Automatic wipers - yea or nay

shadonoz

shadonoz

SkyActiv Member
Contributor
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State of Jefferson
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2017 CX-5 GT AWD+
How do you like the automatic intermittent wipers?
Mine were insensitive to start running, and then ran way too often for light rain conditions. Adjusting the stalk seemed to make little or no difference. Useless for me. (moon)
[No, nothing was blocking or interfering with the sensor.]
When I switched automatic OFF, I found the manual intermittent speeds are the best in any car I've ever driven. Fast is a minor hesitation, and slow is REALLY slow with three intermediate intervals. Perfect. (breakn)
One more reason to love my CX-5.(2thumbs)
 
shadonoz said:
How do you like the automatic intermittent wipers?
Mine were insensitive to start running, and then ran way too often for light rain conditions. Adjusting the stalk seemed to make little or no difference. Useless for me. (moon)
[No, nothing was blocking or interfering with the sensor.]
When I switched automatic OFF, I found the manual intermittent speeds are the best in any car I've ever driven. Fast is a minor hesitation, and slow is REALLY slow with three intermediate intervals. Perfect. (breakn)
One more reason to love my CX-5.(2thumbs)
Click to expand...

I felt the same way with my 2016. It got even worse when it was snowing. I eventually disabled the rain sensing function.

YMMV
 
Yeah, a bit unreliable when the lighting is poor. It seems dusk type lighting is the worst. I agree about the snow too... When they work, it's pretty sweet. I keep mine on usually.
 
I like auto wipers, especially when I can adjust the settings to how I like it
 
I’m pretty sure I have that feature switched off, the intermittent feature works better.

Even the one on my BMW isnt that good.
 
If I am not mistaken, over here there is no intermittent feature. It's auto with variable adjustment
 
That's what drives me nuts about the bmw's..its auto or nothing...single wipe or low speed is it. I think the auto function itself is a little better as the sensitivity can be adjusted on the stalk but overall I like Mazdas solution better in that you're not locked into auto intermittent. Mine has been disabled for probably 4 years now which is just a few months shy of how long I've owned it. Other random thought..how cool is it that you can lower the blinker volume? I was over the moon when i stumbled on that little beauty:)
 
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GJ-Molestor said:
I’m pretty sure I have that feature switched off, the intermittent feature works better.

Even the one on my BMW isnt that good.
Click to expand...
I drove a 3 series the other day and thought the auto was much better than the cx-5. Mazda seems to go haywire with foggy conditions.
 
Maybe one needs to keep the area infront of the sensor very clean at all times
 
When it's actually raining, they work great. Drizzling or a sprinkle, I find they're too sensitive.
 
They work well 50% of the time. Half the time I can set it the way I want and it works perfectly, the other half the time I find I have to control it myself manually - certainly for snow, dewy mornings and fog as others have said. I've not tried disabling it and using intermittent which I should do this winter.
 
I turned the auto sense to off. The wipers came on WAY too early and too often for my needs.
 
+1 for being unimpressed by the CX-5's auto wipers.

The sensor seems to get fooled or confused half the time, and wipes when it shouldn't. I've also experienced them NOT wiping when they definitely should. It's too bad really, because in general this is such a handy feature in an automobile and you wouldn't think the algorithm and implementation would be that difficult to get right.

I had a 2003 BMW 3 series a number of years ago, and the rain-sensing feature on that car was absolutely perfect. I don't recall if it was something I could disable, but I never even considered it. That car was just awesome all around, actually. Loved that smooth inline 6.
 
I keep the auto function on. They work very well except for fine mist which tricks the system into wiping way more often than needed. Irritating? Nope. It just takes a flick of the finger to turn the wipers off or to turn them on manual. I don’t let these kind of things get to me.
 
Aznbagel said:
GJ-Molestor said:
⋯ Even the one on my BMW isnt that good.
Click to expand...
I drove a 3 series the other day and thought the auto was much better than the cx-5. Mazda seems to go haywire with foggy conditions.
Click to expand...
Sideswipe said:
+1 for being unimpressed by the CX-5's auto wipers.

The sensor seems to get fooled or confused half the time, and wipes when it shouldn't. I've also experienced them NOT wiping when they definitely should. It's too bad really, because in general this is such a handy feature in an automobile and you wouldn't think the algorithm and implementation would be that difficult to get right.

I had a 2003 BMW 3 series a number of years ago, and the rain-sensing feature on that car was absolutely perfect. I don't recall if it was something I could disable, but I never even considered it. That car was just awesome all around, actually. Loved that smooth inline 6.
Click to expand...
I agree that the rain-sensing wipers on CX-5 really suck. The rain-sensing wipers on my old 2000 BMW 528i are so precise with sensibility adjustment and it has been worked perfectly for all of these years.

I would think after 16 years Mazda should have better technology than my old BMW on rain-sensing wipers. But they arent and the sensibility adjustment is almost useless!
 
I find the auto wipers annoying. All the Mazdas I've owned have been this way. They work properly half the time at best. The adjustment doesn't really seem to do anything except make them even more sensitive. Since this is my wife's vehicle, I just suck it up most of the time. If I'm using it for a longer drive and it's raining, I'll turn it off and go the old fashioned way. I found the auto-high beam system to be almost as annoying, at least when we had our CX-3. Thankfully this one doesn't have that feature.
 
It's sometimes annoying. But I still wanted the feature. Mine is always in automatic when not in use. One time a pool of dirty water splattered over my windshield while driving at 50km/hr on a zigzag mountain road and the auto feature did its job well. Minimal or almost no fog here in this side of the earth. No snow too.
 
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