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For a number of months, I noticed my wipers were funky, sometimes going way too fast in a light rain. A couple days ago, in a night time drive in the rain, it was scary, could hardly see and my eyeballs were strained. Weather has been ****ty lately and my windshield was nasty. The next day I thoroughly cleaned the windshield using Windex foam cleaner. Then followed up with Rainex. Last night on a long drive in the rain, visibility was "night and day" difference. Wipers also did their thing correctly.
As for dirty windshield, a week or so ago, I used Turtle Wax "Jet Black" kit and it really looks good but maybe I sprayed some of the detailer on the windshield which made visibility lousy. Although, it's been doing for a while before waxing, can a dirty windshield affect the rain sensor and wiper speed?
Also, I've used Bosch Evolution blades, #4821 (21"), not the 26" recommended because longer ones seem to wipe the trim. 21" gives me plenty of vision. What do other guys use?
The rain sensor measures IR light reflection and caused by water on the screen. So its reliant upon the water on the sensor area being able to behave normally.
Any surface treatment that alters the water’s behavior over the sensor area, or the way IR light is reflected will mess with its function.
The rain sensor measures IR light reflection and caused by water on the screen. So its reliant upon the water on the sensor area being able to behave normally.
Any surface treatment that alters the water’s behavior over the sensor area, or the way IR light is reflected will mess with its function.
Got the problem last night... Lights were on but the dash illumination lights were dead.
IF the sensor dies the system reverts to manual mode.
The way the cars without the rain sensor and auto lights work is that at night, the needles will remain fully bright and the rest of the instrument lights will be dimmed according to ambient light (there is a light sensor next to the seatbelt lamp for the instruments)
This makes the fact that the headlights aren't switched on very noticeable to the driver as a safety feature.
Simply turning the headlights to ON from Auto will make everything work.
The rain/light sensor can fail and this means it is due to be replaced with its gel pad.
Thanks Dave and MCS,
As an Audi's quality true believer, back to basic, the glass area in front of the sensor was dirty due to the camera glass mount and neglect of cleaning for many years, I removed the camera mount, cleaned the glass at the sensor inside/out with windex, never had to use VCDS to find out what codes it had. The car reset itself, the automatic head lights are gone, drove at night for about 1 hour each way to friends house and no complaints... Love Audi's engineering and quality LOL.
11-28-2019, 06:59 AM
rain sensor
