Rain-Sensing Wipers question

Anyone else think that the lights should go on as soon as the wipers do? drives me crazy....

yeah i have also thought that. i would also like that option on every other car as soon as the wipers are on lights come on. its really scarry when your driving in the rain/snow and its bright enough to see the lanes but you cant see the car in front of you beacuse they didnt turn on there lights and those stupid cars with daytime runninglights errr....... sorry had a verry bad experiance when driving back home for X-mass and driver in front of me had daytime running lights and thought that was enough.
 
This is one of the reasons I bought the sport. If I want the headlights or wipers on I will turn them on. The "auto" function never gets it exactly how you want it.

Side note, I also wax all the windows and lights on my car, it really does help them stay clean and water fly right off.
 
older cars with the plastic headlights, one of the reason they get hazed over is beacuse of wax. one reason i wouldnt recomend waxing your headlights. over time either you get used to it or it becomes better.
 
Well I currently have a clear bra covering my headlights so thats not something I've done on this car but I have done it in the past. Rubbing compound takes the haze off if it gets bad though, also helps remove yellowing on real old lights.

Sorry about going off topic.. I dont know anything about changing wiper sensitivity.
 
FYI - in the 2008.5 GT's the rain sensor is not the same as the lights. It is located in the windshield mirror housing.
 
I rain-x'd all of my windows before hearing about the auto wiper problem. Sometimes when its drizzleing and the drops shoot up the windshield, the wipers won't stop, but for the one or two times i have to reach down and turn them off auto, they are very handy when driving through patches of heavy and slow rain on the highway and they change speed automaticly.

I only wish the doors locked and unlocked with the ignition like in my old 4runner
 
Something I figure out by trial and error

I noticed that if the wipers want to run too much or too little, if I pull them down to continuous for a minute or so then back to auto then they behave much better. Perhaps the controller uses the condition of the rain sensor at the moment the auto mode is entered as the point of reference so if it's clean at entry the auto mode works better.
 
Well I asked the dealer and they said there arnt any parameters to be adjusted but for some stubborn reason I don't believe it. I think im going to call mazda na and see what they say or just ask another dealer.
 
I noticed that if the wipers want to run too much or too little, if I pull them down to continuous for a minute or so then back to auto then they behave much better. Perhaps the controller uses the condition of the rain sensor at the moment the auto mode is entered as the point of reference so if it's clean at entry the auto mode works better.

I have accually tried that and it works. With all the rain we've been getting in Jax lately, i was reading through the forums to find something to slow down my wipers. When going down 95 in the rain and the wipers were going too fast; if I flipped them off and then back to auto, they would still go too fast... If i flipped them to continuous low for about 15 seconds then back to auto, they didn't go as fast as before.

i don't know why it works... but it did.
 
Auto Wipers Question

Is it just my MS3 that is a miss or is there like a major design flaw and not to much fore though to the Auto Wipers?

I have an Intermittent wiper speed switch but it does not make a difference how I set it the wipers do what they want when set to Auto. Is that the way it is on everyones MS3 or is my Intermittent switch not working?

The intermittent speed switch has no affect with wipers set to Low or High either.
 
RTM = Read the f_____g manual. :)

If the car has auto wipers, it does not have the traditional intermittent wiper function that you may be used to. You either have it OFF, AUTO, LOW or HIGH speed. In AUTO, the "-" and "+" adjustment will adjust the sensitivity (response time), but does not do anything to the speed. They adjust speed on their own.
 
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Auto Wipers still need an intermittent speed

OK Thanks for the answers to my question, and now I have an issue with the Intermittent Speed Control that I may have gotten used to on early model cars.

On a Hot Day it rains, Auto Wipers work fine. It stops raining and there is a misty fog. Your windshield will fog up so you have to keep the Defogger on and it is Hot so you want AC. What happens? The cold air on the lower part of your windshield makes the glass get cold and that causes condensation to form on the outside of the windshield. Low close to the defogger, not up high where the auto wiper sensor is located. You need the wipers to clear you view so you hit a manual swipe. Can you see where this is going? The condensation forms to slowly to set the wipers to Low Speed and the Auto Sensor will never detect the condensation and you have to manually wipe you windshield about every 30 seconds of so. Pain in the ass, why didn't they leave an intermittent wiper speed setting? (protest)

Engineers are so happy with what they could do, they never think about what they should do (spank)
 
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Man so I think I realized something you guys have been saying about the auto wipers I didn't believe before.

These things literally have a mind of their own! I noticed that you actually do have to turn them off then on for them to reset basically! They were going off like crazy in the storm on the way home from work tonight.

When I parked underneath my car port, they were still swiping like crazy but there was no rain hitting the windshield. I was like "Uhh..wtf". I think i'm going to call Mazda NA and ask if I can have the auto-wipers deactivated and intermittent wipers turned on somehow. I'm sure it's only a setting and they change the style of the stalk to show the sensitivity numbers instead of the int. speeds.
 
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