Lights in the rain?

[fred88]

Got rain sensing wipers and auto lights, both set to auto.

I thought the lights should come on when it's raining regardless of the ambient light conditions, but I don't think they are, at least the "lights on" indicator on the dash isn't showing. Is there a setting somewhere else or am I getting it wrong?

[Roy124]

AFAIK the lights work on ambient light when set to Auto.  There was some discuss about auto lights in daylight, such as in a shaded road or under a bridge, giving the impression of a signal to another driver. 

Of course the only valid message is 'I am here' 

[Cyker]

Yeah they work purely on how bright it is above your car, and it's DRLs or dipped beams only - It never switches to sidelights.

I've always switched to sidelights manually when its raining, in the Mk4 too now since I discovered Auto doesn't use them at all, so my DRLs aren't blinding everyone but also so the rear tail lights are on.

The auto system is alright but can sometimes be very indecisive when the light is marginal, switching between DRLs and beams and back. It was doing that on a semi-overcast day and I realized it was the breaks in the clouds that was making it off and on!

[fred88]

Ok, thanks both. Was wondering because on my last car the main lights were switched on when the car detected that it was raining. Nice feature I thought and TBH surprised that it's not standard on cars where both the lights and wipers have automatic capability. 

Thanks again.

[AndrueC]

9 hours ago, fred88 said:

Ok, thanks both. Was wondering because on my last car the main lights were switched on when the car detected that it was raining.

Yes my previous car switched the lights on if the wipers were operated frequently enough for long enough. Mind you the auto headlight system was just better all round especially the auto dip. Toyota's system is pretty poor.

[Roy124]

I miss my 'smart' auto wiper on my 05 Mercedes.  The speed was automatically adjusted depending on how wet it was.  The Toyota is automatic but you set the wipe frequency, odd.

[Hybrid21]

16 hours ago, fred88 said:

Got rain sensing wipers and auto lights, both set to auto.

I thought the lights should come on when it's raining regardless of the ambient light conditions, but I don't think they are, at least the "lights on" indicator on the dash isn't showing. Is there a setting somewhere else or am I getting it wrong?

Hi Roger, my RAV4 is the same and I put them on manually when I feel that they should be on, especially on the motorway in poor visibility.

The automatic function is not sensitive enough for me anyway 🙂

[TonyHSD]

2 hours ago, Roy124 said:

I miss my 'smart' auto wiper on my 05 Mercedes.  The speed was automatically adjusted depending on how wet it was.  The Toyota is automatic but you set the wipe frequency, odd.

My old Auris it’s li,e a Mercedes then, becomes it works exactly as the mercs 👍

[Cyker]

5 hours ago, Roy124 said:

I miss my 'smart' auto wiper on my 05 Mercedes.  The speed was automatically adjusted depending on how wet it was.  The Toyota is automatic but you set the wipe frequency, odd.

Do you mean how fast it sweeps or just when it triggers?

In my Mk4 I can set the sensitivity - At the lowest setting, if it's only lightly raining it'll be very intermittent, but as the rain picks up it'll become more frequent. At maximum sensitivity it basically starts on continuous and as it rains harder it goes into frantic mode  

The wiper on my dad's old merc was hilarious - It was a single full-sweep wiper that used some clever linkages to sweep the whole windscreen, sinking down in the middle so it didn't go above the windscreen, then lengthening again at the ends to fully sweep the sides. Even at normal speed, it was so long it would fling water to the sides of the car quite forcefully if there was any significant rain, not to mention at high speed! Woe betide any pedestrian next to that car in the rain!!  

[AndrueC]

The first Jazz I owned seemed to have speed sensitive wipers. I found that I could set it a particular sensitivity and it was perfect in all conditions. But Honda changed something in the Mk3 Jazz and it lost the speed adjustment so I started having to tweak the wiper sensitivity as I drove along and rain conditions changed. The Corolla is the same. I miss the old Jazz with its truly automatic wipers 😞

[Roy124]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

Even at normal speed, it was so long it would fling water to the sides of the car quite forcefully if there was any significant rain, not to mention at high speed! Woe betide any pedestrian next to that car in the rain!!  

Years ago, in the Lake District, there was as much water coming down as on the ground.  It was one of those very dark days.  Everything was dark, even the two walkers on the narrow bridge that was deep in water even though the river was below.

If they were not soaked before I went past they were afterwards. 

[Hybrid21]

I remember my Dad's Ford Zephyr had wipers that worked on a vacuum principle off the engine,  and the speed of the wipers varied with the revs of the engine 😃

[Cyker]

It's slightly unnerving some of the wiper systems you lot had to deal with on older cars!!!   

I'm very glad someone thought to use an electric motor by the time I was old enough to drive!  

[Roy124]

2 hours ago, Hybrid21 said:

I remember my Dad's Ford Zephyr had wipers that worked on a vacuum principle off the engine,  and the speed of the wipers varied with the revs of the engine 😃

With an inverse ratio

[Hybrid21]

Thinking back Roy, I think it was, you certainly couldn't rely on them 😃

[Roy124]

6 hours ago, Hybrid21 said:

Thinking back Roy, I think it was, you certainly couldn't rely on them 😃

Yes you could.  You could rely on them stopping as you floored the accelerator 😮

I remember one dark, wet night on the East Lancs Road in the depths of winter.  The driver had his window open, it could have been a quarter light, and would lean out holding a squeegee bottle to squirt at the windscreen.

As he slowed down to do this the wipers would speed up with obvious consequences.  I might have had a licence but was yet to get my first car.

[Dylanfan]

In the early 70s I had a 1956 Hillman Minx convertible. The wipers used to stop on the way back to the near side. I had a piece of string tied to them that went though the near side quarter light so I could give them a tug to get them moving again. 
Just think what the police would say if you tried that now🤓