drksuh

My intermittent wipers do not seem to operate very well. When it is misty raining then the rain stops, the intermittent speed remains about every 5 to 6 second intervals. Does your's cut off completely after there is no rain? My Ford F Pickup truck has a better 6 stage interval washer system. Is mine just not operating right?

briar

I had trouble getting used to the rain sensor intermittent wipers. When it stops raining, they will still actuate when windshield is splashed with road water from other cars. But with dry road and no rain they stop completely. In fact, I sometimes forget to turn them off, and when the rain resumes, they start back up.
Question, you mention that you have Command Navigation - is this installed or on order?

ICY

I noticed something strange the other day. I have not tried the wipers since I've taken ownership and so when I was washing my car, I decided to start it, activate the rain sensor (wiper position 1) and spray water on the windscreen with the hose to simulate rain.

To my surprise, the wipers didn't move!! I thought I had a stuffed rain sensor. However, when I got my sister to sit in the driver's seat, they worked fine! Varying in speed according to the water from the hose.

Anyone noticed this? Perhaps via the weight sensors in the seat, the same ones that determine how the airbags should inflate?

Hmm.....

bmms8

i remember i tried this, and i still have no luck. we wont drive the car when its raining, but we will have the dealer check it out, but the wipers wont go on if the driver door is open

Jim Banville

I don't know if MB has improved rain-sensing wipers since the '02 C240, but I disabled mine by pulling a plug inside the plastic housing on the windshield. Now I get 1 wipe every 5 seconds when set to the first wiper setting. Before, I would sometimes get too much or too little wiping action.

drksuh

No I am one of many still waiting on Command but I am looking forward to playing with it whenever it comes.

skymast

I have mixed feelings on the Inter. wipers but in their defense, they should only be tuned 'on' when it is raining. Not raining, turn them off.

Gethen

So far the only bad thing happens in intermittemt mode when there is dirt on the windshield. Rain sensor cannot tell water from dirt and runs wipers non-stop. I had to turn wipers off.

The manual mentioned something about priming brakes periodically when wipers are on.

Bilal

Guys, (I think) don't know for sure, that the rain sensor that actually detects water is on the rear windscreen, try switching the auto wipe function on and thne putting water on the rear sunshade. see if it works.

jabo

You'll find what I believe is the rain sensor behind the front top center of the windshield/windscreen where the rearview mirror housing covers the glass from the inside.

I could be wrong though.

mbtech208

You're right, that's where the rain sensor is. If you look closely, you'll see it's a little blue area.

ICY

My car hasn't seen rain either....I wish it would. I want to test the wipers/rain sensor, handling in the wet, tyre noise etc.

This drought in Australia isn't letting it happen though. Of course, I'd rather it rain to soak the land than to test my rain sensor...

jim256

MB actually enhanced the rain sensors (behind rear view mirror) on the E Class this year by increasing the number of sensors to 4. You can see the jeweled "eyes" there. Older models had a smaller sensing area--1 or 2, I believe, in recalling my '01 C. ('Learned at a MB OnTrack event from the E Class product presenter from MB HQ.)

pat a.

Mine seem to work great, except in the snow, they get a little funky.

mwillems

You are right - but my old C320 worked MUCH better. THis E320 wiper sensing is unreliable. Often the wipers stay on for a minute even after the rain/dirt/etc stops completely. And in snow/salt it's pretty useless. Why they could not have ested... after all the previous one (on the C) was fine!

Michael

drksuh

My intermittents never cut off even when the rain stops. The slowest they go is at an interval of 5.5 to 6.5 seconds. What is the slowest your wipers go, and do they cut off completely when the rain stops? It sounds like most peoples' do.

Double Eagle

We had a lot of rain last week here in southern CA and my wipers worked well on the intermittent mode when the rain was coming down steady-either light or heavy. However, if the windshield was wet and you would stop at a light, they would sometimes stop entirely and be slow to respond properly after you started up. I found that, if you pushed in on the stalk to get at least one swipe of the wipers, they would then function OK.

I believe this might be caused by the rain sheeting on the windshield when you stop and not appearing as individual drops to the sensor behind the rear view mirror.

Overall, however, I was satisfied with the intermittent wiper function.

mwillems

The stopping is design feature. When you are not moving you need less wiping!

Mike

Double Eagle

I realize they are supposed to slow down when you are stopped but they would sometimes stop entirely and then not start up when I moved after the stop, even with considerable rain hitting the windshield. After I gave the stalk a push in for one swing of the wiper, they then operated properly--speeding up or slowing down depending on rain amount.

mwillems

Yes, I understand now. Indeed they do that for me sometimes too. The autodetect on my 2001 C320 worked much better.

But it must be a software error, so hopefully we will see a fix soon.

Michael

netwalla

I have a w211, all was working fine then I noticed my rain sensor was not cleaning the scrren properly, there was a delay in cleaning the rain on the screen, I had purchased new wipers from mercedes which really clean well, so i decided to do some trouble shooting,
I knew when driving through the tunnell the light came on all ok. I noticed the satnav is on auto setting for the brightness, when driving one day it became dim.
I removed the sensor and tried the wipers it works fine with 5 sec delay after each wipe on position 1.

So now removed the sensor cleaned the wind screen from out side, cleaned the lens from inside and gave the sensor a blow to remove any dust. I have put it back in and checking these days, but i think the rain sensor should kick in a 1 or 2 seconds early than normal, I can see there is enough rain on the windscreen before the sensor kicks in.
Please advise.

Thanks
Harry

dguy

where is the rain sensor located?dguy

netwalla

I have a e320 cdi w211 2003 model

The rain sensor is located behinbg the rear viw mirror fixed to the screen.
Netwalla

konigstiger

Correct, center windshield accessed by unclipping cover @ rearview mirror. If attempting to remove, be careful not to damage lens mounted inside windshield. PM email address if you want instructions.

netwalla

Hi

Thanks for the pics,
Please read my statment above,
I have removed and fixed it
I need to reset it so its it cleans the screen
At the moment it cleans when there is too much rain on the screen

Thanks
Netwalla