Rain-Sensing Wipers question

[Silver Ecstasy]

I have a question regarding the rain sensing wipers on my MS3. First of all, I made the mistake of not reading the manual prior to applying Rain-X on each window the first day I bought it. The manual specifically says not to apply it on the front windshield as it will basically make it difficult for the sensor to gauge the appropriate amount of rain, since the rain basically flies right off the windshield and in the process right over the sensor.

Anyways, I've got it in the lowest sensitivity and still it goes off too often for me. The manual states that the rain sensor is the same as the auto headlights sensor, and auto headlight sensitivity can be adjusted at the dealer. So, does anyone know if you can have the rain sensor sensitivity adjusted as well? I would love to have that done immediately, because the lowest sensitivity isn't low enough. Sometimes, I turn it off and flip the "Mist" single swipe whenever I feel necessary (it gets kinda old).

I'm going to ask the dealer anyhow but figured I'd rather see if anyone has ever tapped into the settings through the ECU and found any parameters to adjust on the rain sensing?

[MikeHTally]

I put Rain-X on the windshield without any issues. Being closer to geezer-dom than most of ya, it took me some 'sperimentin' to figure out the setting. Then I consulted the manual (OMG!) :rolleyes:

We actually got some rain here a day or so ago (probably the last we'll get for the summer unless a hurricane comes along), and they responded very well.

[Silver Ecstasy]

I guess it's more annoying as soon as I start to travel upwards of 45mph. Under, they're not so bad. Sometimes they'll just start swiping every second when theres practically no rain on the windshield.

[dkswim]

ive noticed its only a problem in misti conditions. but if its still a problem you can remove the rain-x with alcahol. sidenote if you get a small crack divit in the front windshield repair shops cant do the cheep repair with rain-x on the window

[Super Unique]

One trick I have used for years now is when I wax the car, I also wax and shine the windows. This actually reduces the wear to the winshield quite noticeably. If left bare, the windshield will quickly develop scratches from wipers and sand etc.. pitting it heavily in a short amount of time. Waxing it fills in the pores and protects the surface somewhat.

[Silver Ecstasy]

Wax?? Like caranuba wax? That's quite interesting. I've always used rain-x since I then have to use the windshield wipers less and I have zero water marks on my windshield after a heavy rain.

I think i'm going to ask the techs on Tuesday when I visit the dealer. I'll let you guys know what I find out.

[VermZ06]

One trick I have used for years now is when I wax the car, I also wax and shine the windows. This actually reduces the wear to the winshield quite noticeably. If left bare, the windshield will quickly develop scratches from wipers and sand etc.. pitting it heavily in a short amount of time. Waxing it fills in the pores and protects the surface somewhat.

+1 and actually works better than rainX imo. Also cleans the widows off nicely . The only problem is that if you use too much you get some bad glare...just use a smidge and you're good to go...I also use wax on headlights/taillights/all outer windows on the car...it's pretty cool looking at when you're going 50mph and the water flows right up and over the car without wipers...

[hilmar2k]

I've noticed that the wipers are a little over sensitive as well. I have had rain sensing wipers on three cars in the past, and they could all be adjusted a little better than these.

[IrishMidak]

Mine were too sensitive but it now seems like they are not sensitive enough anymore. What can I do?

[jbiird317]

I have a totally different beef with the auto wipers/auto headlights: here in delaware its a law for the lights to be on when your wipers are on, and I assume there are similar laws elsewhere in the country? Well for daytime rain, its not always dark enough to turn on the auto-lights but there is plenty of rain for the wipers. Anyone else think that the lights should go on as soon as the wipers do? drives me crazy....

[hilmar2k]

Anyone else think that the lights should go on as soon as the wipers do? drives me crazy....

Yup.

[knowledge007]

Never heard of that law in my life. I just leave everything on auto lights and wipers. And thats it. One less thing I have to worry about while driving.

[hilmar2k]

Never heard of that law in my life. I just leave everything on auto lights and wipers. And thats it. One less thing I have to worry about while driving.

I would bet it's a law in well over half of the states.

[knowledge007]

I take that back... Just looked it up and low and behold it is a law here in Florida. Low beams must be on when wipers are in use. Although its not and have never seen this law exercised by authorities thats crazy...

[Silver Ecstasy]

Normally, out of courtesy, I'll turn my lights on when it's cloudy and raining hard. Helps people see you better, reduces the chances of getting hit or getting involved in an accident.

I do -not- keep my headlights in auto however. Last thing I want is my HID bulb/ballast to go bad in 5 years because of them turning on and off too frequently. Infact, I had posted about this earlier. Whenever I turn my car on, I leave it in "On" for a second or two, then fire. Well, if the headlights are in "auto", that means they kick on, shut off, then fire right back up when you actually start the car (Of course, that's when its dark outside). Thats been known to reduce the life of HID's and it's even spoken on in the manual somewhere.

[hilmar2k]

Well, not in this one...

Actually, you are wrong. From the FL Driver's Handbook:


Reduced Visibility
You must turn on your low beam (dim) headlights when driving between sunset and sunrise, including the twilight hours between
sunset and sunrise or between full night and sunrise. You must also use these lights during any rain, smoke or fog. Parking lights do
not meet requirements of this law.

[jbiird317]

Although its not and have never seen this law exercised by authorities thats crazy...

I bet its like tint laws, or cell phone laws, just something they could VERY easily tack onto a speeding ticket. PA had a law like that saying that you could only be in the passing lane for 1 mile without passing another vehicle.


Normally, out of courtesy, I'll turn my lights on when it's cloudy and raining hard. Helps people see you better, reduces the chances of getting hit or getting involved in an accident.


i would hope that is part of everyone's general driver training, which is why I dont see why it shouldnt be a law everywhere, and also would be an added safety feature that mazda couldve added here

[Silver Ecstasy]

i would hope that is part of everyone's general driver training, which is why I dont see why it shouldnt be a law everywhere, and also would be an added safety feature that mazda couldve added here

Unfortunately, in the US, driving isn't taken very seriously. Infact, it's a chore moreso than it is a responsibility and a priviledge.

Our LED tails are extremely bright for the rearward drivers to see, and the front parking lights even are bright as sin. So if nothing else, atleast the parking lights could come on with the wipers.

I only imagine that cars will get more sophisticated to the point where they can tell if it's cloudy or actually getting later/darker in the evening.

[Oneurt]

Unfortunately, in the US, driving isn't taken very seriously. Infact, it's a chore moreso than it is a responsibility and a priviledge.

Our LED tails are extremely bright for the rearward drivers to see, and the front parking lights even are bright as sin. So if nothing else, atleast the parking lights could come on with the wipers.

I only imagine that cars will get more sophisticated to the point where they can tell if it's cloudy or actually getting later/darker in the evening.

Well the case in Canada is just to have Day time running lights. simplifies the issue with turning them on/off, cause most cars have with DRLs just have auto headlights anyways so once its dark enough the lights either brighten, or they switch over to the HIDs. Personally I hate DRLs

[MikeHTally]

On my 300C, the headlights automatically come on ten seconds after the wipers do. Really nice feature. Are some of these automatic things adjustable in programming? My C allows me to set the sensitivity of the lights, but it was a "cookie" in the EVIC.

[dkswim]

Anyone else think that the lights should go on as soon as the wipers do? drives me crazy....

yeah i have also thought that. i would also like that option on every other car as soon as the wipers are on lights come on. its really scarry when your driving in the rain/snow and its bright enough to see the lanes but you cant see the car in front of you beacuse they didnt turn on there lights and those stupid cars with daytime runninglights errr....... sorry had a verry bad experiance when driving back home for X-mass and driver in front of me had daytime running lights and thought that was enough.

[knowledge007]

Actually, you are wrong. From the FL Driver's Handbook:


YOu have to be quicker than that young patawan.

[hilmar2k]

YOu have to be quicker than that young patawan.

I was typing as you modified you original post. Sorry it took me more than 30 seconds to prove your original statement incorrect. ;)

[knowledge007]

hehe if you think about it, I still had to look it up to confirm...

[CWPspeed3]

This is one of the reasons I bought the sport. If I want the headlights or wipers on I will turn them on. The "auto" function never gets it exactly how you want it.

Side note, I also wax all the windows and lights on my car, it really does help them stay clean and water fly right off.

[dkswim]

older cars with the plastic headlights, one of the reason they get hazed over is beacuse of wax. one reason i wouldnt recomend waxing your headlights. over time either you get used to it or it becomes better.

[CWPspeed3]

Well I currently have a clear bra covering my headlights so thats not something I've done on this car but I have done it in the past. Rubbing compound takes the haze off if it gets bad though, also helps remove yellowing on real old lights.

Sorry about going off topic.. I dont know anything about changing wiper sensitivity.

[Zwetty]

FYI - in the 2008.5 GT's the rain sensor is not the same as the lights. It is located in the windshield mirror housing.

[Silver Ecstasy]

And according to the manual, that's also the same sensor as the auto-headlights. Where is the headlight sensor?

[hilmar2k]

FYI - in the 2008.5 GT's the rain sensor is not the same as the lights. It is located in the windshield mirror housing.


And according to the manual, that's also the same sensor as the auto-headlights. Where is the headlight sensor?

Both sensors are in the mirror housing.

[J-Villa]

I rain-x'd all of my windows before hearing about the auto wiper problem. Sometimes when its drizzleing and the drops shoot up the windshield, the wipers won't stop, but for the one or two times i have to reach down and turn them off auto, they are very handy when driving through patches of heavy and slow rain on the highway and they change speed automaticly.

I only wish the doors locked and unlocked with the ignition like in my old 4runner

[davegutz]

I noticed that if the wipers want to run too much or too little, if I pull them down to continuous for a minute or so then back to auto then they behave much better. Perhaps the controller uses the condition of the rain sensor at the moment the auto mode is entered as the point of reference so if it's clean at entry the auto mode works better.

[Silver Ecstasy]

Well I asked the dealer and they said there arnt any parameters to be adjusted but for some stubborn reason I don't believe it. I think im going to call mazda na and see what they say or just ask another dealer.

[J-Villa]

I noticed that if the wipers want to run too much or too little, if I pull them down to continuous for a minute or so then back to auto then they behave much better. Perhaps the controller uses the condition of the rain sensor at the moment the auto mode is entered as the point of reference so if it's clean at entry the auto mode works better.

I have accually tried that and it works. With all the rain we've been getting in Jax lately, i was reading through the forums to find something to slow down my wipers. When going down 95 in the rain and the wipers were going too fast; if I flipped them off and then back to auto, they would still go too fast... If i flipped them to continuous low for about 15 seconds then back to auto, they didn't go as fast as before.

i don't know why it works... but it did.

[Eracer]

Try playing with the min-max sensitivity. Works for me.

[Lagg-Alot]

Is it just my MS3 that is a miss or is there like a major design flaw and not to much fore though to the Auto Wipers?

I have an Intermittent wiper speed switch but it does not make a difference how I set it the wipers do what they want when set to Auto. Is that the way it is on everyones MS3 or is my Intermittent switch not working?

The intermittent speed switch has no affect with wipers set to Low or High either.

[FrequentFlyer]

RTFM = Read the f_____g manual. :)

If the car has auto wipers, it does not have the traditional intermittent wiper function that you may be used to. You either have it OFF, AUTO, LOW or HIGH speed. In AUTO, the "-" and "+" adjustment will adjust the sensitivity (response time), but does not do anything to the speed. They adjust speed on their own.

[Silver Ecstasy]

The wipers also go faster or slower based on how fast you're driving too.

[Lagg-Alot]

OK Thanks for the answers to my question, and now I have an issue with the Intermittent Speed Control that I may have gotten used to on early model cars.

On a Hot Day it rains, Auto Wipers work fine. It stops raining and there is a misty fog. Your windshield will fog up so you have to keep the Defogger on and it is Hot so you want AC. What happens? The cold air on the lower part of your windshield makes the glass get cold and that causes condensation to form on the outside of the windshield. Low close to the defogger, not up high where the auto wiper sensor is located. You need the wipers to clear you view so you hit a manual swipe. Can you see where this is going? The condensation forms to slowly to set the wipers to Low Speed and the Auto Sensor will never detect the condensation and you have to manually wipe you windshield about every 30 seconds of so. Pain in the ass, why didn't they leave an intermittent wiper speed setting? (protest)

Engineers are so happy with what they could do, they never think about what they should do (spank)

[Silver Ecstasy]

Man so I think I realized something you guys have been saying about the auto wipers I didn't believe before.

These things literally have a mind of their own! I noticed that you actually do have to turn them off then on for them to reset basically! They were going off like crazy in the storm on the way home from work tonight.

When I parked underneath my car port, they were still swiping like crazy but there was no rain hitting the windshield. I was like "Uhh..wtf". I think i'm going to call Mazda NA and ask if I can have the auto-wipers deactivated and intermittent wipers turned on somehow. I'm sure it's only a setting and they change the style of the stalk to show the sensitivity numbers instead of the int. speeds.

[Lagg-Alot]

Man so I think I realized something you guys have been saying about the auto wipers I didn't believe before.

These things literally have a mind of their own! I noticed that you actually do have to turn them off then on for them to reset basically! They were going off like crazy in the storm on the way home from work tonight.

When I parked underneath my car port, they were still swiping like crazy but there was no rain hitting the windshield. I was like "Uhh..wtf". I think I'm going to call Mazda NA and ask if I can have the auto-wipers deactivated and intermittent wipers turned on somehow. I'm sure it's only a setting and they change the style of the stalk to show the sensitivity numbers instead of the int. speeds.

I have been thinking about switching back to the old intermittent manual controlled wipers from a Regular Mazda 3. But I have to find out if this can be even be done. I talked to a Friend that has a 2007 Benz and he said the same thing. That Auto Wipers are Garbage. (flame)

[J-Villa]

the auto wipers are garbage and I won't get them on another car again.... But they are not so bad that i'd want my old style wipers back. Super low sensitivity and just a little fidanglin' here and there and they work fine

I'm about to remove the rain-x from my windshield and re-do it, but leave a strip a little wider then the sensor all the way down the middle. that way the water doesn't bead up and run off around the sensor...

[dkswim]

or you could just tleave a dimond shape over the sensor. that way you have no stripe up your window and the when it gets to the dimond it will fallow rain-x around the sensor. just theroy. but i like the auto i leave it on it was really cool one morning going down the road and someone had there sprinklers aimed wrong and it got my windows and about the time i was thinking about hitting the mist my washers were done. and i was like wow did that really just happen wow thats cool.

[imac]

i gotta admit i was pretty skeptical of the auto wipers before i bought the car, but i kinda like them now. haven't rain-xed my windshield so i dont have the sensor problem, tho i do seem to have issues dialing in the sensitivity. no matter how much i change that, the wipers never seem to operate any differently. i guess as far as gripes go its a pretty minor one, so i can't complain too much about it. they've still exceeded my expectations so far.

[Silver Ecstasy]

I e-mailed Mazda NA and they told me that I can have the sensor shut off all together. I think I may do that and just use the wipers as intermittent (that is if it's possible)..

[GoFast]

mine dont bother me

[Silver Ecstasy]

^Thanks.

[Silver Ecstasy]

So...

I've asked the dealership repeatedly and have gotten nowhere. You cannot alter or adjust the rain-sensing wiper's sensitivity other than on the stalk, and you apparently cannot replace the stalk with a non-auto-wiper stalk, as the wiring has been installed for auto sensing, not otherwise.

It rained today, and once again these stupid things pissed me off. I'm doing 50mph, it's barely sprinkling and these stupid ass wipers are going 100mph. I'm like WTF SERIOUSLY! I turned them off, and had to flip the "mist" option every so often when it would collect too much.

Has anyone gotten any tips or suggestions? I'm almost tempted to call mazda and complain about this for real. It's a complete joke.

[Lagg-Alot]

So...

I've asked the dealership repeatedly and have gotten nowhere. You cannot alter or adjust the rain-sensing wiper's sensitivity other than on the stalk, and you apparently cannot replace the stalk with a non-auto-wiper stalk, as the wiring has been installed for auto sensing, not otherwise.

It rained today, and once again these stupid things pissed me off. I'm doing 50mph, it's barely sprinkling and these stupid ass wipers are going 100mph. I'm like WTF SERIOUSLY! I turned them off, and had to flip the "mist" option every so often when it would collect too much.

Has anyone gotten any tips or suggestions? I'm almost tempted to call mazda and complain about this for real. It's a complete joke.


You have the Auto Wipers turned down to the lowest sensitivity? The Knob on the Stalk Thingy. I find that if I leave mine to Lowest Sensitivity I can live with them. (five-0)

[Silver Ecstasy]

Absolutely sir! Lowest sensitivity and it goes like hell.

[J-Villa]

dont just turn them off.

turn them to the low continuous speed and then back to auto. It works for the misty rain here. also remove the strip of rain-x all up and down ur windshield around the sensor. I did it on my car last weekend and it works ALOT better now.

[Silver Ecstasy]

So, the sensor area and straight down from it too? What did you use to remove the rain-x? Hell, it's already sorta worn off anyhow by now, it's not flying across my windshield like when I first got it.

[J-Villa]

i didn't really remove it... i just never put any back on... The wipers go right over that area tons of times, so it's going to wear off eventually.

as for the strip. Look where the senor is... measure like 2 inches off of it on each side. and don't rain-x that strip all the way down the windshield. I really only did the drivers side b/c i don't care if my passenger can see... It's probably better then can.t

[mazdaspeedster3]

I have a totally different beef with the auto wipers/auto headlights: here in delaware its a law for the lights to be on when your wipers are on, and I assume there are similar laws elsewhere in the country? Well for daytime rain, its not always dark enough to turn on the auto-lights but there is plenty of rain for the wipers. Anyone else think that the lights should go on as soon as the wipers do? drives me crazy....

B.C. Canada is the same.