arU4ic

Oh interesting. Who says RAIN-X confounds the system? This would really explain it... I waxed the glass on my 2008 and I had the same issues.

Thanks O' Mighty Braintrust of all things Audi.

IAS5

IIRC, it's in our manuals...

kristatos

I use rain-x regularly and have no issues. Just did about 600 miles the past few days up the CA coast almost entirely in rain and have no complaints. I went through everything from light mist to flash flooding type rain and I always had a clear view.

arU4ic

Well, I don't use rain-x, I use car wax... which may be worse. I'm going to remove it from the glass and try again and report.

GomerPyle

I leave mine on auto all the time (except in the carwash) and don't have any issues unless I turn the car on with a wet windshield (as in when the car is outside in the rain). For whatever reason it will not do anything then. I have to turn the wipers off and then back on again to resume normal function.

One nice feature I've noticed is that the wipers will park themselves a few inches above their normal spot when it's really cold outside. I assume this is to prevent ice build up.

arU4ic

Ok, removed the wax from the windshield and SHAZAAAM. They work great now.

Thanks y'alls.

pkridesagain

I now not only hate it, but it's about to cost me (or my insurance co) a good bit of money. My wife had been driving the car for several (non-rainy) days with the switch in the intermittent position. And then went to the car wash. On came the wipers ("by themselves, honey, I swear"), along came the equipment and took off the entire blade while snapping the arm against the windshield. Just like that, a six inch crack in the windshield.

So ok, many of you are thinking, she shouldn't be in the car wash in the first place. And I agree. But sometimes life happens. And if Audi had a manual override, this wouldn't have happened. Since when did we (audi drivers) become so stupid and inept that we can't figure out at what interval we want our windshield swept? I've been driving Audis since the early 80's, and this is unlike them.

I am no more put out adjusting my wiper speed to suit, then I am putting on my turn signal. Really, how much time/effort does this automatic feature save???

By the way, I was one of the ones that used rain-x before I knew of the problems it created. It caused the wiper to loudly "skip" across the windshield, rendering the intermittant feature useless. It's still not right after almost two years.

tas2573

Ummm.. not to sound like an *** but... Isn't the "manual override" the Off position?

I'm still waiting for my Q7 so I may not know what I'm talking about. Or... I may just be reading your post incorrectly.

DUTCH VanAtlanta

You are 100% correct. Lots of warnings about not having the wiper set to intermittent in a car wash.

sootwagen

I use Rain-X. I love the stuff. As far as chattering wipers go, I find that it's a good indicator of when to replace my wiper blades. New blades don't chatter on a windshield that has Rain-X on it.