I hope this is the correct forum for this question.

Does anybody know if there is a way to disable the speed-sensitive intermittent wipers on these cars and just use them in a standard fashion (ie manually adjusted intermittent). I believe that with the rain sensing design used on some of the trucks/SUVs there is a fuse, but not sure whether something similar for us exists...

 

...my wipers arent speed sensitive

 

Exactly my thoughts.

The radio volume is speed sensitive.

 

So are the wipers, and it was a standard option as far as I understood. There are two switch points - 40mph and 60mph as far as I can tell.

I know my car has them. They're not bad except for the lowest setting. A lot of times if it's just a light rain, it ends up being too fast.

 

You may be right but I have never heard of it or experienced it on these cars.

When I looked it up it said Variable Speed wipers, but not speed sensing wipers.

http://wwww23.chevrolet.com/vehicles...pe/features.do

 

i agree the light rain and very THIN little drops... around my neighborhood is like 45-50 mph's driving and yea the wipers are going all fast on the lowest setting. i'm like chill wiper dood!! so i just turn em off and just tap the arm down every w.e. to clear the windshield

 

LOL are you bein serious?? Its the same ****, if you put it on the intermittent mode and you go over 80KM/H () it switches to the next mode up then when you go below 80KM/h it goes back to the mode you chose, so technically they ARE speed sensitive, but they are "called" Variable Speed wipers, essentially they are the same meaning

 

Okay so I've never noticed it. When I read Variable speed wiper I read that as you can change the wiper speed, not speed sensing wipers.

Oh and WTF is KPH,

 

i knew someone would give me **** for that! i was too lazy to convert it for you guy in the

 

I am an engineer so it's no big deal. Gonna test this crazy wiper theory today

 

well i know we have MPH on our guages(inner ring), im not sure if you guys have KPH on yours but i guarentee its is litterally 80 km/h on the dot that schanges the wiper speed

 

yeah in LS's at least the highest speed is set at 50mph, i was driving today and was finally paying attention to the wipers and i was like why is it so fast now, and dropped to 49 and it slowed to the second fastest.

its all by speed. and btw i hate the speed sensitive radio, cause when you slow down it always makes it too low. so i just turn it off.

 

its like saying the srt-4's have a shift selector and cobalts have a "roll-pin" for the transaxle... its the SAME thing different name just about lol

 

There are three speeds for the wipers - whatever you select, then one speed faster, and then a second speed faster. Low setting is the easiest to see it because there's the most difference between the speeds.

For the radio, have you messed with the sensitivity at all? There's high medium and low. I always set the initial volume when I'm at a stop light with the engine running so that's the quietest it will ever be.

 

^^^ that's a good idea with the radio. If you set the volume before you start driving you should be good to go.

 

that is a good idea. and yeah i tried all the settings i just like my music a little loud so i can hear it over the exhaust. lol. and it just seemed like every time i pulled off the highway it would almost be inaudible. thats a brilliant idea though.

 

I have my Speed Compensating Volume turned "off" i cant stand when it changes.

The wipers are annoying because i have a LOT of 50mph roads by me, and i hate when it decides that I really dont want intermiitant anymore and that "on" is better. LOL


The easy answer to the OPs question is NO you cant disable it. Youd have to rewire the system to make the BCM not control the wipers.

 

Yeah, I had the same problem. I set mine to high because I like mine a lil on the loud side too. But I was noticing the same thing - I'd stop and it'd be inaudible again. So I would just set the volume first before I started driving and then the car would adjust from there. If it got too loud while I was driving, I would bump the SCV down to the medium setting, so that it would only be quieter while moving, stopped volume was unaffected.

 

your supposed to set them so that at a stop, they are adequate. then as you speed up, yes there are 2 more intervals it jumps to once around 40 and another around 60.

 

That's exactly the problem, they're fine at a stop but once the speed switches they're too fast. So you end up having to turn them off when you're up to speed and manually hit the mist setting. The simple fix would have been to have ONE "low" speed setting that was constant without speed sensitivity.

 

the whole thing is stupid anyways, mercedes is the only system i think is good, where the wiper feels the resistance against the glass and adjusts the speed accordingly: less resistant(more slippery) = more rain , more resistance(dry wiper against glass) = less rain

but for our system it is like the cheap and easy way out haha how hard is it to adjust your speed manually anyways

 

huh? you learn something new everyday i guess. lol i never even noticed but ill have to test it out too. cool

 

I figured that it would be a BCM issue.

Its just another "feature" that I find annoying. In my old-school way of thinking you simply provide an incremental adjustment between really slow and one notch below the continuous low setting. Then you let the driver adjust it as needed for the conditions. Easy. What I don't like is adjusting the thing to where I feel its appropriate and then having the car re-adjust them based on a speed algorithm. Here in the rainy PNW the "high speed" is often too high for me and the sub-40mph speed doesn't (in some cases) allow you to adjust fast enough without going to a continuous setting.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

That's exactly how I feel about it. It is pretty much useless, especially when driving during a light mist/rain. It is the worst during city driving.

 

rainx for low speeds works great for me lol especially on the rear window