ltooz_a6_a8_q7

It was raining on and off today... I haven't noticed anything until I realized I didn't have to touch the wiper lever even when it rained hard... Amazing, it works. Love the darn car. I was going to try to tailgate the BMW 850i, but I didn't want to get a ticket in the rain... although the BMW 3 next to me gave up when he heard my A8L ROARRRRRR behind the 850i :-) Hey A8L is Quattro and rear wheel drive don't do as well in the rain... IMO.


Cheers,

Louis

Mister Bally

I like your video. Rain sensing wipers are no big deal though. Funny that my '04 A8L does not have them. My wife's GMC Envoy ('05) does and they work just like yours do.

Bosch released the rain sensor in the mid 1990's

The feature was available on early 2000 series VW Beetles as well. Probably a host of other cars as well.

dvs_dave

By all accounts its a relatively straight forward DIY job to upgrade to the rain sensor. Some guy on here has done it, although I've not been able to fully decipher from his explanation exactly which parts you need, how to connect or code them though.

aTOMic

I like the video too, but missed the "roar" of the engine lol.

My car is an early'04, and with the switch in the first position the wipers seem to be speed-sensitive. With the mist (insert) switch at its lowest setting, at a stop it's a full 10 seconds between wipes; at 30 MPH it's 5-6 seconds and at 50 it's around 4-5. I left the switch in lowest mist position and sprayed the sensor area with windex to see if this was a function of speed or rain sensing and I think it's speed-sensitive, as the wipes still took a 10-second pause.

Also if the car is turned off with the switch in that position, when it's next started up the wipers stay off. Pretty neat feature.

Last bit of trivia: the wipers alternate parking on the upstroke and the downstroke. This is to prevent the rubber from developing a memory and decreasing their effectiveness. One feature that always makes me smile!

Tom

mcs

Here, only facelift cars got a rain sensor, the most we got was an (optional) auto light sensor - a joke in a car that cost $210,000

I have fitted the sensor to my car, and coded it. I still have to get the little sticky gel pad for the sensor to make sure it works correctly, but by all accounts its working.

You need the sensor, the small harness to the roof console, and the small adapter plug for the roof console. then, the data wire is not connected to the roof console, but sent down to the J519 central electronics module and spliced into the yellow/white stripe wire at Pin31.

After this, you code the car so the roof module has NO light sensor active, and the central electronics has the Rain/light sensor. Then it should work properly.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

I didn't think much of the feature, but it's convenient NOT to have to flip the lever up and down every time it rains harder. Normally you don't care if never exposed to it, but if it's no longer there for any reason, I'm sure I'll miss it.

"but missed the "roar" of the engine lol"

Yes, the BMW 3 looked at me when the A8L accelerated (either he thought my car would blow up or too strong for his car. For some reasons, the rain killed the wonderful roaring sound.

Thanks,

Louis

dvs_dave

What are the part numbers required?

mcs

Rain and light sensor ref: 8K0 955 559 A
Sensor cable ref: 4E0970 291
Audi adapter: 1C0 973 119 B

I have the rain sensor working just fine. The light sensor currently doesn't work, as my car has a coding conflict. The dealer turned the rain/light sensor on at the central electronics module, but forgot to disable the 'light sensor' (just auto lights)code in the roof module. So consequently, the auto position brings a "light sensor defective, please use light switch" error. Once they adjust this code, it will all work smoothly.

Mike