auto sensing wipers in the snow

[barryWest]

Yeah, I saw an old thread on this subject, but thought I would start a new one. This is my first vehicle with auto-sensing wipers and so far I'm not overly impressed, at least with how it handles snow. I find even at the lowest sensitiviy setting, the wipers are being activated too often (resulting in that annoying squeak when there is not enough moisture on the windshield). Anyone else?
While flipping through the manual, I noticed a note on page 5-51:

"The auto-wiper control may not operate when the rain sensor temperature is about -10 C(14 F) or lower, or about 85 C(185 F) or higher."

So, does this mean the wipers aren't supposed to move, or won't move correctly in auto mode? Exterior temps up here this winter have often been well below -10.

 

[dreamym5]

i remember reading same issue from edmunds.com customer's fourms..

but i am sure it must be "cool" to have auto sensing wipers...

 

[barryWest]

but i am sure it must be "cool" to have auto sensing wipers...

Unfortunately they are standard on the canadian versions. If I could have gotten just regular intermittent, I would have gone that route.

 

[skyhawk]

The rain sensor circuit/electronics is inside the cabin. If temperature inside the cabin is -10C and below, even when you are driving.. it can mean temperature outside must be colder.. say -20C. At these low temperature, chances are there won't be snowfall or rain anyways.

In rainy days, the autosensing wiper works great.

 

[dreamym5]

Unfortunately they are standard on the canadian versions. If I could have gotten just regular intermittent, I would have gone that route.

Really... is that for all cars?..

I know DRL is standard on every cars in Cananda..

 

[Rivman]

features

Speaking for the M3 - Yes, and heated outside rear view mirrors, but we don't get TPMS or TCS/DSC.

 

[major error]

I think the main problem is that the sensor is maybe 1 sq inch, representing the entire windshield. I'd imagine the processes governing the system use some sort of smoothed rolling average (depending on user sensitivity setting) to make it work properly...

Even in rain, it will have issues. As an example, I find it gets a little spastic when there's a light mist falling. All those little strikes really fast makes it think there's more water on the surface than there really is...
As for snow, it may hit but not necessarily stick, but it still registers.

Getting to my point, I've noticed the same thing on my 3. I've come to the conclusion that it was designed to handle average weather, and anything approaching the extremes will evoke a quirky response. To my knowledge, rain-sensing wipers are still relatively new for the budget end of the car market, so all the kinks haven't exactly been ironed out.

In spite of all that, I still find it a valuable option that works a lot better than the standard intermittent. I still get a good laugh at how it responds at the extremes, though.