Crazy wipers!

**devore** · 18-10-2012,02:26 PM

Hi all.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out the wipers on my 2008 B8 1.8T. They seem to have a mind of their own. When its raining, if I put them up to the interval wipe position, they might set off on full speed! Then if I push the stalk up further to a faster position, they may go slower. Or if I push all the way up to the fastest position they might stop completely!! And the behaviour isn't consistent which makes it even more frustrating.

Please tell me I'm missing something here. I've looked in the manual to no avail. Is there some automatic wiper functionality in play that I'm not aware of? Its driving me bonkers - anyone have any ideas? I'll take it to the dealer if nobody here knows whats going on, but I'll have to time it so that its raining when I do.

**Brycie** · 18-10-2012,02:35 PM

Well mine is a different motor, but generally I leave mine on auto setting. Pull the stalk to the very bottom (off) then up one notch (auto) and the wipers should take care of themselves. There should be a little dial on the stalk to set the sensitivity of the auto setting too. I'm a little confused that if you put the stalk up further to what should be faster/fastest setting, that they stop altogether. Try using the auto function & see how you get on.

P.s. Occasionally the auto will get things wrong & go like the clappers when it's dry and not work fast enough when it is wet, but generally it's very good. I rarely touch the wiper stalk now. You may need to pull the stalk down & push back up to auto when you first start the car while raining (I think it doesn't come on straight away in case of icy windscreens.

**devore** · 18-10-2012,02:41 PM

Thanks Brycie.

With mine if you push all the way down you are supposed to get a single wipe (it kind of springs back up to the off position), next one up is what I though was the interval wipe that you adjust the timing with that little dial (but from what you say, this is the auto function). The next 2 up are faster and fastest (which work unpredictably too). I'll take another look this evening and see how I get on. I'm into cars and usually adapt very quickly to the controls of cars I've never driven before, but the wipers in this have me baffled!

**Brycie** · 18-10-2012,02:51 PM

Ah yes, I forgot the single wipe position, but you've got the settings right despite my unintentional red-herring

**Guest 2** · 18-10-2012,05:27 PM

One click up on the stalk from the bottom is your Auto - you can adjust the sensitivity on the top of the wiper stalk.

2 clicks up is the constant and 3 clicks up is your fast constant. Push it right down to the bottom is your single wipe.

You can keep your wipers in auto and get a single wipe by moving the sensitivity to the left and back to the right.

**kodkod.84** · 18-10-2012,05:45 PM

Are the wipers speed dependent too which may explain the op's erratic behaviour?

**Guest 2** · 18-10-2012,05:46 PM

My A6 does this though when the rain sensor picks up rain - it goes mad until its cleared then settles down to the intermittent set on the sensitivity.

Also - if the wipers are in constant and fast constant and you come to a stop they will stop and go to intermittent until you set off again.

**Brycie** · 18-10-2012,05:49 PM

Your's is different to mine Chris. My adjustor dial (to change auto sensitivity/speed) is on the front of the stalk facing me, not on top. It has four settings I believe, the lowest being least sensitive & the highest being most sensitive/fastest. There's no way on mine to get a single wipe without moving the whole stalk down to the bottom when it springs back up to 'off'. You'd have thought they'd save money by making the wiper stalks uniform across the A6 range.

**Guest 2** · 18-10-2012,05:51 PM

Originally Posted by Brycie

Your's is different to mine Chris. My adjustor dial (to change auto sensitivity/speed) is on the front of the stalk facing me, not on top.

The B8 A4 has it on the top

**eob** · 18-10-2012,06:10 PM

The Auto wipers (in both the A4 and my last VW) will come on when you start driving from startup but sometimes when the screen was obscured, I used to "wake" the system by pulling the lever for a screenwash, quickly enough so that no washer actually came out.
With the A4 however, I have headlight washers so when doing this method, I get a headlight wash for my troubles so I'll have to re-educate myself to flick the level off then back to auto.