just a single option in my Carly app - 2 minutes and you're done. I would offer to do it for you but you're a bit far away!

That photo is the sensor and the clear sticky pad is delaminating from the screen.

Magic, I think that's what I've been looking for. Makes sense, if the de-laminating pad is blocking the sensor it won't have a clue if it's raining or not. I'm honestly not all that bothered as I find rain sensing wipers generally to never be either as fast or slow as I want them to be so I'll probably stick with the manual coding for now - I'm also due a new windscreen, so will look to sort out the sensor at that point.

Thanks all for the input

 

[MalNCH]

Yup, just a single option in my Carly app - 2 minutes and you're done. I would offer to do it for you but you're a bit far away!

I use NCS-expert on a laptop, takes a bit of learning but it does absolutely everything, and it's free, no yearly subscription like a very basic programming tool like Carly.

 

[Timmyboybunter]

The whole Carly pricing structure is pure greed. I went in eyes wide open just to bypass the learning curve of one of the many tools, which no doubt I'll regret in the near future as I won't be renewing for another year. Great app though for quick results.

 

[brillomaster]

I hate the rain sensing wipers on both my e85 and e90. Either its raining hard and they take ages between wipes, or its a light mist and theyre going mad. Would much rather normal adjustable intermittent wipe, might look to turn it off.

 

[Timmyboybunter]

Yes exactly my experience. In my Skoda every time it rains I have to change the sensitivity setting depending on how hard the rain is, which defeats the whole purpose of the technology!

Nice to inadvertently find it can be disabled in the Z4