Intermittent Wipers: Do You Bother?
 

Every now and again I'll give them a shot, but it seems I always end up canceling them and using the Mist function.

Same with the automatic rain-sensing feature. Sounds cool in theory but works effectively only, shall we say, intermittently.

Call me Mister mister!

_

Yes.

I use them.

What drives me nuts is our cars have different locations and positions for the controls.

I try to use the intermittent function but sometimes it's a chore. Auto-sensing wipers are a god-send of the future, though, I live and die by those.

Absolutely, I use intermittent frequently. In my boxster, there's a rain sensor in the rear view mirror mount so the car automatically adjusts the period based on how much rain there is. They will speed up and slow down as the amount of wetness on the windshield changes. There's a rotatey thing on the stalk where the sensitivity can be turned up/down. The wipers will completely stop if the rain stops, and then if the rain starts up again, the wipers will start back up if you've left the stalk in the "auto" setting.

My wifes car is not that fancy, but it does have a rotatey thing on the stalk, so I can easily vary the speed of the wipers up/down as the wetness changes.

I like intermittent wipers. The wipers slapping back and forth on a barely wet windshield are annoying.
The wiper speed indicator on all the vehicles I have owned had little white lines of increasing length to indicate the amount of delay between swipes. On one car, I can't remember which one, maybe Mazda GLC, the long line indicated a long delay, shorter lines indicated shorter delays. It was logical and made perfect sense. My Tundra and Volt are just the opposite. A short line indicates a long delay and a long line is a short delay. Totally illogical and I don't know why the do it, but I've gotten use to it.

My wife's Macan has the automatic rain sensor wipers. They are amazing.

My 86 El Camino and my 85 911 both have delay systems that are mechanical. The Elky is right on the wiper stalk and pretty easy to set. I use it a lot.

Just last weekend I drove to Arkansas in the 911. We hit several bits of rain. Using the intermittent wipers on the 911 is a bit of a yoga for the hand for my large hands. Reach up and twist the little knob and dial in more or less is not easy, and requires my eyes to be off the road for a second.

I wonder how many other cars have a factory delivered intermittent wiper function on a totally separate knob from the wiper control. I can hit the wiper stalk if I need on wipe, or just wait until the next wipe, or twist the knob to adjust. If the rain gets heavier, hit the wipers to on, and either leave the intermittent running, or turn it off. Weird design.

Rain sensing wipers are the best option on my car.

Based on my experience with my much older Boxster, I would agree. Porsche has it nailed.

I use them all the time. In these parts, rain intensity can vary greatly on any trip and I like to use the wipers as little as possible, as I see fit.

My wife's car before the Macan was an Infinity G-35x. It had automatic wipers that were simply useless. They pretty much did not work in auto mode. The Macan's wipers are really amazing. Kinda like the PDK transmission, it is almost reading the mind of the driver.

The intermittent wipers on my Civic and Prelude work perfect...use them a lot.

The wiper washers on the Civic is a diff story....I hate them. The nozzles are located on the middle of the wiper arm and impossible to spray at the right time. Most of the fluid ends up pushed over the edge...unused.

Funny you should ask that. I am now a test track driver in quality control at the Kia plant in West Point, Ga. One function that we check is the auto wipers. It has been raining today so I have been using the auto wiper feature. You can adjust the sensitivity of this feature similar to the adjustment of tje intermittent wiper function.

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So as long as no more than 3 parts fall off and you fall asleep from boredom, then you check off on things as working as designed?


Sorry, couldn't help myself. All in jest.

I will say that I think Kia has stepped up their appearance/asthetics game based on some of the cars that I'm seeing on the road.

I've never driven a Kia or Hyundai.

RainX application dramatically lessens intermittent wiper adjustments.

We had an early model BMW X5. Pretty nice car but had some early model issues.

I was driving from Fort Campbell Kentucky to San Antonio one year just before Christmas. Crossed the Mississippi into Arkansas and immediately ran into a freezing mist that continued for most of the state.

The freezing stuff ended up breaking the rain sensor thing and it never worked again.

Yep...Western Oregon.

And I've had good results by using the RainX fluid additive (vs having to manually apply).

The intermittent wiper function in my '78 911SC is the best-designed I have ever seen in an automobile. One click, and you have long duration intermittence. Further rotation shortens the duration, continuously, until the right frequency is found. A touch of the stalk triggers a fresh wipe at any time needed, without cancelling the intermittent feature.

And yes, all my cars have Rain-X on the front glass. Above 30 mph, no wipers are needed at all.