A bit windy

[Chris J Dixon]

Mine are generally left on auto.

Chris

[Dave Liquorice]

Freelander II. Wipers stay in the mode selected (off, auto, on, fast). So left in auto they can trigger unexpectedly.

No need the rain and gale force winds keep it clean. Anyway one would soon switch 'em off, well before the rollers got anywhere near the screen/wipers.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes. That's why I expected the arrangment on the cars I had with it the norm. H&S often taking precedence over convenience. Although I'd always switch off the wipers before stopping the engine anyway. Unless you like them parked in the middle of the screen. ;-)

[Dave Liquorice]

When in auto they only wipe when the "rain" sensor in conjuction with an adjustable sensitivity control say so. Works very well nearly all the time, ie it wipes in light rain marginally before I think "must wipe the screen". Also automatically wipes the spray from an oncoming vehicle or splash from a big puddle, using anything from a single wipe to flat out. I rarely ever use anything but off and auto and off is only to avoid occasional unexpected wipes.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Same on my XF except it is not that happy to start like that from cold. Sometimes I reset it to 'auto' to force the mode.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Ah - neither of mine was very recent. Last one on an 2011 car. And it never seemed to do exactly as I wanted despite fiddling with the sensitivity control. Only thing did find great was it changing automatically from normal slow speed to auto when you came to a halt, as in traffic.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

What I'm talking about? Only works from a cold start when reset? Covered in the handbook?

[Tim+]

Wipers have long had an unswitched power feed to allow parking after you?ve turned the ignition off.

Tim

[ARW]

The Fiat switches to intermittent the wipers are running at normal speed when you stop and if in intermittent mode they turn to off when you stop.

No matter the setting of the wipers they will not move after an engine restart until you touch the stalk.

Although sometimes you have to put your foot on the brake to stop the wipers after you have turned the engine off:-) ISTR that's usually on Wednesdays.

[Steve Walker]

I used to switch off with them vertical when in a car wash, but my current and previous car both park(ed) the wipers when switching the ignition off.

SteveW

[Tim+]

Many cars have a ?service parking position? that parks the wipers vertically for blade changes. On our Yeti (and I bet all VW/Audi/etc variants), you flick the wiper stalk within a few seconds of turning the ignition off.

Tim

[Bob Eager]

Problem now is that car washes (well, the ones I use) tell you to keep the engine running for keyless ignition.

[Chris J Dixon]

I can't quite see why they would do that.

Chris

[Steve Walker]

Probably only for those cars where the normal park position is below bonnet height though?

SteveW

[Bob Eager]

Because when the ignition is off, the steering locks. No key to remove, which is the normal mechanism for a steering lock.

[bert]

Such innovation obviously hadn't reached LR Defender by 2010.

[Dave Liquorice]

Why is the steering lock a problem? Quite possibly car washes have moved on since the last time I used one...

[Bob Eager]

Unless the vehicle is driven into the track *absolutely* straight, the rear wheel doesn't follow into the track (there's only a track on one side). In practice, the vehicle needs to pivot a bit round the front wheel that's in the track.

[Chris J Dixon]

That doesn't sound anything like a car wash I have been in. Any links?

Chris

[Bob Eager]

Here's a video, but you don't really see the track:

Here's a promotional one, watch from 4:00 -