Rain sensing wipers - VW got it wrong

[BigMan]

Mine failed on me again tonight. When the rain falls heavily on the windscreen it failed to wipe, but when light rain falls it went full throttle.

Only got the car in July so not sure if its a revision problem or what.

[Guest212]

08 GTI and mine are rubbish.

If i leave them on auto mine will actually start wiping when I start up the car in the middle of a fine sunny day with a perfectly clean windscreen. No wax or rainx etc.

I leave them off. I prefer to control my wipers. Don't give a rats about them. Would rather they ditched the auto wipers and headlights and installed a phone system so the bloody button on the steering wheel works.


Actually no don't scrap the auto headlights. Theyre tops! Work exactly like I do. I especially like how they don't turn on in tunnels like camrys and commonwhores.

[FJ Steve]

Actually no don't scrap the auto headlights. Theyre tops! Work exactly like I do. I especially like how they don't turn on in tunnels like camrys and commonwhores.

hmmm....08 R32, and mine turns on in tunnels

[Guest212]

Sounds like calibration varies alot.

My DSG needed recalibration pretty early on.

[GTom]

hmmm....08 R32, and mine turns on in tunnels

So do mine..... It's made me lazy...... I go drive another car.... The lights don't turn on automatically when it rains, i, have to strain myself turn the wipers on.... AND THEN, I have to change the rear view mirror because it doesn't dim automatically! What kind of world do we live in!

[adrian112]

yeah mine are a little dodge as well but i guess its a varying thing cos my mate with a Jetta said his are tops?

[THR]

My lights turn on in tunnels, my wipers work as they should, and my DSG is smooth as anything.

It does seem that there is a bit of a variance though.

(The only time I find my wipers don't work straight away is when I first start the car and it's raining... they do start eventually but you have to turn them off and on again for them to start immediately.)

Perhaps you need to adjust the sensitivity of the wipers?

[aDg3]

Has there been any progress made to correct these?
I got my 08 GTI in November, don't know what the build date is but I'm finding I need to always switch them off then on for them to work properly.

Should I be seeing a VW dealer/repairshop to have this corrected?

[Guest212]

my car got hailed on. No damage but plenty of loud banging on the windscreen.

The auto wipers now work exceptionally well considering there is only one sensor for them.

Go figure...

[Big Yellow]

I find my auto wipers are a pain in the arse! Never work when i need them to, work when i dont need them to!

But on the other hand, auto lights work a treat!!

[bazzle]

Im very happy with mine

I do find after a cold start if its raining they are slow to react initially when driving slow.
If you turn off and on whilst sitting in car waiting for oil to circ all is 100%

Bazzle

[CatonaPC©]

I don't like the auto wipers. Sometimes they work well, and sometimes they don't. Same with the auto-headlights. Sometimes they switch on and off properly, sometimes they don't switch off at all even in bright sunshine.

But I do find switching off and then on either seems to reset things.

Oh . . and my DSG works beautifully.

[aDg3]

headlights are fine...as far as I can tell by having the car for about 2.5months now. But yer...the wipers don't come on for me unless I reset..by switching it off and then on

edit: ever had the vw dealer check them out?

[motk]

We had some issues with the auto wipers until we read the manual, and discovered that you can change the sensitivity!

[Big Yellow]

We had some issues with the auto wipers until we read the manual, and discovered that you can change the sensitivity!

Yep but even when adjusting the sensitivity it never worked properly! On full sensitivity, it would go crazy when one or two drops of water landed on the windscreen then stop working all together to the point my windscreen was water logged if you catch my drift.

I just manually do it now. Not worth the risk of tail-ending someone waiting for the wipers to clear your vision lolz!