Anybody had this issue with windshield wipers?

[Yury]

Hi,

My front wipers are acting funny sometimes. When they are in the delay mode sometimes they don't stop at the down position but go past it and up an inch or two and then stop. Usually happens when cold or raining. The specific mode doesn't matter, usually I have them on auto, but it also happens if I swipe once.
Even during rain it happens sporadically....probably half of the time or so.

This is a canadian 2010 that I bought new in 2011. Very low mileage and wear (I work from home). I don't think it was doing it when it.was new.



So...anyone had this problem and what can it be? Wiper motor going south? I guess it wouldn't be a big deal to replace since there's a lot of used ones for sale.
Or can it be just a matter of gunked up electrical connection somewhere.

Thanks.

 

[Robotazky]

Hi,

My front wipers are acting funny sometimes. When they are in the delay mode sometimes they don't stop at the down position but go past it and up an inch or two and then stop. Usually happens when cold or raining. The specific mode doesn't matter, usually I have them on auto, but it also happens if I swipe once.
Even during rain it happens sporadically....probably half of the time or so.

This is a canadian 2010 that I bought new in 2011. Very low mileage and wear (I work from home). I don't think it was doing it when it.was new.



So...anyone had this problem and what can it be? Wiper motor going south? I guess it wouldn't be a big deal to replace since there's a lot of used ones for sale.
Or can it be just a matter of gunked up electrical connection somewhere.

Thanks.

It's normal assuming your car has automatic wipers.

To some degree, you will see it happen on all cars. It's about the computer data sampling rate and the rain sensor sampling rate, and the delay caused by a mechanical motor and the computer's ability to read its position. Fixing that is not worth the money in hardware and programming because it's just wipers, not ABS brakes or something else which needs critical precision. In my opinion, having observed this on many occasions on our '09 GT, the programming could probably be cleaned up some, but it's hard to say without seeing what hardware they're having to deal with in terms of the motor and motor position sensor, among other things.

You say you're experiencing it when doing a single swipe as well, which I have not noticed, but that would also be due to the position sensor and sampling rates. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Yury]

It's normal assuming your car has automatic wipers.

To some degree, you will see it happen on all cars. It's about the computer data sampling rate and the rain sensor sampling rate, and the delay caused by a mechanical motor and the computer's ability to read its position. Fixing that is not worth the money in hardware and programming because it's just wipers, not ABS brakes or something else which needs critical precision. In my opinion, having observed this on many occasions on our '09 GT, the programming could probably be cleaned up some, but it's hard to say without seeing what hardware they're having to deal with in terms of the motor and motor position sensor, among other things.

You say you're experiencing it when doing a single swipe as well, which I have not noticed, but that would also be due to the position sensor and sampling rates. I wouldn't worry about it.

Now I think I experienced that not with a single swipe, but with the mist function while the wipers were on auto. So, you can say it's the same as rain falling on the windshield.

I am not really worried about it, but rather annoyed. The rain sensing feature is so imperfect in the way it selects the wiper speed so it's almost not worth having and now this. Just makes me wonder why bother with something that flaky.

 

[Robotazky]

Do you mess with the sensitivity?

 

[Yury]

No, I didn't. Haven't touched that dial for a while now.

 

[Silentnoise713]

Do you mess with the sensitivity?

there's a sensitivity dial somewhere for the auto wiper??

 

[Yury]

^ yes, there's a ring on the wiper stalk, has + and - on it.

 

[Robotazky]

there's a sensitivity dial somewhere for the auto wiper??

It takes a while to figure out what it's doing, but it's basically measuring surface area of the sensor that's exposed to water. If the rain changes from a small drop to a larger drop, sometimes the frequency of the drops hitting the sensor can cause a need to adjust it. I rarely have to use it, but it does come in handy for sustained rains with lots of different rain patterns. If a storm just rolls through, you won't usually have to deal with it unless it was on one end of the adjustment spectrum due to the previous rain and it's a totally different pattern now.

 

[Robotazky]

Now I think I experienced that not with a single swipe, but with the mist function while the wipers were on auto. So, you can say it's the same as rain falling on the windshield.

I am not really worried about it, but rather annoyed. The rain sensing feature is so imperfect in the way it selects the wiper speed so it's almost not worth having and now this. Just makes me wonder why bother with something that flaky.

You may have an issue. I think our works really well. I've never thought it was performing poorly.