Lack of intermittent wipers driving me insane

[blackhole]

Y'know, the title of the thread is rather misleading, and your initial post was a very poor description of what you obviously already knew. Frustrating, I can imagine.

[zeevette]

I think, the chances, of the component controls working inconsistently, were quite good. Mine are of the variety that seem to work the same regardless of setting the scroll wheel.

[Grovsnus]

For the rain sensors to work well, make sure you do not use RainX or similar on the sensor area. It depends on the rain drops actually staying put (and for longer term, isn't replaced by the white film RainX eventually turns into if not replenished).

And remember to ask for new wiper blades at every service. It's included in the 4 year service plan, but you likely won't get them unless you ask.

[vstolpner]

Has anyone heard of Aquapel turning into the white film as rain-x does?

[zeevette]

Originally Posted by vstolpner

Has anyone heard of Aquapel turning into the white film as rain-x does?

I've used RainX for many years, and it's never turned white for me. Just loses effectiveness after a good long while.

[mscottc]

I'm very happy with the rain sensing wipers... yes, in very light rain, they are aggressive, but most of the time they're just fine. In my 58 years in this world, I've yet to find anything perfect. If you are looking for perfection, good luck with that.

[12 Handicap]

Wipers too aggressive? Sell the car for God sake!!!!!

[bucketfoot]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

For the 50th time, the scroll wheel does NOTHING

I definitely disagree with this part.

Originally Posted by Alfisti

it's far too aggressive on any setting and it is not just me based on comments here and the post I lined to.

But understand what you are saying here.

[Alfisti]

It does nothing. I was driving a few days ago in rain that varied from very light to medium density and the little toggle wheel did NOTHING.

In light rain the car is a right cunt to drive, you're forever having to fuck about with the wipers or they shudder like crazy in AUTO.

[Shock96]

The wheel doesn't do anything on YOUR car. It works fine on mine. Here in the drizzly PNW they function just fine.

Why do you keep the car? Every post is how it sucks, drives terrible, my Tempo was waaaaay better or whatever. Why not just sell it and get something else?

How about a nice used 164? Or Milano?

[zeevette]

Originally Posted by Shock96

The wheel doesn't do anything on YOUR car. It works fine on mine. Here in the drizzly PNW they function just fine.

Why do you keep the car? Every post is how it sucks, drives terrible, my Tempo was waaaaay better or whatever. Why not just sell it and get something else?

How about a nice used 164? Or Milano?

What you call a "drizzle", we call a downpour on the east side of the state. There's lots of inconsistency in BMW electronics, it would seem. Comfort Access works most of the time, the USB port is prone to failure for some reason, and the damn wipers either let your windshield go opaque with excess water, or cycle 3 times on dry glass. That's my car, RMV.

[vstolpner]

Originally Posted by zeevette

What you call a "drizzle", we call a downpour on the east side of the state. There's lots of inconsistency in BMW electronics, it would seem. Comfort Access works most of the time, the USB port is prone to failure for some reason, and the damn wipers either let your windshield go opaque with excess water, or cycle 3 times on dry glass. That's my car, RMV.

Sounds like you've got problem electronics. Have you complained to your dealer about it?

I always use USB without any problems, comfort access works without fail, and wipers work well enough and I can say for certain the wheel on the controller does work. That said I wouldn't mind the lowest seetting to be a little slower but that's mostly due to my use of Aquapel.

[zeevette]

Originally Posted by vstolpner

Sounds like you've got problem electronics. Have you complained to your dealer about it?

I always use USB without any problems, comfort access works without fail, and wipers work well enough and I can say for certain the wheel on the controller does work. That said I wouldn't mind the lowest seetting to be a little slower but that's mostly due to my use of Aquapel.

For some reason, I thought it was just a BMW thing. My first, and probably last.

[Shock96]

Originally Posted by zeevette

What you call a "drizzle", we call a downpour on the east side of the state. There's lots of inconsistency in BMW electronics, it would seem. Comfort Access works most of the time, the USB port is prone to failure for some reason, and the damn wipers either let your windshield go opaque with excess water, or cycle 3 times on dry glass. That's my car, RMV.

You got 1.73 inches of precip in Dec of 2015. Compared to Olympia which got 14.5 inches.

2015 rain totals for my town are 57.41 inches of rain vs 6.11 inches for Pasco.

I don't know what kind of downpours you are talking about, but I suppose in a very dry place like Pasco, .02 inches could seem like a downpour.

Seriously, on this side of the mountains, the wipers seems to work fine for me. I was out and about the last couple of days with lots of on again/off again rain with tons of road spray and I just adjusted the knob to compensate. I paid extra attention due to this thread and with one exception, they worked as designed.

The exception was going under a tree managed to drop a few huge beads and triggered the wipers on an otherwise dry windshield.

That is how it works for me anyway. I would have to agree that you have some kind of issue that should be addressed by the dealer.

[blackhole]

From the Quick Reference Guide:




From the Owner's Manual:

[quiksilverdad]

What gets me is the rear wipers. If you have them on and then turn off the car, the next time you start back up the rear wipers don't work but the stalk is in the on posirion. You must turn them off then on again.

P.S. rain sensors work as advertised.

[vstolpner]

Rear wipers not turning back on makes sense to me. I don't want them suddenly turning back if I forgot to turn them off

[blackhole]

Indeed. That's some weird German logic right there.

Originally Posted by quiksilverdad

What gets me is the rear wipers. If you have them on and then turn off the car, the next time you start back up the rear wipers don't work but the stalk is in the on posirion. You must turn them off then on again.

P.S. rain sensors work as advertised.

[halfmoonclip]

Just discovered that the rear wiper self cancels if 'on' when turned off. Seems like a good idea to me; way too easy to forget you left it on, especially when it might be frozen in place in our current weather. Consistent with the other controls; front wipers, foglights, etc, all self cancel when the car is turned off.
No complaint with the rain sensing wipers, and the adjustment works fine on mine.
Moon

[Njerts]

My wipers started to annoy me and it got worse every time I used it.
Tried Rain-x, made it a little better for a few weeks, then it got really bad. So determined that the rain detector is effected by the grime on the windscreen.
Cleaned the windscreen properly and replaced my wipers and everything is perfect. The only product I found that can properly clean a windscreen is Rain-X X-treme Clean.
It seems similar to a product I used long ago (Glass Cutter) that I cannot get anymore.

[mscottc]

My only real annoyance with the windshield wiper controls is that the little green LED that indicates whether the rain sensing wipers is on is hidden behind the steering wheel. I have to move my head quite a bit to see if they're activated or not. They could have easily put an indicator in the dashboard to get past that issue.

[Njerts]

Originally Posted by mscottc

My only real annoyance with the windshield wiper controls is that the little green LED that indicates whether the rain sensing wipers is on is hidden behind the steering wheel. I have to move my head quite a bit to see if they're activated or not. They could have easily put an indicator in the dashboard to get past that issue.

This. Also the steering heater LED is impossible to see without causing an accident.