Had to replace my windshield due to S*felite cracking my windshield during attempt to repair tiny tiny chip (don't even wanna talk about S*felite.)

Went to a reputable glass shop, they replaced windshield with Xyg windshield from China. Seemed ok, looked good, but rain sensor wiper no longer worked. Defaulted to intermittent. Glass shop tried working on sensor, new tape, everything, still no go. After reading everything on the forum, I convinced the manager to order PGW glass, he's reluctant, but does.

New windshield arrives, he pulls out 1 week old Xyg, installs new PGW. Glass sensor doesn't respond to spray-on water, but is no longer defaulting to intermittent. Progress...sort of.
Puts new tape on rain sensor, reassembles. Try spray again, wipers start responding on demand to water spray, everything now working perfectly!

Conclusions:

1. No Xyg glass - rain sensor won't work with it. Must be the refraction index of the glass.

2. Rain sensor needs a new/clean sensor tape to work properly.

3. Don't let S*felite near your car. Somebody's gotta pay for those catchy radio jingles. Seems like they want to sell glass replacement, rather than repair. Especially if you pull up with a car with an L on the front. Even if it is 10 years old. I think they just want to turn people upside down and shake them and see what falls out.

 

XYG is not really a glass. It's glary, it distorts view etcetc. Hate chinese knock-offs...

 

...Apparently so do high end japanese cars!

Actually, the Chinese glass didn't look bad. I looked through it from every angle and direction, trying to find optical distortion. I was surprised, not to find any! But I still like the PGW Solargreen glass better, and so does the rain sensor.