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- State of Jefferson
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- 2017 CX-5 GT AWD+
Settings only allows auto on or off. When auto is on, the int control is supposed to adjust the sensitivity, according to the manual. RTM, as they say. (lol2)
Automatic wipers - yea or nay
- Thread starter shadonoz
- Start date
Settings only allows auto on or off. When auto is on, the int control is supposed to adjust the sensitivity, according to the manual. RTM, as they say. (lol2)
mazdadude
ZOOOOOOOOOM ZOOOOOOOOOM
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- '16.5 Mazda CX-5 Touring
(yippy) Nice to know someone else read it!
None of our 3 CX-5's have had the automatic wipers, so I was unsure how the sensitivity was adjusted. (thumb)
Lower end models may not have this feature
Johnny Danger
Member
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- 2014 CX-5 GT
I had the same feature on my 2008 X3 and love it. I was looking at a 4 Runner as a replacement before I really looked at the CX-5 and it really bummed me out that it didn't have it. Didn't even know the CX-5 had it until I went to turn on the wipers for the first time and was super happy to find the feature.
Maybe I've convinced myself that the system is more dynamic than it actually is, but I have found that turning on the auto function as soon as you *want* the wipers to work usually gives it a good baseline setting. So I will often bump the stalk to get one quick wipe and then as soon as I want the wipers, put it on auto and then it uses that amount of coverage over the sensor as it's baseline to activate the wipers. Then I can bump up the sensitivity if I feel like I need more. I have never needed to lower the sensitivity. But I could honestly have just made all of this up in my head. In two years of driving the X3, I never once had to use anything other than the auto setting. Same for the CX-5 so far, but that's only been a few months. both systems seem to work as well as each other.
It seems to me that if my assumptions of how the system work, leaving the stalk on auto all the time means that it would be hyper sensitive the moment it saw rain. Conversely, waiting until the windscreen is soaked and then moving it to auto means the sensor would be waiting to be completely covered again. This thread is going to make me google this now to figure out whether or not I'm insane.
Maybe I've convinced myself that the system is more dynamic than it actually is, but I have found that turning on the auto function as soon as you *want* the wipers to work usually gives it a good baseline setting. So I will often bump the stalk to get one quick wipe and then as soon as I want the wipers, put it on auto and then it uses that amount of coverage over the sensor as it's baseline to activate the wipers. Then I can bump up the sensitivity if I feel like I need more. I have never needed to lower the sensitivity. But I could honestly have just made all of this up in my head. In two years of driving the X3, I never once had to use anything other than the auto setting. Same for the CX-5 so far, but that's only been a few months. both systems seem to work as well as each other.
It seems to me that if my assumptions of how the system work, leaving the stalk on auto all the time means that it would be hyper sensitive the moment it saw rain. Conversely, waiting until the windscreen is soaked and then moving it to auto means the sensor would be waiting to be completely covered again. This thread is going to make me google this now to figure out whether or not I'm insane.
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- State of Jefferson
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- 2017 CX-5 GT AWD+
Great theory! Gonna try it. Can't believe Mazda would incorporate a feature that works so bad [on mine].
Johnny Danger
Member
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- 2014 CX-5 GT
I have to imagine I'm making things up in my head. I googled it and sensors are typically sending infrared light at a 45 degree angle through the window and then measuring how much light is returned. It would make more sense for each sensitivity setting to have a dedicated percentage of light passage to flip on. But the engineer in me thinks it would make much more sense to be a dynamic system as I described it.
I will say the key to these sensors working is going to be a clean windshield and good wipers. A dirty windshield or bad wipers pulling streaks across the sensor could only hurt the performance.
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- 2019 CX-5 Signature Soul Red Crystal
What I find on my 2019 CX-5 is the rain-sensing setting is where I get most of the problems(juddering on driver's side). Sometimes I get juddering on intermittent as well if there is insufficient moisture on the windshield. I had a Honda CR-V for 10+ years and never had juddering even on a dry window! Something about the curvature of the windshield or wiper arm design is flaky on recent Mazdas.
