According to the owner's manual. my 2005 XJ8 VDP should have rain sensing wipers. With the wipers set to "Auto" I believe they should start up automatically when it rains. Mine don't. Any suggestion?

Thanks all.

Stephen

 

I have the exact same problem. Hopefully the replies will point us in the right direction.

 

Make sure that you push the stalk up to the second detent. The bottom detent is "Off".

 

Stephen,

If your stalk is in the correct position as nlt624 mentioned and your auto wipers still don't work, check the electrical connector to the sensor, which is in the mount for the rear view mirror on the windshield. The base of the mirror is covered by a two-piece clamshell housing that you can carefully pry apart and remove. On our '04 XJR, the electrical connector for the sensor had vibrated loose.

Cheers,

Don

 

I don't use the automatic wiper function; I found with mine that the screen had to be quite wet before they started, so wet in fact that I had to start the wipers in manual mode.

 

I wonder if you can adjust the sensitivity using SDD....

 

If I remember correctly the sensor is fixed to the screen with silicone which

can deteriorate with time and become partly opaque.

There is a fix for this:

$6 fix for a $600 problem (BMW rain sensor), page 1

 

Thanks. I'll take a look at that.

 

Really? Mine come on with the first drop of water. I sometimes have to turn them off.

 

Mine too, Partick. I wonder if the silicone has clouded as meirion1 notes, or perhaps your sensor connector is loose?

 

Thank you. I'll have a look at that.

 

Rather old thread but I have an odd problem: when wiper stalk is in "auto: mode I get intermittent swipes, but not full auto when the rain comes down harder. When I go to the third notch "low" I get regular speed but wipers slow down to about (2) second interval when I am at a stop. Any ideas what's up?

 

Thanks Don. My 2006 S-Type bought two days ago rain sensing wipers didn't work. Checked under mirror as you suggested before. I found small connection not fully home. Clicked back in chucked a cup water onto screen. Wa La. Working again. Cheers.

 

This is normal. At a stop the wipers reduces 1 speed lower.

 

Never noticed the lower speed when using regular or normal speed wipers before. I must have been jammin' to Santana or Stones. Thanks.

 

Some folks had mentioned the connector behind the mirror as a possible culprit. Bingo! I had the headliner replaced a while back and it would appear the technician did not reconnect the rain sensing 3-wire connector. The housing arond the mirror mount was askew which makes me think that was root of the problem. Anyway, fixed. Thanks to Don B. and others.

 

I've never had a problem with mine, though not thinking I wiped off the windshield with the car running one time and forgot to shut off the auto function. The wiper arm smacked my wrist in short order and took a small nick out of the bezel of my watch.

 

I had this same issue. Turns out that the sensor, which is located right above the rear view mirror, is fixed into place with an adhesive that can deteriorate over time and obstruct the sensor. I just removed the sensor, cleaned everything off, and reaffixed it. Problem fixed! If you do need a new sensor, I've seen them for around 50-70 bucks.

 

I bought a new rain sensor for JX8 2001 and the adhesive that came pre-installed from the parts store doesn't seem to want to make a good seal to the windshield and keeps falling off. Is there any fix for this that wont mess up the sensor or should I check with Merriam Jaguar and possibly return it for a new one?


JP