skperformance

iTrader: (6)

do american cars also have the winter mode for the wipers
so that they don''t retract all the way down to not stress the motor with snow when it reverts to park mode?
basically a little relay on the wiper motor in the engine bay that reverses
i wonder if it is part of of the cold weather kit that includes the heated mirrors and headlight washers

i know camry's don't have this feature
i had a guy at a meet freak when he saw it last night
(he thought i would waste my time to mod the wipers )lmao
later

squarehat

I've never seen a winter mode marked on the wiper control stalk of any US-market Lexus vehicle. On US-spec vehicles, the heated mirrors go on with the heated seats. I'm not sure if this means cars without heated seats don't have heated mirrors.

skperformance

iTrader: (6)

the switch is not on the stalk it is in the engine bay on the motor
the package for cold weather is supposed to include the mirrors and seats
but haven't seen a U.S. car with headlight washers
also i think the heated mirror come on with the rear defroster not the seats

Mr_Mollari

Yep, I had some foggy mirrors & rear window the other day, hit the rear defrost button and that took care of them both.

meZoom!

i thought this was mentioned in my ES manual, but i'm thinking it might have been marked "for canadian vehicles only." so....i know about winter mode wipers in california, so i'm thinking they might be available here. can someone check their manual?

skperformance

iTrader: (6)

i think you are quite right mezoom
i know it mentioned it in the maual(just don't remember if it is can only)
funny thing is my cousin has an american es (now that i remember )
and his had the wiper assembly relay
but maybe his was replaced
i just thought i would mention this as anyone without a manual would never know of the trick

finally 1 up for the canadian es's
too bad they have to combat this much salt instead

lexusk8

Yes, I think winter mode is available on all ES's from the US (at least the ones from the 1st-gen ES). Funny that I never really got around to using that switch until a few months ago, with the surprising snowstorms we had in New England and all. While we're talking about wipers, I like to say that the rain-sensing wiper feature on the new ES looks pretty cool. My father's '98 740iL has that too, very convenient. What do you new ES users think about the rain-sensing wipers?

steviej

iTrader: (1)

The '02 does have a retracted position for the wipers. But you have to move them by hand into the retracted postion and back to the rested position. My 93 Bonneville automatically moved the blades to the retracted position (under the hood) when the switch was moved to the OFF position. That was real nice.

The rain sensing feature is one of the greatest things since sliced bread (i really hate that saying). It gives intermitent wipers a whole new appreciation. It does get some getting used to and when first triggered the wipers may look like they are going too many times and too fast but after several swipes they settle down to what is needed.

Snow or ice that builds up on the windsheild over the sensor can cause misleading signals and the wipers will go more than necessary. Just clean off the window very well.

Steve