1. Home
  2. Lexus Automobiles
  3. ES 330 Intermittent Wipers - Broken or Bad Design?

ES 330 Intermittent Wipers - Broken or Bad Design?

I have a 2004 ES 330. The intermittent wipers either aren't working properly or are very poorly designed. I would rather have the standard intermittent wipers that my 1997 ES had. Another Lexus "intelligent design" gone awry?

When I leave the wipers in intermittent mode and it starts to rain, they don't start working by themselves right away, so I have to switch to the regular wiper mode to clear off my windshield in order to see.

Also, there are speed setting, just like my 1997 ES had, but it doesn't seem to work. The wipers seem to go at whatever speed they want, regardless of what speed setting I put them on.

Lastly, the other day, I had the wipers set to intermittent mode and they went into very fast mode. Is that supposed to happen?

Like I said at the outset, the intermittent wipers either aren't working properly or are very poorly designed. Can someone please shed some light on this topic for me?

Reply to
David Z
Loading thread data ...

I had similar probs with a MB and BMW, its not unique Whether cleaning the screen, at the sensor point would help?

Reply to
old man

Don't think that's it. I keep it pretty clean.

So, I take it that it's just a bad design, eh?

BTW, why is there a speed adjustment? It doesn't seem to make a difference what speed I set it at, it goes at the same speed (except once in a while when it goes very fast!).

Reply to
David Z

The adjustment doesn't affect speed, it adjusts the sensitivity of the automatic rain sensor located on the windshield behind the rear-view mirror. Turned toward minus, its less reactive (sensitive) to rain droplets hitting the windshield. Toward plus, its more reactive.

-- Dennis

Reply to
Dennis

I have had some of the same experiences with an '03 ES300. With the dial in the "least sensitive" position, they seem to come on when it starts to mist. In a heavy rain they are designed to go to the high speed mode. They are not "intermittent", they are "automatic". When it rains heavily, they kick are supposed to work at high speed.

My problem has been that they don't always slow down again when the deluge is over... that can take a quick manual switch to "off" and then back to "automatic". But that seems a small inconvenience to pay for having them come on when the drizzle starts, just like the lights that come on when it gets dark...

Reply to
JCS

Actually, they're both. :-)

Yes, now that you mention it, it was raining pretty hard when that happened.

Exactly. It's absolutely ridiculous that the Lexus engineers think that this technology is ready for prime time. It's almost as ridiculous as the "intelligent" transmission design.

I disagree. The headlight technology is great. But I'd rather have the old manual wiper system back.

Thanks for your response. It now appears that it's a bad design rather than broken.

Reply to
David Z

On the 2006 cars, the manual says NOT to leave them on "autimatic" when you shut down the engine. When starting the engine, if they are already on automatic, then they will not work as expected.

Also, the dealer can reprogram 'automatic' to 'intermittant' for you.

Reply to
jay somerset

Interesting. Seems pretty stupid to me. Defeats the whole point of being automatic, doesn't it?

Seems like another Lexus nonsolution to a problem created be their programming team gone mad.

That's good to know. I think I'll see if they'll do that. The last time I talked to the Lexus Service department about the wipers, they were totally clueless about how they were supposed to work.

Reply to
David Z

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.