C5 faulty rain sensor

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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by Howie55 »

Mine just does not like rain!!
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by Stickyfinger »

its French

BSI reset or try a new sensor.

Does Lexia read this system ?
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by old'uns »

Something on mine to look at one day, maybe.........

Auto lights flicker when set to Auto but wipers appear to be working OK as they should, Diagbox reports working as normal with no faults.
I turned mine off with Diagbox, so fed up with annoying someone with lights flickering like a loony.........GET OUT MY WAY !!!!
the sensor for both is the LED like thing on screen near to mirror...new one last time i asked was well over £100, maybe £130 hence why i turned off in the BSI
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by myglaren »

Re: lights flickering.
My previous C5 started to do that - intermittently.
Got pulled over by the police one day, coming home from work ill and could barely speak to the officer.
I had been following him and he had pulled in to the side of the road, then followed me and flashed the blues for me to stop.
Asked me what I had wanted and I was mystified until he said I was flashing my lights and thought I had wanted him to stop for something - I hadn't noticed in the bright sunlight.
At least he was very pleasant and followed me home to make sure I got back safely.

Yes, the sensors are, or were £130 for the lights and IIRC £80 for the rain.
Try cleaning the glass on the sensor side of the screen, any haze there can adversely affect them, although I doubt that that is the problem here.
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by Howie55 »

Thanks - think I will just pull the fuse - seems an easy option!
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by Snaileater »

Howie55 wrote: 09 Oct 2015, 09:11 Hope someone can help. I have a 59 C5 Exclusive and the wipers will only work on intermittent when it is raining. The strange thing is, when it is dry, they work fine on all positions! I went out yesterday whilst the weather was showery and as soon as the windscreen dried, the wipers worked as they should but once I hit spray from the vehicle in front they went to intermittent only!
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks
Hi Howie55!

Old thread... Did you solve this?

I got the exact same problem. Wipers works fine when it is not raining, the fast mode is fast, slow mode slow and auto works. But when it rains fast and slow mode seems to go into auto, att lowest interval.

A big problem when it is raining and the wipers will only go slow!
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Have you had the windscreen replaced recently?

If so, the rain and brightness sensor can become opaque / obscured causing incorrect operation of the wipers.

Failing that, your best bet is a diagnostic, as possibilities range from CAN network fault, Rain / Brightness sensor fault, BSI, Engine Fusebox or Switch Control Module inside the Steering Wheel.
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by Snaileater »

Howie55 wrote: 09 Oct 2015, 09:11 Hope someone can help. I have a 59 C5 Exclusive and the wipers will only work on intermittent when it is raining. The strange thing is, when it is dry, they work fine on all positions! I went out yesterday whilst the weather was showery and as soon as the windscreen dried, the wipers worked as they should but once I hit spray from the vehicle in front they went to intermittent only!
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks
Old thread but I've still got the exact same problem, after last post the wipers "self healed" for half a year... It seemed like Howie55 had a hard time explaining the problem, many comments about what mode the wipers where in. So I uploaded a video that shows the problem. The wipers are in the fastest mode during the whole video.



Any suggestions what the problem can be? I've reseted the BSI.
Howie55 wrote: 12 Oct 2015, 22:57 Thanks - think I will just pull the fuse - seems an easy option!
Did this work? Which fuse to pull?
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by GiveMeABreak »

For a start you're doing the test all wrong.

The sensor acts on the water directly over the sensor area. There's no point pouring the water over the middle of the windscreen! :-D

The wipers are initially detecting the splash that made it over the sensor area when you put the first lot of water over it, and are reacting, then as the water from the top of the windscreen starts rolling down later and passes over the sensor area, it causes the wipers to change speed temporarily. Ideally you need a spray bottle and spray at varying times over the sensor area to test how the wipers react on Auto mode. AS it stands that video shows the wipers reacting normally.
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by Snaileater »

GiveMeABreak wrote: 03 Aug 2022, 12:40 For a start you're doing the test all wrong.

The sensor acts on the water directly over the sensor area. There's no point pouring the water over the middle of the windscreen! :-D

The wipers are initially detecting the splash that made it over the sensor area when you put the first lot of water over it, and are reacting, then as the water from the top of the windscreen starts rolling down later and passes over the sensor area, it causes the wipers to change speed temporarily. Ideally you need a spray bottle and spray at varying times over the sensor area to test how the wipers react on Auto mode. AS it stands that video shows the wipers reacting normally.
Ok, you might be right but the wipers behave in the exact same manner when it is raining or if I use the windscreen sprayers...

Also! The test was done with wipers at maximum speed, not in auto mode. Seems strange that they stop when I pour water. Max should be max, or? I've had the car for 5 years, wipers have never stopped when it is raining before. Problem started a year ago.

This was a way to show what happens when water gets on the windscreen, because Howie had a hard time explaining and people just started talking about the contorl being in interval mode :-)

The wipers are not working correctly... Because they get into interval mode, as soon as it starts raining, it is impossible to drive faster than about 70-80 km/h because there will be to much water on the windscreen between the wiper strokes and I can't see the road, no matter what position the control is in.
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Ok, I see your point.

Have you ran a diagnostic using Diagbox yet? That may provide a fault code so we can determine if it's the sensor , the engine fuse box or the control unit behind the steering wheel or something on the vehicle network. There are so many possibilities on this including the windscreen wiper ECU on top of those mentioned already.
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by Snaileater »

GiveMeABreak wrote: 04 Aug 2022, 21:26 Ok, I see your point.

Have you ran a diagnostic using Diagbox yet? That may provide a fault code so we can determine if it's the sensor , the engine fuse box or the control unit behind the steering wheel or something on the vehicle network. There are so many possibilities on this including the windscreen wiper ECU on top of those mentioned already.
Regarding to Digbox it seems to be the main wiper motor that's faulty, guess that is the left one. Changed the righgt one, passenger side, a couple of years ago. I have ordered a wiper motor and hope that will solve the problem. Will get back with result when I get the motor and have installed it.
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Re: C5 faulty rain sensor

Post by Snaileater »

Problem solved!

I changed the wiper motor and everything works fine again!

The only things is when I do the same test as before and pouring water on the windscreen the wipers now works perfectly. Either it is possible to do test that way or there are some other problem with the sensor or something. Anyway, everything works the way I think it is supposed to work :)
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