Hello all,

I have been lurking in the back for some time now. Great forum, thanks guys! I learn something new on E60 every day.

My question to you great E60 gurus:

Is it possible to make car remember if the rain sensor was switched on previously? (Like seat heaters) Or to make it permanently on?

It's not a big problem, but on a rainy day I must press the button many times...


Ps. I have had the E60 for almost a year now, and loving it more every day! I still have to make excuses to get behind the wheel, even without a wise reason to do so.

 

I wondered about the same thing, but figured it was better to have it default to off in case the car was taken to a car wash (I'd never do that!), and the wipers were activated at just the wrong time. Presumably, if the sensor is on, and you're driving in the rain, you're not about to drive into a car wash.

 

no it wont.

 

I don't understand the point of having rain-sensing wipers if you have to manually turn them on every time you get into the car?

 

I understand your point but it seems you're missing the point that once you turn them on, they'll only wipe the windshield when there's enough water on them to warrant it. That's the real benefit of a rain sensor.

In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with having to turn them on one time during a period of rain -- even if you have to turn them on again if you happen to shut the car off. It couldn't be easier. As someone else already mentioned, the automatic car wash is one of those cases where damage could occur if you were able to just leave them on all the time. I can imagine, at least here in the USA, that owner's would demand that BMW pay for the replacement of whatever happened to break when they drove into a car wash on a sunny day and forgot to turn off the rain sensor.

Also, keep in mind that for every person who wishes that this feature could be "remembered," there's probably an equal amount of people who would complain that the wipers should only come on after they've turned them on, etc. and they'd say the car shouldn't remember that setting.

I think this is just one of those things where you can't please everyone...

 

My Jag S-Type has rain sensing wipers and they can be left on all the time. But you will have to remember to turn them off before going into an auto car wash. Not that I use auto car washes.

 

The Jag - from the rainy, but so jolly GB.

Sorry about the Jaguar, but you have the

Aston Martin DB9

the most superlative car in the world!

Anyone with the bucks: the link!

.

 

This is easily solved - add an option in "vehicle settings" on the idrive called "auto-sensing wiper - remember setting?" With a yes/no tick box. I agree, I would like to leave them on all the time. I never use a car wash. It's like the headlights - you can switch them on to "auto" and forget about it. My headlight switch has never moved from the "A" position! It's obviously no problem at all to hit the auto sensing wiper button on whenever it rains (e.g., everytime I drive, this is England...), but it's just one of those things that yet again wasn't done quite right in my opinion. It's not a case of being lazy and not wanting to hit the button, it's a case of an automatic system that has to be manually enabled everytime you want to use it - which is bad design!

 

I agree that an iDrive solution would be great but again, there's a thousand things they could put in iDrive to give us more control over how things work but they (BMW) choose not to. I still think (but don't have any concrete proof) that they didn't want that to be a programmable option because too many clueless owners (not E60.net members, of course) would forget that it's set to on (or the wife would use the car once) and take it to the automatic car wash and end up damaging the wiper mechanism. Then they'd blame BMW for not "protecting" them from this possibility and demand that BMW repair it under warranty...

 

Possibly ... it is annoying how the potential stupidity of a small minority forces the vast majority to miss out