Strange auto wipers behaviour

[PekoSI]

Auto wiping in rain on our MY16 Fabia just doesn't feel right to me. I always have the lever in the 'automatic windscreen wiping in rain' position and the wipers turn on when needed but - in case of light rain instead of wiping only once they do additional 3 or 4 wipes on a dry windshield even with the intensity switch on the lowest setting. Mind you that our MY14 Octavia works as it should IMO which means it only wipes once when needed. 

 

Can't find anything useful in the manual. Is this normal for Fabia? What kind of behaviour do others get? Can it be modified via VCDS maybe?

[pfaff]

Auto wiping in rain on our MY16 Fabia just doesn't feel right to me. I always have the lever in the 'automatic windscreen wiping in rain' position and the wipers turn on when needed but - in case of light rain instead of wiping only once they do additional 3 or 4 wipes on a dry windshield even with the intensity switch on the lowest setting. Mind you that our MY14 Octavia works as it should IMO which means it only wipes once when needed. 

 

Can't find anything useful in the manual. Is this normal for Fabia? What kind of behaviour do others get? Can it be modified via VCDS maybe?

Recognize that behavior.

May be caused by drops or light waterflow over the eye behind  - or is it in front of? - the mirror

I ususally turn the automatic wiping off if its bothering.

[Phil-E]

Auto wipers can be a little bit funny at times.

 

At the end of the day they can only go by what is in front of the sensor so if there are what it sees as water drops still there it will wipe.

 

You have to keep the screen and wipers in tip-top condition for them to work properly.

 

I can always tell when I need to replace my wipers as it sends the sensor crazy and sometimes end up with them going at full speed in light drizzle!

[pipsyp]

Road spray can be a bit of a pain...sometimes stikes the screen really affecting visibility, but it doesnt go far enough up the screen to trigger the sensor.

I find on the MQB based cars the wipers seem to have more of a life of their own than the system employed on some older VAG models. Good thing on most MQB cars you can deactivate rain sensing in the infotainment and go back to regular intermittent wipe if you so desire...without the need for coding...can on my Mk3 Octavia and Mk7 Golf at least.

[PekoSI]

Yes it is possible to deactivate the sensor on both Octavia and Fabia via infotainment. It's just that I like the way auto wiping works on my Octavia but dislike how it works on the Fabia...

 

Will have to check if one of the wipers leaves a trail of water droplets behind in front of the sensor...

[dc63]

My observations are much the same as PekoSI. Our 2012 Octavia auto-wipers trigger intermittent single wipes in light rain but our 2016 Fabia auto-wipers never do single wipes, instead they just switch between on and off, so there's always a minimum of 7 wipes. I'm convinced they're faulty but maybe Skoda have installed a cheaper system and that's what they all do?

 

Can anybody confirm if their Fabia triggers intermittent single wipes while set to auto?

Edited 9 February, 2016 by dc63

[Guest Mikeee324]

Can anybody confirm if their Fabia triggers intermittent single wipes while set to auto?

I think mine does, if I get into the car after its been raining it'll trigger once to clear the screen and that's it. There's been times where I've been sprayed by something or hit a puddle and it'll swipe once or twice just to clear the screen.

I don't think I've seen it do a minimum of 7 wipes just for a bit of spray yet.

[alltorque]

My observations are much the same as PekoSI. Our 2012 Octavia auto-wipers trigger intermittent single wipes in light rain but our 2016 Fabia auto-wipers never do single wipes, instead they just switch between on and off, so there's always a minimum of 7 wipes. I'm convinced they're faulty but maybe Skoda have installed a cheaper system and that's what they all do?

 

Can anybody confirm if their Fabia triggers intermittent single wipes while set to auto?

Yup, mine also does a single wipe, when that's all that is required.

[Fayers]

You guys with the rain sensor problems. Do you have climatronic og normsl ac. My 16 fabia only has ac but olso rain/light sensor i have the same problems. I know that cars with climatronic has a different sensor because of the humidity sensor. Maby it's more sensitive than the other version

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[Gauss]

Have climatronic with rain sensor, it doesn't seem to have any problems like that. If anything, I need to increase the intensity (currently set at 3rd, i.e., 1 from maximum) to have the proper intervals.

[PekoSI]

You guys with the rain sensor problems. Do you have climatronic og normsl ac. My 16 fabia only has ac but olso rain/light sensor i have the same problems. I know that cars with climatronic has a different sensor because of the humidity sensor. Maby it's more sensitive than the other version

 

Rain sensor is the same regardless of AC version. Humidity sensor has nothing to do with it. I've contacted my dealer but still waiting for response about the issue.

[dc63]

You guys with the rain sensor problems. Do you have climatronic og normsl ac. My 16 fabia only has ac but olso rain/light sensor i have the same problems. I know that cars with climatronic has a different sensor because of the humidity sensor. Maby it's more sensitive than the other version

 

My fabia is the UK spec SE so it's manual A/C. The auto-wipers are added as an option which also includes auto lights and auto-dimming mirror. The car is going to the dealers on Saturday to see what they think. I'm hoping they can solve it because wipers without an intermittent mode are not good.

[Fayers]

You are wrong it is the same sensor. It is mounted on the front windscreen. There 3 types of sensors

One for humidity

One for rain and light

One for humidity, rain and light

I know this because i retrofitted it to a car with only humidity sensor

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[PekoSI]

You are wrong it is the same sensor. It is mounted on the front windscreen. There 3 types of sensors

One for humidity

One for rain and light

One for humidity, rain and light

I know this because i retrofitted it to a car with only humidity sensor

 

All right then I was led to believe otherwise. Still there should be no difference in having or not having the humidity sensor in regard to rain sensor. Will see what they say about it at the stealer's.

[Fayers]

I just orderd a rain sensor "high" version on ebay

Part nr 5Q0 955 547 A

Only cost 35 e

I'm sure i will work better

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[dc63]

Fabia went to the dealers today for a quick look and they did confirm the behaviour does not look right so it's going in again on Friday for investigation. I'm hoping it's just an adjustment in the software.

[dc63]

Just wondering if PekoSI or Fayers (or anyone) got their auto-wiper problem solved? My local dealer raised a tech support request about a week ago but no progress so far.

[PekoSI]

I got it booked on Tuesday morning finally. Waited 2 weeks just to get an answer from them. They didn't say if the problem is known to them already only that I should bring it in for a 'system check'. So I'll know more on Tuesday hopefully...

[PekoSI]

Well they tested everything today and according to them the sensor works as it should. Of course they didn't pay attention to 'multiple wipe problem' which was my main concern and when I asked them about that they said nothing can be done for now. In case a word comes from Skoda in the future about this problem I'll be notified. My guess is it will never happen which means the rain sensor is totally useless in this car.

[dc63]

Well they tested everything today and according to them the sensor works as it should. Of course they didn't pay attention to 'multiple wipe problem' which was my main concern and when I asked them about that they said nothing can be done for now. In case a word comes from Skoda in the future about this problem I'll be notified. My guess is it will never happen which means the rain sensor is totally useless in this car.

 

I'm still waiting to hear back from the dealer but at least they did admit the behaviour is not correct and did raise a tech support request with Skoda. Fayers idea seems plausible to me, it's possible the rain sensor element of the electronics is different on the manual a/c cars, so perhaps the software is not being set correctly in the factory for the different version of sensor. It would be interesting to observe wiper behaviour of a fabia with auto a/c alongside a fabia with manual a/c. Maybe your dealer needs to demonstrate this to be convinced.

 

A solution has to be found as the rain sensing wipers are completely useless. Hopefully Fayers will have some success.

[dc63]

Problem solved.

Dealer ordered a replacement sensor (the standard part listed for the car) but when they came to fit it they found the original sensor didn't match. So either the wrong part was fitted at the factory or there's been a very recent change. Auto-wipers behaving perfectly with the new sensor.

 

The part now fitted is 500 955 559 A

[PekoSI]

Great news. I'll try to talk my dealer into replacing mine as well. Thanks for the info