MASTER THREAD: Auto Wiper issues

[WilliamG]

You burn through a lot of wiper fluid doing that then. I don't know why Tesla didn't make that a two step button, push once to cycle the wipers once or twice without fluid, push and hold and get washer fluid cycle. Problem solved...

I’m confused. Pushing the button doesn’t use any wiper fluid at all. It’s a two-stage button. Push one click in on the stalk to wipe, or push through to second click to wipe and have washer fluid come out.

 

[acarney]

I’m confused. Pushing the button doesn’t use any wiper fluid at all. It’s a two-stage button. Push one click in on the stalk to wipe, or push through to second click to wipe and have washer fluid come out.

Holy cow. Didn’t realize it was a two stage (click) button. I’ll have to test this out after work... I just always pushed it once and got a fluid cycle. I thought it might be a press vs press and hold...

 

[9-Volt]

It’s interesting the wide range of responses on this. Had some lovely rain in Seattle yesterday, misty, then hard, then misty again, then even harder. My wipers were flawless. I fully believe people are having issues with their wipers, but I also have to believe there’s a variance in the part of some sort, or the calibration, or something else going on. Otherwise what other explanation can there be?

Funny, I'm just north of the border from you in Vancouver, but the auto setting kicks in a few seconds too late for me. The window is entirely covered in rain before they will activate. I even bought some fancy window cleaner to give the window a good scrubbing, thinking there might be some residue from the factory on the glass, but no change. The timing is just off enough that I can't use them. I'm not sure what the difference is, although I find it hard to believe it's purely personal preference (I'm a bit of a late wiper fan myself, but I can't see out the windshield on auto with the Tesla).

As pointed out above, a software sensitivity adjustment in the menu would, presumably, fix the issue for everyone, but I'm guessing that's not in the works for version 10. Submitted my second bug report, but I guess that just goes into the ether. I'll wait for v. 10 and then maybe try submitting a service request when it's time to replace the blades. I don't care at all about the panel gaps or the rubbing compound circles on my hood, but would love the auto setting for the wipers to work.

 

[KenC]

Put some beading fluid on your windshield, RainX or something else. Don't put it over the optical sensor. That way, your windshield will bead up, and wipe, well before your visibility becomes too obscured.

 

[afadeev]

I can almost never use auto wipers. It seems under most conditions my visibility gets to borderline to outright dangerous before they activate. Even in a steady downpour they only wipe intermittently leaving intervals of near total blindness.

The only time auto-wipers reliably they turn ON for me is when I start backing out of my garage, in the dark. Then they wastefully swipe 100% of the time as I'm packing out with a perfectly dry windshield (if wipers are set to "auto").

The rest of the time they have a mind of their own.
I usually activate them manually (one stalk button press), and adjust, manually, from there. No better or worse then with any of my other cars with auto-wipers, except for the part where Model 3's don't have a proper wiper stalk.

Applying RainX over all glass surfaces in the car (roof included) makes a huge positive difference!
I never found wipers to be incapable of clearing the water off the windshield. You may need to adjust their speed, or activate them manually, but mechanically, they work well.

Adding to the danger is the fact that to change the manual settings you have to look down to the screen and tap not once but twice to get the right wiper rate. This is under poor visibility. Not good.

There is no dedicated wiper stalk in Model 3, and it sucks. No reason for that ever given by Tesla. Just because.
This is a bit of a PITA, but it is all very much part and parcel of Model 3 ownership.

All other cars have steering wheel wiper controls so you don't have to take your eye off the road to adjust. This is my number 1 complaint with the Model 3 right now. Its a safety issue. There has been no fix to the wiper controls since I bought the car in April. Auto wipe is still unusable.

#1 concern?
You mean your AutoPilot never randomly swerves off the road towards the trees when cresting a hill, or engages "bumper-car" mode with other vehicles in your lanes for you? Or phantom braking on AP, with traffic behind you, doesn't happen to you?

Model 3's has plenty of quirks and bugs. Some of them are more disconcerting than others, and some get better and/or worse with each software update.
Auto-wiper is certainly one of them, but it probably would not make my top-10 list.

 

[9-Volt]

Put some beading fluid on your windshield, RainX or something else. Don't put it over the optical sensor. That way, your windshield will bead up, and wipe, well before your visibility becomes too obscured.

Hmm, I wonder if the reverse would work? Put some RainX over the optical sensor so it can see "beads". I wonder if that might be what's happening. It's only seeing a sheet of water, not "beads"?

 

[toolman335]

I'm also a fellow NH M3 owner. How did the Auto wipers perform over the miserable weekend of rain? I had to drive 400 miles and they were awful. I drove a mix of day/night. Sometimes the rain was heavy, sometimes not. The wipers were horrendous. My wife was getting pissed that they only came on when I was blind to the road.
I've had my car for 6 weeks and this issue is starting to drive me beserk lol.
Is there ideal climate control/anti-fogging strategy that would help?

 

[VT_EE]

I'm also a fellow NH M3 owner. How did the Auto wipers perform over the miserable weekend of rain? I had to drive 400 miles and they were awful. I drove a mix of day/night. Sometimes the rain was heavy, sometimes not. The wipers were horrendous. My wife was getting pissed that they only came on when I was blind to the road.
I've had my car for 6 weeks and this issue is starting to drive me beserk lol.
Is there ideal climate control/anti-fogging strategy that would help?

I used them all weekend and they were great. Only in the daytime though. I don’t know why some people have a such a different experience. 8 months ago, I would have agreed with you.

 

[DrDabbles]

I'm also a fellow NH M3 owner. How did the Auto wipers perform over the miserable weekend of rain? I had to drive 400 miles and they were awful. I drove a mix of day/night. Sometimes the rain was heavy, sometimes not. The wipers were horrendous. My wife was getting pissed that they only came on when I was blind to the road.
I've had my car for 6 weeks and this issue is starting to drive me beserk lol.
Is there ideal climate control/anti-fogging strategy that would help?

Climate control? No. That won't change the cameras at all. Just turn the wipers on to a normal level and ignore "auto" in those situations.

I used them all weekend and they were great. Only in the daytime though. I don’t know why some people have a such a different experience. 8 months ago, I would have agreed with you.

Because Tesla's solution is poor right now, so it's haphazard and doesn't work properly. Try them at night in the rain, especially on a nice dark road or unlit stretch of highway. You'll see what everybody else is complaining about.

 

[Kennymb5384]

Does anyone else have issues with their auto wipers working, oh, I don’t know...ever!?

I am still new (only about 2k miles in), but the air wipers are very bad, and I live in Seattle....

Just hard to believe a company that can make a car that drives me places, can’t figure out auto-wipers...

 

[diplomat33]

Does anyone else have issues with their auto wipers working, oh, I don’t know...ever!?

I am still new (only about 2k miles in), but the air wipers are very bad, and I live in Seattle....

Just hard to believe a company that can make a car that drives me places, can’t figure out auto-wipers...

What update are you on? I am on 2019.32.12.2 and my auto wipers seem to work better than before. They turn on as soon as I get in the car even if there is just light rain.

 

[srs5694]

There are tons of pre-existing threads on this subject. Just to start....

• Wiper speed poll
• Wiper issue
• Windshield wipers
• 2019.32.1 Auto Wiper Improvements?
• Auto wipers improvements
• Auto wipers are still horrible

 

[Joshan]

sometimes you have to hit the button on the end of the stalk to get them to swipe the first time. Usually after that they are fine.

 

[Kennymb5384]

There are tons of pre-existing threads on this subject. Just to start....

• Wiper speed poll
• Wiper issue
• Windshield wipers
• 2019.32.1 Auto Wiper Improvements?
• Auto wipers improvements
• Auto wipers are still horrible

Good to know! Wanted to make sure I wasn’t just in the minority.

 

[Kennymb5384]

sometimes you have to hit the button on the end of the stalk to get them to swipe the first time. Usually after that they are fine.

I have issues on both ends. They don’t work great when I need them, and this morning there was zero rain and condensation on my windshield, but they decided to go for it and run like crazy for like 5 minutes. You would have thought I was in a storm haha

 

[DopeGhoti]

We had rain in Phoenix for the first time in months yesterday, and the auto-wipers were working absolutely perfectly. Just as I was thinking "maybe I'll need to push the button" the wipers went as though the car was reading my mind. And as soon as I started to think of maybe not using intermittent mode, they went to full-cycle. It was downright uncanny and super convenient.

 

[ecarfan]

Moderator note: multiple threads about Model 3 Auto Wiper functionality, or lack thereof, have been merged.

 

[GrandWazoo]

This has happened a couple of times over the past week. I've had the auto wipers start wiping the windshield when there is no rain. It happened again tonight, there was actually a light rain, but then after the rain stopped it would intermittently start wiping the dry windshield. Another thing I noticed is that if I turn off auto wipers, they turn themselves back on when I use autopilot. Is this by design?

 

[SlimJim]

Mine wipes when the sun hits at certain angles on sunny days also. Tesla rain sensors are the worst in the auto industry.

 

[RSpanner]

The wipers are like the CEO of the company..very sensitive.