I just bought a ceritifed pre-owned 2010 RX 450h. I love it, but a couple of questions as I get to know the car.

1) The rain sensor seems to not work. I set the wipers to what on another car would be "intermittent" but the wipers never come on. Am I missing something, am I a dummy? Or should I just get the dealer to replace the sensor?

2) Any way to turn off the seatbelt warning chime?

Thanks for any help!

 

jmesf, welcome and congrats on your 450h. On the windshield wiper stalk you can increase/decrease the speed of the wiper. Yours may be on the lowest setting. And sometimes the wipers are fickle and don't respond well to light rain or mist so the higher the better. It may also need to be manually activated to get it going. As far as the seatbelt warning being disabled, take a look at this thread. Some dealers will turn it off but I don't recommend it.

Oh, and there's a rule around here. Pictures are mandatory

 

Yep, you're missing the rain. Leave them on in the intermittent setting and they will come on as soon as the rain starts. It's a little annoying that you can't do a single swipe, useful when spraying washer fluid. The intermittent settings don't work too great either. Personally, I prefer the old-school settings to constantly adjusting relative to the rain sensor. In other words, it works OK 80% of the time.

 

Yea, the rain sensing wipers are quite fickle. At times I think they are a waste, there are days they won't start until you can't see, or repeatedly wipe a dry windshield. It seems using regular intermittent wipers would be so much better and simpler, but then they start working beautifully and I love them again for a few weeks...

 

LOL, too funny Droid, This morning I had to drive through dense fog and light rain in spots. A few times the wiper came on just as I was about to manually activate it because I couldn't see. My favorite is the somewhat random hyperspeed swipes, mostly in turns while it's raining, but sometimes while driving straight in moderate rain. But even with these little annoyances, I couldn't live without some form of auto wiper feature, whether it be intermittent or rain sensing.

 

As I understand the manual, the automatic wiper sensors determine when they're needed based on the sensitivity setting AND the vehicle speed. To me, that means if you are stopped or going very slow, they may come on much later than you would normally expect or want them to come on, making them seem unresponsive. Of course, that knowledge doesn't comfort my wife, either. To her, they simply don't work right.

If you haven't already, try playing with the sensitivity settings before you decide the system isn't working properly.

 

Ah yes, the jump to hyperspeed. When that happens, sometimes out of the corner of my eye, just for a second, I see a furry guy sitting in the passenger seat named Chewbacca with his hands on the wiper switch.

 

Had my 2011 RX350 windshield replaced due to crack.
First thing I tested was rain sensing with new windshield & rain sensor.
With the car in Park, windshield op in Auto, and engine on, used Windex bottle to spray on the windshield near sensor, the wipers immediately came on.

 

I wondered where he went when he bailed after a particularly vulgar verbal assault .