basically, there is a small piece on the glass that is monitored by an optical sensor. This sensor shines infrared light at the glass and then it reads how much light is reflected back. A clean glass will reflect all the light back while a wet or a dirty one will make the light scatter and the reader will not get all the light back. The monitor will detect the frequency and the speed of the wipers because of the light reflected back. To make sure that the wipers are not falsely activated there is an activation mechanism on the car.
Thanks for the explanation. IMHO the rain sensor is not working well at all - there is basically no intervall wiping at all, even in very low rain it is partly wiping as in a thunderstorm.
I will discuss this with my dealer when I'm in next time...
anyone a similar experience?
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Mine definitely go slower/faster depending on the rain intensity. In fact, in my opinion mine start off with too slow of an interval... But in heavy rain they go an appropriately fast speed.
How do the rain sensing wipers actually work? Jason
They don't. At least, not very well. I've had them on a BMW, Range Rover and the Q7 and none worked as well as variable intermittent wipers of the conventional type.
As to literally 'how', then I believe that there is a sensor that detects water droplets behind the mirror mounts. Someone else will probably know better and have already replied but I've only read the OP so far.
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Rain sensing wipers - How do they work?
Linear Mode
