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Adjusting rain sensor sensitivity?

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Old Jun 7, 2003 | 11:57 PM
  #1  
Robert Schrader's Avatar
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Adjusting rain sensor sensitivity?

The rain sensors are just a tad more sensitive than I want them to be - after the first few swipes the wipers are grinding across a nearly dry window.
Are the sensors adjustable? Thanks.
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Old Jun 8, 2003 | 01:10 AM
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Nope. Damn it. They are too sensitive.
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Old Jun 8, 2003 | 09:47 AM
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The sensor gets more sensitive as the wipers age. It's very important to keep the area on the windshield above the sensor very clean. If an older wiper leaves that filmy wipe over it, it will soon wipe again.

In general, I feel the sensor works about right... I agree that sometimes it wipes too often, but there have been times when I wish it would wipe and it doesn't.

We all heve preferences on this. But the wiper is set to satisfy the most people on average.
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Old Jun 8, 2003 | 10:01 AM
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I disabled mine! Just pull of the plastic cover and pull the plug. There are two plugs, but if you pull the wrong one you'll see a warning screen appear. Just plug that one back in and pull the other one. Now I get 1 wipe every 5 seconds on the first wiper setting.
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Old Jun 8, 2003 | 10:21 AM
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Originally posted by Jim Banville
I disabled mine! Just pull of the plastic cover and pull the plug. There are two plugs, but if you pull the wrong one you'll see a warning screen appear. Just plug that one back in and pull the other one. Now I get 1 wipe every 5 seconds on the first wiper setting.
Interesting hack. Thanx
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Old Jun 8, 2003 | 02:04 PM
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Originally posted by Jim Banville
I disabled mine! Just pull of the plastic cover and pull the plug. There are two plugs, but if you pull the wrong one you'll see a warning screen appear. Just plug that one back in and pull the other one. Now I get 1 wipe every 5 seconds on the first wiper setting.

Hmmmm!, if it's that easy, I wonder if its possible to put in a potentiometer so you can dial in the frequency of sweep?
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Old Jun 8, 2003 | 02:31 PM
  #7  
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Originally posted by Jim Banville
I disabled mine! Just pull of the plastic cover and pull the plug...
Thanks. But where is the plastic cover?
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Old Jun 8, 2003 | 03:40 PM
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Originally posted by Robert Schrader
Thanks. But where is the plastic cover?
On the inside of the windshield behind the rear view mirror.
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Old Jun 8, 2003 | 04:49 PM
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On the inside of the windshield behind the rear view mirror.
Yeah. Just yank it straight off.
I doubt you could dial in any other settings with a pot. When you disconnect the sensor, the system reverts back to the standard intermitent (5 sec.) setting. IMHO, the '02 C-class version of rain sensing wipers ain't ready for prime time . For starters, it probably needs more than 1 sensor to sample from.
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Old Jun 8, 2003 | 05:32 PM
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It would have made things so much more simple if they would have just given us a sensitivity control on the stalk. Many other rain sense systems use what is normally the delay interval adjuster to be the sensor sensitivity control.

Same with the auto volume adjustment level for the radio.... same with the auto dimming mirror which you can't shut off (if you want to)....They've simplified some things to avoid extra controls, but in turn, they've removed the ability for user adjustment...

See, I do complain about my MB once in a while :p
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