alfaxtc

Brought my car in for service yesterday and asked if there is an adjustment for the rain sensing wiper and was told yes. My are all whacky. They wipe in the tunnel and go really slow in a down pour

rxets

Sometimes I found the similar problems.
*If I keep Auto sensing wiper ON, it won't start when raining after the engine is started
*In the dark environment, the wiper won't work too well
*Under the sunlight, the wipre will work while the windsheild has a few water drops. Super sensitive

I guess it's all because of the brightness to the sensor??

Stormforge

could this rain sensor be the first "defect" for the new RX?

alfaxtc

I dont' know what's wrong with the sensor in the RX, but my 2006 IS350 never did that. When I went to get the car today the service tech decides to inform me that I can also adjust the sensitivity myself and I was HUH? He proceeds to tell me that I can adjust it on the wiper stalk. What an idiot it was to adjust the intermitten wipe. He trying to tell me I don't know how to use the wiper. So pissed at these tech that think they know it all and the drivers are idiots! I finally got them to adjust the sensor itself.

The G Man

alfaxtc, you have intermittent wiper adjustment on your stalk? As far as I know that adjustment is for the sensitivity

RXSF

yes, the round **** that you turn adjusts the sensitivity of the wipers.

they work flawlessly night or day on my RX330

sightdev

I see why some of the service managers look so drained even way before the day is over. You should go back and buy that service tech a drink and thank him for not kicking you off the promise.

alfaxtc

Guys I hate to tell you, but the head of the service dept. told me that I was absolutely correct that there is an adjustment to the sensor itself. The adjustment on the stalk will allow you to adjust how often the wipers wipe when the computer senses that it only needs an intermitten mode, but the sensor controls the wipers on when it turns on and off and how fast to wipe once out of the intermitten mode. So there are 2 adjustments one manual, but only in intermitten mode and there other controls everything else. Its the computer who decides to turn my wipers on full speed when I'm in a tunnel not me!

rxets

The sensor seems on the top of windshield, I guess that's where the problem starts.

My wipers work fine in most of time, but sometimes it works weirdly as I described above. Full speed in the Lincoln Tunnel, yes, it happend before, too.

Well, I always make sure I turn it off when not raining now.

The G Man

I found this on the internet, the rain sensor can detect how hard it is raining, not just on and off, and how often the wiper wipe and speed is depended on the how hard it is raining, sensitivity setting on the stalk and the speed of the vehicle. Sounds likes the head of the service department was just telling you what you wanted to hear just to be nice, hoping it would have a placebo effect on you.

"The sensor projects infrared light into the windshield at a 45-degree angle. If the glass is dry, most of this light is reflected back into the sensor by the front of the windshield. If water droplets are on the glass, they reflect the light in different directions -- the wetter the glass, the less light makes it back into the sensor.

The electronics and software in the sensor turn on the wipers when the amount of light reflected onto the sensor decreases to a preset level. The software sets the speed of the wipers based on how fast the moisture builds up between wipes. It can operate the wipers at any speed. The system adjusts the speed as often as necessary to match with the rate of moisture accumulation. "

Btmnk21

iTrader: (1)

When I use the auto wipers I hear a clicking noise in the steering column with each pass of the wipers. It goes "click click...click click..." Heard it with the radio on and music playing. Any one else? I'm bring it in for service to see what's up...

rxets

Same here since day 1. As long as the wipers are not moving continuingly, I can hear this.

The G Man

Sounds like a relay going on and off, one should never hear that in a $50000 car.

alfaxtc

Well you guys can believe what you want, but the intermitten adjustment on the stalk is in the same position as before and the wipers are working better. So they either did make an adjustment or my car heard what I was complaining about fixed itself automatically!

HomieG

On my '06 GS300 I notice that the auto rain sensing wipers speed up when I go around a turn in heavy rain, then they settle back down. Is this normal?