heidihidin

i have never had these on any other car and i do not know exactly how they work
specifically my question pertain to winter weather and a situation where if the car is parked outside overnight or an extended period of time and the windshield/wiper wells get frozen over and covered with snow. then for example my dad gets in the car and starts it while snow is coming down
Will the wipers then activate and get ruined and is there a risk of burning the wiper motor up? ( have done this before on a toyota...)

bc6152

Well Heidi, the wipers always need to be free from being frozen to the glass. You can indeed damage the wipers and motor by switching them on when they're frozen solid to the windscreen. What I, and presumably others, do to prevent this is to lift them off the glass the night before a snow or very low temps are expected. Just put them in the "up" position away from the windscreen. Then the glass can be scraped and ice or snow cleaned off and the wipers lowered back down. To go further, if very cold and snowy, warm the car up first and clear the windscreen with the defroster. These are procedures that everyone must do living in a cold winter state - like Indiana and Pennsylvania...

The rain sensing wiper feature doesn't help you when the wipers are frozen...

heidihidin

no that isn't what i was asking bc
what i was asking is will the sensing wipers just turn on if the setting is auto when dad fires up the car and forgets to lift them the night before if it is snowing at the time he pushes the start button
hope my question makes sense

bc6152

I believe that if the wiper switch is left in the first position as opposed to the off position IOW one position down from off for auto activation - the wipers will activate when the car is started and could, if frozen to the glass - conceivably cause damage. I've done this numerous times after washing the car and cleaning the interior and inadvertently pushing the stalk down one position. When I started the car the wipers activated...

heidihidin

what you are saying makes sense but is disappointing i was hoping they would only activate once in gear...

bc6152

Nothing to do with putting the car in drive or any other gear... When the engine starts so do the wipers if not in "off" position...

Mike728

What vehicle have you driven where the wipers only activate when in gear?

Epcole

I actually thought it activated in gear - somehow mine doesn't start moving until I start to drive but I guess its just coincidence - I haven't had the car for long.

mandyfig

Perhaps reading the manual will give you some kind of education...try it.

slackhouse

I've had several days this winter where I went outside and my windshield had frozen ice on it. With my wipers set to AUTO, they have never come on when I start the car with a frozen windshield.

I turn on the de-icer and heater in the car and the wipers have never come on while I'm sitting waiting on the windshield to defrost. I never really thought of it until this thread. But, that's been the behavior of my car.

RKF350

Always have mine on auto. I've noticed when the cars been parked it's raining or it has been raining, when I get in the car to go the wipers will not start until I back out and start moving forward... So for me if I had a complaint it would be that they don't start right away... I just hit the control to clear the windshield now and move on...

pab12

>Always have mine on auto.
Be careful when using a car wash...

gamma742

I keep mine on auto too but I have found that when I first get in and start the car and it's raining, auto doesn't seem to detect the the rain that is on the sensor. It seems to pick it up after I bump the switch to low and back to auto. Not sure why it's necessary to bump start the darn thing??? Is this the way it is for everyone or just me?

Mike728

I usually just need to change the sensitivity up, or down. It's the same with my wife's Mazda.

TechNut