Rain sensing wipers

[Ucinn]

Maybe I'm not doing this right or something. I leave my wipersin the auto position. When it rains after moving, it's all good. But if it's sitting and it rains, the wipers don't clear off the windshield until I manually clear them of with the switch, then I put it back into auto and it works fine. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance.

 

[Kazz]

I've had something like that while moving, too. Not too often, but it does happen. It's just a quick tug on the arm so it's not huge to me.

 

[SteveCo]

Maybe I'm not doing this right or something. I leave my wipersin the auto position. When it rains after moving, it's all good. But if it's sitting and it rains, the wipers don't clear off the windshield until I manually clear them of with the switch, then I put it back into auto and it works fine. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance.

Can't say I've verified it while the car is not moving, and it's not documented in the owner's manual. I know it's worked fine for me when it is raining, and until now (prior to winter freezing) I've left it in the 'Auto' position.

It could be built into the logic for the wiper's auto feature - if the car isn't moving when it detects rain, then the assumption may be there is no need to keep the windshield cleared. Seeing as the car grumps at you even for playing the radio when not running, it might just be another power economizing 'feature'.

 

[Ucinn]

I don't think i explained this correctly. If the car is sitting at a stop light after moving, it works fine even with the car stopped. If I park it and come out the next morning after it rained and start it, it will not clear the rain off the windshield until I manually hit the arm, it will work fine until I shut the car off again. I would think when you start the car up, it should sense the rain on the windshield and clear it, but it doesn't. I drove a half mile today waiting to see if it would clear it and never came on. After I manually cleared it, then it worked the rest of the way home as it should even when stopped at a stop light.

 

[Ucinn]

It just made a liar out of me. I went out (it's raining) to start the car and look through the menus and it cleared the windshield this time without any interaction by me this time..weird..last 3 times it has rained it hasn't done this, but did this time when i went to check settings..I give...lol

 

[cmivxx]

Try adjusting the sensitivity, that usually solves it for me.

 

[eflyguy]

I didn't think I'd like them, but they've been on auto since I drove it home thru torrential rain the night I bought it, and I'm a believer!

 

[Ucinn]

Well, it did work as expected this morning also. I have the sensitivity set to the third one down..the first two seem to be running it even when mostly dry.. it is a nice feature though, completely unnecessary, but nice

 

[oddball]

The sensors are not 100% perfect. They work by sensing a *change* in the surface of the small patch of the windshield they can see, I believe using IR. So if there's water on it, and the water isn't moving, when it starts then the sensor thinks that's just what the glass looks like.
It works well the majority of the time, but there will always be edge cases when it doesn't understand what's happening.

 

[Ucinn]

The sensors are not 100% perfect. They work by sensing a *change* in the surface of the small patch of the windshield they can see, I believe using IR. So if there's water on it, and the water isn't moving, when it starts then the sensor thinks that's just what the glass looks like.
It works well the majority of the time, but there will always be edge cases when it doesn't understand what's happening.

Thank you for the explanation Oddball, it makes perfect sense.

 

[PythonNF]

I had rain sensing wipers on my 2015 Optima SX and when set on auto they always made one swipe to clear the windshield every time the car was started. The Stinger does not and I have to manually clear the window. Not a big inconvenience, just surprised that it doesn't work the same way.

 

[SteveCo]

I had rain sensing wipers on my 2015 Optima SX and when set on auto they always made one swipe to clear the windshield every time the car was started. The Stinger does not and I have to manually clear the window. Not a big inconvenience, just surprised that it doesn't work the same way.

Where I am, probably 90+ percent of the time the windshield is dry and clear when I start the car - I wouldn't want it to swipe unnecessarily. The odd time it does need to be cleaned, a quick pull of the wiper stalk will spray and clear it.