06 Sonata intermittent wiper delay

What are folks seeing for the delay times on your 2006 Sonata's intermittent wipers? Mine seemed to have a pretty short delay compared to my other vehicles, so today I timed them. My Chrysler minivan and Chevy truck run 20+ seconds on max delay (the truck is probably closer to 30 seconds, the van is 20). And even on min delay, they still take a short pause between wipes, maybe a second or slightly less. You can easily tell the difference between min delay on intermittent and continuous on low speed.

My Sonata delay is only 9 seconds on max delay, and on min delay the wipers run continuously with no discernible delay between wipes. I can't tell the difference between min delay on the intermittent setting and the continous wipe position. This doesn't seem right to me and is a pain in light mist conditions as the wipers run way more often than necessary. What are you other 06 Sonata owners seeing?

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting
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Here's the specs on the intermittent wipers:

Shortest period, T = 2.6 +/- 0.7 sec

Longest period, T = 18.0 +/- 1.0 sec

The manual makes the implication that the longest period can only be achieved if the vehicle is not moving.

I had to get this out of the hard copy of the manual. I'm not sure why it's not available online.

Reply to
hyundaitech

I was traveling between 55 and 60 when I timed it this morning, but the shortest period wasn't even close to 2.6 seconds, or even 1.9 seconds. It was zero, or at best a few milliseconds. Less than what I could perceive as any delay at all. I'll time it setting still sometime.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

My observation would be closer to HT's numbers, with the exceoption of the shortest cycle...I'd guesss it to be one second at most.

Reply to
Darby OGill

Is this at a stop or while at highway speed?

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Matt Whiting wrote in news:HCrbg.8904$lb.806516 @news1.epix.net:

I have to agree. That manual is either wrong, or our cars are "broken". On the fastest setting there is no perceivable "stop" at all, but as you said, it could be a few milliseconds at most.

Eric

Reply to
Eric G.

"Darby OGill" wrote in news:BIrbg.172$JL5.116@trndny03:

Below 20 MPH perhaps, but even in a residential area (25 MPH by me) the stop time was nothing.

Reply to
Eric G.

It has been a while since I studied human factors stuff, but I think most humans can perceived events that last even 50 milliseconds, 100 for sure. I can't perceive any delay on the S end of the range, so I'm pretty sure it is less than 50 ms.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Matt Whiting wrote in news:KOsbg.8908$ snipped-for-privacy@news1.epix.net:

Holy sh*t. We actually agree on something :-P

Eric

Reply to
Eric G.

Well, random chance says that should happen from time to time. :-)

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

If the new sonata is set up like my 03 Santa Fe the delay time is related to what speed the transmission is moving. Once you hit third gear the shortest delay pretty much becomes a continuous wipe. Below

3rd gear or at a stop there is a brief pause when on the shortest delay.

The assumption is that there will be more mist as you go faster. It is supposed to work like those car stereos in other makes that raise or lower the volume with the car's speed.

Check it out... Is the new Sonata set up the same way?

Reply to
art.obrien

Yes, I will check it out next time I drive the car. I was going 55 or higher when I did the first check so that may explain the short delays. However, 9 seconds is still too short for the longest delay setting, even at cruise speed.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Time for me to eat crow! timed the intermittent wipers with a "thousand" count last night......8 for longest notch, 4 for the next, 1 for the third, ...2 more notchs with no perceivable delay from "on"........I did this at modest hi-way speeds (55-65 mph)......don't mind the 1st 3 settings at all-seem good to me, but the useless last two are a bit odd.

Reply to
Darby OGill

That sounds pretty much like my timing, although I did use my trusty Timex rather than counting. :-)

I think only my last notch was "useless", but I did think once that both of the last notches gave continuous operation as you say. However, I tried it on the way home and couldn't replicate what I thought I saw on the way into work, so I'll need to check again to be sure.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

If the 2006 Sonata intermittent wipers are like the prior Sonatas, I believe there's a two- or three-tier timing system based on vehicle speed.

I believe once you reach a predetermined speed, the fastest setting becomes constant operation, and when you reach the next predetermined speed, the fastest two settings become constant operation.

I actually had to replace the time and alarm control unit (basically a "dumb" body control module) in a 2003 Sonata because the customer noticed it wasn't changing speed as it was intended. I don't think technical assistance was even able to provide me with the exact details of how the delay changed other than that there were tiers as described above.

Sounds to me like they may be operating normally. Check 'em again when not moving and compare with the specs.

Reply to
hyundaitech

Thanks, will do.

I honestly can't understand the logic of having the fastest speed or, worse yet, two speeds be continuous operation when you already have a continuous operation level position. That is just nuts. What was Hyundai thinking when they designed these wipers?

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

I just checked my wiper delay with the car sitting still in my driveway.

The shortest period is 1.0 to maybe 1.2 seconds. Appears to be well below the spec.

The longers period is 17 seconds plus or minus a little, so that's probably pretty close to spec.

Is there any adjustment to this? I'm assuming the delay is set by a varistor (or set of resistors) in the switch itself and thus non adjustable.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

I'm guessing that they intended for you to set them when sitting still and then the delay lessened as you sped up.

Speed sensitive wipers. It's the latest thing. Haven't you heard? All the big-guy cars have it, so Hyundai needs it, too. Well, I'm sure you already know the logic behind this.

Reply to
hyundaitech

Your body control module reads the resistance of the wiper switch and then sets the delay accordingly.

What's worse, the shortest delay being out of spec isn't necessarily a problem, either. Those sorts of things get changed all the time during the manufacturing run (for who knows what reasons) without anyone telling the people who work on the cars.

Reply to
hyundaitech

Yes, design by MBA or design by marketing.

I'm not against the speed sensitive wipers, I just think that it is dumb to have the shortest period go to a point that it overlaps a setting already available. This is just poor design. The short setting should always maintain some delay regardless of speed. Maybe it is 3 seconds when standing still and 1 second at 70, but having the short period go to zero just makes no sense to me.

Personally, I'm more tha happy with my conventional intermittent wipers that let me set the delay from a second or so up to 30 seconds. Works great, no surprises!

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

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