Rain Sensor

[firelogic]

My car is equipped with Rain Sensor, but these days the auto rain sensor is not activated when its rain. However, when I first drove the car on the rain the sensor activated itself.

Is there a switch that i have to press to activate the rain sensor? I have looked on the manual, but it's not clearly stated. :confused:

[Issac Hunt]

You need to ensure the wiper stalk is in the correct position. It should be one notch up, ie in the intermittent position - this should activate auto-wipers.

If its all the way down then its in the off position and will not work.

[sootyscottie]

sorry to highjack the post, but how does everyone find there rain sensing wipers?

I find mine do not wipe nearly enough even when the setting is on the highest sensitivity.

I find i have to put them on the next stalk click up which is wipers on full, and this is to much.

how does everyone find theirs?

[mkc]

The wiper stalk does need to be one notch up as explained above. I put mine into the off postion and wondered why it all stopped working myself. Once its one notch up its on Auto and you can then change the frequency with the slider button on the top.

I have no problems with the frequency of the wipe. I would say that the setup does offer more settings than previous cars I have had.

[sootyscottie]

i find that if i have the sensitivity right up, it still only wipes when there is a good coverage on the screen. Perhaps mine is slightly differant, as mine is an 05 a3 .

[browellm]

I find my rain sensor works perfectly, I have mine set to one notch above lowest sensitivity.

[bluestar_ale]

At last..........................

One benefit of our British weather everyone can debate the sensitivity of windscreen wipers :biglaugh:

Every cloud and all that.......

[audibaz]

On my Volvo i just press the Auto wipers button and then ignore the frantic varying speeds of the wipers if your not happy with what its doing just use them manually.

Over the three and a half years i have them my vote is not to get them again as they are pointless and i find myself overriding them all the time.

[tanderson]

Was dubious about these before I had them on my A6, now really appreciate them - they react very quickly to the spray when overtaking a lorry so you can keep hands on wheel - great in uk weather - wet with high winds!

[stewartt997]

I find that the wipers work great if responding to spray or rain when I'm on the move. They are absolutely lousy at detecting water on the screen when the ignition is switched on in the morning and the only way of clearing water is to manually turn on. Have exactly the same problem on a golf too, which I assume uses same technology?

Does anyone else have this problem?

[Red 2]

I find that the wipers work great if responding to spray or rain when I'm on the move. They are absolutely lousy at detecting water on the screen when the ignition is switched on in the morning and the only way of clearing water is to manually turn on. Have exactly the same problem on a golf too, which I assume uses same technology?

Does anyone else have this problem?

I would agree. Also have a Golf and the same applies so I guess it is a common feature of VW Group cars.

Still prefer having the feature to not having it.

Another quirk is the headlights coming on first thing in the morning after a dew has been left on the car and staying on for quite a while after the windsreen is clear. Does that even if the headlight setting is adjusted from early to late but hey ho, a very trivial matter and overall the car is superb.

[sootyscottie]

i havent been able to do any motorway driving yet in the rain to see what they are like.
I have found though, that around town on stop start driving and slow driving , that they dont just seem to wipe enough.

[CN1]

I believe the 'rain activation' only works when your travelling over 6mph, stationary it has to me manually 'wiped'

[neilb]

yes, I have the same problem. At standstill just before driving off they are hopeless when set to auto. At all other times the auto wipers are great. Why on earth they cant "see" the water on the windscreen before driving off is beyond me! I do remember reading somewhere that they are only activated above a certian road speed. Yes 6mph sounds correct, but why oh why only activate the rain sensor over 6mph. Have Audi gone bonkers?

nlb.

[Nicksluck]

Noticed the same on mine. Out in the morning, car very wet but when you start up wipers dont auto on, but found that by moving the rain sensor one notch either way ,the wipers do a sweep which in turn puts the rear wiper on for me as i put in rev to get off the drive. Not much different to moving wiper stalk but hey.

[neilb]

strange, but when sitting stationary at traffic lights (for example) the auto wipers are fine, they continue to work. Its only when starting from cold that the dam things don't work, unless you reach 6mph.

nlb.

[Red 2]

strange, but when sitting stationary at traffic lights (for example) the auto wipers are fine, they continue to work. Its only when starting from cold that the dam things don't work, unless you reach 6mph.

nlb.

Same with mine. I suspect it FIRST needs to be activated by the car's movement and then will continue until switched off. Bit of a strange programming choice.....maybe they will revise it in due course and software upgrades will be issued.

[AndyH123]

Oh how we all laughed recently at the car wash when the guy opened up the pressure washer on the windscreen :)

So they do work when you are sat still!


Edit - or.. no, that's prob not right, we're saying that they aren't *activated* until you go over 6mph. After that they work when motionless. D'oh.. really should read all posts.

[MykeH]

Driving recently from Germany I noticed that the wipers speed seem to increase automatically but I can't say whether it was speed related or the amount of water detected on the screen.......but it did the business alright...

P.S. The car is LHD model

Mykeh

[AndyH123]

Pretty sure its just down to the amount of rain.

It's quite a subtle adjustment actually. My other half had a Pug 206 a while back which had auto wipers, that only had two speeds, normal and insane.


Not sure I could cope now without auto wipers, headlights and handbrake!

[neilb]

agree, the wiper speed varies with the amount of rain and volume hitting the windscreen. They are great and I could not live without them.

BUT I have noticed, now that we have the cold mornings with us, that the condensation on the outside of the windscreen is undetected by the sensor!! Rather annoying.

nlb.

[chuno]

Well, my first time with the sensor on the M4 yesterday, and it is pretty good, definitely less erratic than the one I had on a 2005 Volvo V50. I had it on the max setting.

[B6Andy101]

Wait for the icy screen in the mornings...thats gonna be a whole new storey. Scrape before your fire it up.