Intermittent Wipers Not Working - How to fix??

[StudioWizard]

Hey all

My 2005 2.5i wipers work great, but I recently noticed the intermittent control does not work. Why would all the wiper controls except for the intermittent switch work? I can put the wiper lever in both up positions for normal and fast speeds and I can pull the lever down for manual one-time wipe, but when I put it in intermittent position, nothing.

Anyone have this experience and have a fix?

I'm also having a similar issue with the brights lever: the momentary (pulling the lever toward me) position turns on the brights, but the constant position (pushing the lever away from me) does not work.

Could these two issues be related in the fuse panel or some other control unit??

 

[smorris_12]

Has it got rain sensitive wipers?

 

[StudioWizard]

I don't think so... It's a base model 2.5i (2005) as far as I can tell. It just has the 3-position slider switch on the wiper lever.

 

[bigwinn]

I had this issue and it was the gm5 module starting to fail

It was the 12star version

 

[StudioWizard]

Would the gm5 module also control the brights for constant vs momentary, etc? Are there other symptoms that might demonstrate the gm5 module is going bad?

 

[StudioWizard]

Additional info just learned:

If I put the wiper lever into intermittent position, the wipers wipe once and only once. If I switch to a faster or slower intermittent speed with the thumb dial on the lever, the wipers move again once and only once. In other words, the switch is sending a signal, but there's no intermittence.... they wipe once regardless of the intermittent speed selected and never wipe again.

I'd love to get this fixed. It doesn't seem like it's the wiper lever. Is there some type of timing circuit somewhere that needs replacing or maybe something is dirty?

Any thoughts?

 

[skmattwell]

Additional info just learned:

If I put the wiper lever into intermittent position, the wipers wipe once and only once. If I switch to a faster or slower intermittent speed with the thumb dial on the lever, the wipers move again once and only once. In other words, the switch is sending a signal, but there's no intermittence.... they wipe once regardless of the intermittent speed selected and never wipe again.

I'd love to get this fixed. It doesn't seem like it's the wiper lever. Is there some type of timing circuit somewhere that needs replacing or maybe something is dirty?

Any thoughts?

If you have rain sensors that thumb dial actually works as a sensitivity level. The higher it's positioned, the more frequently the auto wipers will kick in. If there's no rain it will wipe one or twice to tell you it's been activated and then wait until there's rain on the screen to do so again.

If it doesn't have rain sensors then there's obviously an electrical issue somewhere and id trust Bigwinns brains

 

[StudioWizard]

Well, I noticed it because when it was raining non-stop in LA a while back, I had to manually intermittently hit the wiper lever. I was wishing the intermittent switch worked.

Where would the rain sensors be located?

If the GM5 module is beginning to fail, would an OBD2 check tell me so?

 

[enuff_zed]

Rain sensor is part of the rear view mirror assembly. If you have a large fitting on the screen with what looks like a mini solar panel on the front then that is the rain sensor. They can delaminate and not work properly

 

[StudioWizard]

Interesting! The "master BMW tech" (yes, he has a certificate) I showed the car to, said that rear view mirror sensor area is the cause of lots of problems including the constant brights malfunctioning and, I suppose, the intermittent wiper issue. I'm not sure what the fix is or the cost....

 

[patriot66]

Interesting! The "master BMW tech" (yes, he has a certificate) I showed the car to, said that rear view mirror sensor area is the cause of lots of problems including the constant brights malfunctioning and, I suppose, the intermittent wiper issue. I'm not sure what the fix is or the cost....

A very common issue with the rain sensor is that over time the transparent adhesive pad that secures the sensor to the windscreen starts to fail. If it does so the sensor will not detect rain drops on the screen and therefore doesn't work. It just reverts to intermittent but not triggered by rain fall. A failing adhesive pad looks like this :
The pads are readily available. I fitted a new one about 3 years ago and it's been working fine and fully rain sensitivite since

 

[StudioWizard]

Yep, that's exactly how mine looks now. This is super useful - thank you!!!

Do you have link or product name/part # handy by chance? I'm looking on Amazon (US) and getting mixed results, esp with ratings.

 

[patriot66]

I bought mine on Ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123394335324?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=1D_vs8CvRbK&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=gngtrv3rtq2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

[StudioWizard]

Yeah, I can't find that same item on Amazon US... It shows up on UK Amazon, but as soon as I switch to US, it disappears and doesn't show any type of replacement. I ordered something different, but apparently it fits my car, so we'll see.... I ordered two different ones - one is already created to be the right size. The other has two tubes that you combine to create the gel, then attach it after it starts to cure or something.

 

[buzyg]

You may have grease in the unit under the bonnet. Easily sorted by opening the unit and wiping the grease off, if that is the case.

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

 

[StudioWizard]

I'll save this link - it's super helpful!! I'm first going to try replacing the rain sensor pad - it looks detached on my windshield. The wipers work perfectly otherwise.

I'll report back...

 

[StudioWizard]

So I think I broke the rain sensor mounting plate.



This thing was really stuck hard to the glass and I carefully pried it off with plastic trim tool, but a little piece of the purple plastic broke off. I think the sensor itself is fine because I removed that separately. But, is this thing broken then? If so, does anyone have a part # or link to replace? I went to the Pelican parts site where the instructions are and they do sell the rain sensor, but I can't find the mounting plate.

Also, the instructions on the Pelican site says to let the pad cure for at least 24 hours before mounting the place back on. I haven't seen anyone posting that they did that and the instructions I have for the Rain Sensor Gel Tape doesn't mention anything about curing time. Maybe it's talking about the gel that you mix vs the 3M pads that are ready to mount?

Any direction pointing greatly appreciated! I somehow knew this wasn't going to be a 20-minute job! haha

 

[StudioWizard]

Btw, I noticed that now that I've disconnected and removed the rain sensor, the intermittent wipers work the way I would expect. When the wiper lever is in the intermittent position, the thumb wheel determines how much time passes between wipes.

Is it possible that my car doesn't have rain sensing at all? It obviously as the sensor... Is that sensor for other things as well? Somebody suggested it senses when to turn your headlights on if you have the LCM in Auto mode. Again, my rain sensor is disconnected and removed yet the auto headlights work at night.

I'm wondering if I should even try to fix the rain sensor at this point.... I mean, if my car doesn't actually have that feature, then why is there a sensor there? Is it because it's ready to go in case?

I'm so confused!!! haha

 

[buzyg]

If everything is working to your satisfaction I would be tempted to clean up the windscreen and leave the sensor off. But then I hate pointless gimmicks, like rain sensors.

When my sat nav broke. Stopped popping up and annoying me. I took it out worked out I needed a new unit. Thought that is just going to annoy me like the old one did, before it broke. So I but the old one back and had the car another 7 years without the pop up screen annoying me. :wink:

 

[StudioWizard]

I'm not sure I really need the automatic wipers. I was disappointed when the intermittent wipers wouldn't work, esp when Los Angeles was getting hammered with rain for months! haha Now they work without the sensor.

Does that sensor have other functions, though? I've read some various posts saying it controls headlight brightness and possibly is the reason why my high-beams won't turn on in constant mode. (I need to try again now that the sensor is out.) The headlight problem could also be because my car had Xenons originally and the previous owner installed Halogens.