Does this happen on anyone else's car ?

[f1nny]

Morning everyone

As you all obviously know the weather has been terrible the past few weeks, with pretty much non-stop rain, so this is where I've started to notice something strange happening with my wipers and I'm just wondering if anyone else has this happen on their A3/S3 ?

Basically when I'm driving and I have my wipers are on the normal speed setting (1 stroke a Second) they work fine, but when I come to a halt/stop i.e traffic lights, roundabouts waiting etc... They change to intermittent speed (roughly 1 stroke every 5 seconds) but then change back to normal speed as soon as I set off moving again. Has everyone else noticed this ? or does it look like a trip to the dealers ? Oh I don't have auto-wipers either just in case you think it could be that.

Finny

 

[jbs2472]

That is standard and was standard on the 8P so am surprised you didn't notice it on that.

 

[Simon66]

Yeah normal, my 8P does it.

 

[veeeight]

Yes.
When you come to a stop, the wipers will "reduce" one stage.
So if you're in speed 2, it will reduce to speed 1
If you're in speed 1, it will reduce to intermittent.

 

[f1nny]

Thanks for the replies guys, I feel like such an idiot now after my post haha especially as you've pointed out it's been like that on models for a while, and I'm on my third Audi. I think I must of skipped the wiper page in the manual as we all assume they work the same on every car ha.

Thanks again, the forum is a wealth of knowledge as always

Finny

 

[TFSI]

Thanks for the replies guys, I feel like such an idiot now after my post haha especially as you've pointed out it's been like that on models for a while, and I'm on my third Audi. I think I must of skipped the wiper page in the manual as we all assume they work the same on every car ha.

Thanks again, the forum is a wealth of knowledge as always

Finny

Dont feel an idiot ! I'm on my 4th A3 and i didn't know the wipers did that !!

 

[steeve]

You may also notice that if you have your wipers on and select reverse the rear one wipes, but that's not exactly new either

 

[cemerson]

I find the auto wipers turn their frequency down a bit too much at low speed - eg in a traffic queue or something. Seems fine at speed, but they rate at which they turn down their sensitivity when slowing down is way too much IMO.

 

[Vertigo1]

Other interesting wiper facts you may not know...

1. When you wash/wipe the screen, there are two separate features which attempt to prevent drips/splashes. Firstly, the last downward stroke of the wash/wipe cycle is slightly slower than the rest. Secondly, there is an additional wipe cycle a few seconds later. This second wipe cycle generally only operates when the car is moving.

2. No matter what setting you leave your wipers on when you turn off the ignition, when you next start the car, they will not operate until you move the wiper stalk or the car starts moving at more than a few mph. This is in case they have frozen overnight and to prevent the wiper motor straining against immovable wipers if you forgot to turn them off the previous night

 

[s3_trev]

Thats staggering how you havnt seen that before now Finny....

Other interesting wiper facts you may not know...

No matter what setting you leave your wipers on when you turn off the ignition, when you next start the car, they will not operate until you move the wiper stalk or the car starts moving at more than a few mph. This is in case they have frozen overnight and to prevent the wiper motor straining against immovable wipers if you forgot to turn them off the previous night

So thats the logic behind that! Interesting.

 

[Flibble]

So thats the logic behind that! Interesting.

Always wondered that myself. I tend to switch them off when I park up as a habit now.

 

[coolguy]

I find the auto wipers turn their frequency down a bit too much at low speed - eg in a traffic queue or something. Seems fine at speed, but they rate at which they turn down their sensitivity when slowing down is way too much IMO.

Same here, sometimes I think it's not working properly as my windscreen just gets too 'wet' until the next wipe.

 

[JohnM100]

Other interesting wiper facts you may not know...

2. No matter what setting you leave your wipers on when you turn off the ignition, when you next start the car, they will not operate until you move the wiper stalk or the car starts moving at more than a few mph. This is in case they have frozen overnight and to prevent the wiper motor straining against immovable wipers if you forgot to turn them off the previous night

Key phrase here is "move the wiper stalk" OR start driving.

Had a curious situation scraping ice off the car today:
1. Start engine & heated rear window turned on to defrost as well as front demister.
2. Proceed to start scraping ice off windows.
3. Before doing the windscreen I noticed the rear window ice melted so pushed the wiper stalk back for a single rear wipe. All fine so far.
Proceed to scrape windscreen. As I got near the rain sensor, the auto wipers activated even though the car had not moved. Luckily I let go as the wiper grabbed my ice scraper and flung it across into the hedge nearby.

Either that or or car was unhappy at being scraped when -6c and decided to throw a strop.....

No damage done but did make me jump!

John.

 

[Vertigo1]

Haha nice one - never occurred to me that would happen but I no longer have a rear wiper so I'm safe