[DanG]

The rainy season has come and so has the need for windshield wipers.

For some reason, even with the sensitivity turn all the way up, my wipers are delaying way to long. The rain hits the windshield and has time to start running upwards before the sensor tell the wipers to go. This obviously make it hard to see.

I'm going to the dealer next week, but I was interested if anyone else had the same problem. If so, did the dealer figure a way to fix it?

[Transfer]

Yeah they're not so good, but at least better than our Audi. I find they only really work well with constant rain and not this on/off mild rain we often get in Seattle. Interestingly though my 2011 M3's auto wipers worked flawlessly. On the 235 I set them one stop from full sensitivity and that's often not enough but if I go full retard they can get spastic crazy when I don't need that.

One thing our SQ5 has though is the ability to disable auto wipers and have them as standard adjustable intermittent.

[krhodes1]

I'm not thrilled with them either - been raining here all week. They work much better on my e91. Or at least more consistently. Do note that on all of these cars they very much are speed sensitive too - they all but stop when you stop, even if it is raining fairly hard. And I have never driven a car with rain-sensing wipers that worked worth a crap in snow.

I think I read somewhere there is a sensitivity setting that can be coded higher. Please post what the dealer has to say.

/rant - I don't understand why they can't program in both fixed interval intermittent AND have the rain sensing option. Just have it if the button isn't pushed the first push up of the stalk is intermittent, with the interval set by the sensitivity wheel. Push the rain sense button, and it works like it does now. Especially since BMW doesn't even have fixed positions for the wiper stalk anyway. It's all just software! Bloody Germans!

[krhodes1]

Originally Posted by Transfer

Yeah they're not so good, but at least better than our Audi. I find they only really work well with constant rain and not this on/off mild rain we often get in Seattle. Interestingly though my 2011 M3's auto wipers worked flawlessly. On the 235 I set them one stop from full sensitivity and that's often not enough but if I go full retard they can get spastic crazy when I don't need that.

One thing our SQ5 has though is the ability to disable auto wipers and have them as standard adjustable intermittent.

I agree - my 2011 e91 works nearly perfectly in any amount of actual rain. Sucks in light snow though! Audi has the right solution - let you have it both ways.

[sstarrx3]

Yes, the auto wipe system on the 2er is not very good. I often have to hit the stalk to get it to wipe before it does it on its own. Most cars offer this feature now and to be honest my 2er has the worst performance of any that I have driven with regards to this. On my way back from WV to NC last weekend it was raining and I had the auto wipers on. It acted confused half the time. It would speed up when it really did not need to and slow down when it should be speeding up.

[TheBiles]

I found that they're really spotty. They don't activate until the windshield is covered, and they will continue to run until they are really dry. Other times they will run very slowly when the rain is pretty heavy, forcing me to use manual speed.

[Viffermike]

They're not perfect, no ... but I've found that they have a pretty consistent built-in delay that puts off speed adjustments for 10 seconds or so, and that is what frustrates many who use it. In other words:

1). Set to medium-high sensitivity, with light rain
2). Starts raining harder
3). System doesn't speed up to account for the heavier rainfall for @ 10 secs
4). Rain tapers off
5). System doesn't slow down to account for lighter rainfall for @ 10 secs
etc.

What I wonder if why this delay is built in. To decrease wear on the wiper motor? It's conceivable.

[Lucky13]

I thought this was just my imagination so I'm glad I'm not the only one. Just this week I couldn't figure out why my car is this way when I've never had this issue with 15 other BMW's. We'll probably see a recall long after we get rid of these and move on to our next car.

[Tpeterson]

Originally Posted by DanG

The rainy season has come and so has the need for windshield wipers.

For some reason, even with the sensitivity turn all the way up, my wipers are delaying way to long. The rain hits the windshield and has time to start running upwards before the sensor tell the wipers to go. This obviously make it hard to see.

I'm going to the dealer next week, but I was interested if anyone else had the same problem. If so, did the dealer figure a way to fix it?

Mine work reasonably well,far from great. Much better then my E46 version.I wish they would forget about sensors and use multi-speed intermitent settings.

[moldcad]

They work on my M235i exactly the same as in my previous BMW that had them - the the F10 (previous E46 didn't had them). So I guess they are crappy across the board of all current BMW models which I can't comprehend - it's not rocket science! The rain sensor in my other car - the Golf R - is absolutely perfect in comparison...

BTW, not the only one of those "little things" that work better in the R