Rain sensing wipers - giving up.

[PaulGrun]

If ever there was a first world problem this is it.
Curious how others feel about the rain sensing wipers … I’d like to hear your experiences.
I’ve more or less given up on them. They always seem to be in the wrong state - either wiping furiously when there is no more than a light mist, or not wiping at all when needed.
I found myself constantly searching for the right setting, and eventually concluded that just turning off rain sensing and using good old fashioned interval settings seems to work better.
That’s been my experience anyway.

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[Ford4Life]

If ever there was a first world problem this is it.
Curious how others feel about the rain sensing wipers … I’d like to hear your experiences.
I’ve more or less given up on them. They always seem to be in the wrong state - either wiping furiously when there is no more than a light mist, or not wiping at all when needed.
I found myself constantly searching for the right setting, and eventually concluded that just turning off rain sensing and using good old fashioned interval settings seems to work better.
That’s been my experience anyway.

I have never liked this feature and therefore it is always OFF in my vehicles. Like you said, it never works as it's supposed to so I do the difficult task of adjusting the intervals.

 

[J17GT]

Tried them on one rainy day. At first "oh this is cool!" then seeing how inconsistent they were and having to keep messing with the setting, it got annoying. Have not used them since and don't plan on it.

 

[Antimatter22]

My 2012 Focus was set and forget. It was on at all times and I never really had an issue with it. Worked when it rained, stayed off when it didn't.

The F150, I keep it off it off unless it rains. Sometimes I have to adjust it while it's raining. Sometimes I get the random swipe when the truck starts or a random time driving down the road with no rain and I left it 'on'.

I have the same complaint about the auto HVAC setting when comparing the two vehicles.

 

[sbi]

If ever there was a first world problem this is it.
Curious how others feel about the rain sensing wipers … I’d like to hear your experiences.
I’ve more or less given up on them. They always seem to be in the wrong state - either wiping furiously when there is no more than a light mist, or not wiping at all when needed.
I found myself constantly searching for the right setting, and eventually concluded that just turning off rain sensing and using good old fashioned interval settings seems to work better.
That’s been my experience anyway.

I kind'a tend to agree with you. I too had the "wow, that's cool" reaction at first, but lately it is indeed more in the "wrong state", as you descried, than doing it's job.
I am not a wiper-maniac person, I let the windshield get wet well before I turn my wipers on, unlike drivers who keep their wipers on high speed when there is a little drizzle. But more often than not it rains really heavy to a state that even I would want wipers on steady ON and the auto sensing just won't do it on the first notch, only on the second.
Who knows, I just learned to "dislike" Adaptive Cruise Control after 2 years, I may as well just turn off Auto Sensing Wipers

BTW, speaking of wipers - one of my biggest pet peeves, and I mean BIG, to the point of making my skin crawl , is when drivers turn their car off with the wipers on and the wipers just freeze upright in the middle of the windshield. Urrgghhhhh...

 

[Popplemer]

My experience is the same. Pretty disappointed in the sensing Wipers. Luckily it's not a feature that's important. The only reason I have this option is that it's part of another package I wanted.

 

[Kanuck]

Just to throw a little salt in the wound...I wonder how much that unusable option added the the MSRP?

Just bugging you guys....had a Trailblazer that they were either high speed or stopped...PITA

 

[Pedaldude]

I have had my truck for three years and only drove in the rain once and it was a monsoon; so even the highest setting wasn’t fast enough to clear the sheets of rain falling.

The Acura that I used to drive had perfect rain sensing and it was a pleasure in light and intermittent rain; almost reading my mind as to when I wanted a wipe ?

I’m the driver too that hardly uses wipers and always have passengers wondering when I will turn them on but I’m used to not having them at all, either on a motorcycle or a shitty old car. Also, in some Northeastern cities, the wipers will usually just make the windshield more dirty unless you have the reservoir for the washer jets topped off.

I do know though that the weird little oil filled sock behind the windshield that is part of the rain sensing wipers on my truck oozed out in the heat. I don’t know if it has affected the functionality or not because I live where it doesn’t rain much and if I do drive anywhere in the rain, I’ll take my Navigator with the 4A transfer case and front/rear LSDs.

 

[goalieThreeOne]

Had them in my Ex, have them in my raptor. They’ve always worked perfect for me. I stick between setting 2 or 3 depending on whether it’s more of a misting or “big ol fat rain”. If you stop trying to micromanage it and forget about it, it’s a lot more convenient. A good application of rain x and some rain x wipers helps a lot as well.

 

[whizkidder]

Mine seem to work pretty well. I do use Rain-X, so the speed/consistency of the wipers are less important to visibility at speed, but I’ve been pleased with mine.

 

[powerboatr]

my 12 edge they are perfect
my 16 expedition they were really nice
my 22 f150 they can be quirky, but overall they do pretty good and if its that weird texas rain drizzle bug crap i put them on an interval that works best
my issue is the slapping of the a pillar on full speed i have reset the arms to be lower in the down position and they still slap the truck just past the glass on the far left swing

 

[LFRoss]

My wife’s Lincoln has rain sensing wipers and she has it turned on so I leave it alone in her car but didn’t even know my 2021 f150 that I bought used had it until I was messing around with the wipers and looked in the settings. It was already turned off and I kept it off

 

[TarnishedCopper]

My 2012 Focus was set and forget. It was on at all times and I never really had an issue with it. Worked when it rained, stayed off when it didn't.

The F150, I keep it off it off unless it rains. Sometimes I have to adjust it while it's raining. Sometimes I get the random swipe when the truck starts or a random time driving down the road with no rain and I left it 'on'.

I have the same complaint about the auto HVAC setting when comparing the two vehicles.

I find it somewhat consistent with all the other "selling-point junk" on the F-150. Ford could make it work on one of their lowest price cars, but not on one of its highest price vehicles. (the F-150)

 

[bcb97]

Mine works great and I have no complaints. As others said, if you quit trying to constantly be picky with it, works fine. I keep mine in the lowest auto setting. It’s nice to me when driving and the rain is on and off again, misty, road spray, etc. I am not always trying to turn the wipers on and off.

 

[PowerBoostSoCal]

I think the rain sensing wipers work great, I keep them off until I need them and just on the first setting - they seem to work fine. Trick on the wipers - brand new and they were jumping all over the place, really horrible. I sprayed on a towel some WD40 and wiped the blades really well, they sat overnight to soak it in ... next day (we had rain), the wipers worked perfect, no jumping!

Also, the active cruise is a god send for me - I live with either windy roads and no traffic (cruise off) or wide highways with serious stop and go traffic. The active cruise really takes the fatigue and frustration out of a bad commute - I will admit that sometimes it allows a longer gap between cars so you can get people who will cut in, but most of the time I really don't care - I can make phone calls, listen to the radio and not worry about slamming on the brakes to stop in time! As I get older I really appreciate the features this truck has - seats are the best out there and the other features (as I get to know them better) really make the drive more enjoyable (except for the blue cruise, that scares the crap out of me).

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