For about a year now I've noticed my wipers doing some strange things when in the highest intermitten setting. I'll come to a stop, start moving again, and they make an extra sweep. Or I'll put it in reverse, then Drive again, and it makes an extra sweep when I start moving. This doesn't happen all the time but only when the vehicle has stopped and starts moving again. I thought maybe this was a rain sensor thing, but my car is not equipped with that feature. Not to mention it's not happened until this year.
Before I take it in, was curious if someone had a similar issue and what the fix ended up being.
TIA.

 

i've experienced the same thing, although it happens so infrequently that i've never mentioned it to the dealer.

 

You should see it on Auto. My mom's RX sometimes goes bezerk, like it's having a seizure.

 

This behavior is actually a feature. I think the idea is that they're "speed sensitive" wipers that do not wipe as quickly when the car is stopped. Therefore, I think the wipers wipe twice when you start moving to make sure your windshield is clear. I've seen this behavior in both our Lexus and Toyota without rain sensing wipers.

 

This would be the first time I've heard of such a feature while stopped. The strange thing is it didn't do it when the car was new and it doesn't do it all the time. I will check the manual and see if it's talked about. Thanks for the handy info!

 

Yeah i noticed also. Maybe it is a feature

 

What he said.

 

That makes some sense... when you start moving, you want to clean up the accumulated rain drops, rather then wait for the timer to kick in.

 

The more I think about it, the more it sounds counterproductive. If they feel you need an extra swipe before starting up again, why not just keep the same speed for when you are stopped?

 

Mine does the same thing. I actually like it. I don't need that thing on when I'm at a full stop anyway.

 

Agreed. It's actually a feature, since it slows down when you come to a stop and speeds up when you start to accelerate.

 

It is a customizable option. I turned off all of the fancy auto-wiper options on my '11. I prefer to do it myself.

Jeff

 

Is this part of the list of customized settings we all chose when we took delivery of the car? If so, I don't recall anything with the wipers being on the list.

 

Seriously. My aunt's RX does the exact thing, like the wipers are about to fly off. My dad's Benz is much more lax on the auto setting and seems to know what its doing.

And yep, what he said.

 

Winter is the dry season here in Florida so I haven't used my wipers for a while, but if I remember correctly, this is the speed sensitive feature.

In the intermittent setting, when you stop, the interval becomes longer because less rain is hitting the windshield (this is assumed, even if your car does not have a rain sensor). When you start moving again, it switches back to your setting starting the first wipe immediately, regardless of how long it has been since the previous wipe, so depending on the timing it can seemingly wipe 'twice' when you move off.

In the LO setting and the intermittent ring is set to anything except the lowest setting, when you stop, the wipers actually switch to that intermittent setting, and back to LO when you start moving again.