I've searched the posts here in MCO and don't exactly find what I'm looking for so here goes:

I could really use a way to vary the speed of my intermittent wipers. On all other cars I've owned, there was a manual adjustment of the intermittent wiper control so that the speed could be almost as fast as the slowest constant wiper speed -- down to wiping only every 10 secs. or so.

The MINI doesn't have this so I was happy to read that its intermittent wipers varied automatically based on the speed of the vehicle. Hurray!

Except that the intermittent wiper position on the control lever gives me only one intermittent wiper speed, about one wipe every 8 secs.. It does not vary according to vehicle speed and of course, I cannot manually change it.

I've read in my Owners Manual that my Cooper should have this speed-sensitive intermittent wiper feature. I've read online that it should and I posed this question to MINI USA and I was contacted in a day (amazing!) that I was correctly informed and should have speed-sensitive intermittent wipers.

However, my local dealer tells me that this is not a feature of my Cooper. The dealer tells me that I'm confusing this with the wiper speed that varies by vehicle speed when I'm using one of the two constant wiper speeds, Fast and Slow. I have this feature, it works and I've read about it separately all over the place. I think this is a separate wiper feature and that I'm not confusing these two things.

I'm exhausted trying to convince the dealer that my Cooper has this feature, it's not working on my car and I'd like to have it set-up or fixed.

So I put it to you, my fellow MCO members: Does anyone else know that they have this feature and it works; or, anyone know that this isn't a feature I'm supposed to have; or, anyone know that I really do have this confused with the constant wiper speed variation? I'd really like to hear from an owner who has seen this feature work on an actual car, as well.

Just to confirm, my MINI is a 2002, July-build Cooper with only the 3.2 software upgrade to fix the idle problem. All else works perfectly and of course, I don't have the rain-sensing auto wipers.

Thanks,
Misty-windowed in San Francisco

_________________
Indi Blue Cooper w/ Black top & mirrors, sport seats and Prem. Pkg. Christened "Ringo".

 

>>I've searched the posts here in MCO and don't exactly find what I'm looking for so here goes:

I'd really like to know that too but I'm afraid I've never seen anything.

Have you called your dealer? (Often useless, but sometimes it bears fruit)

 

They probally don't have the software to program them.. But yes, with the wiper control arm in the first posistion, it should have a longer pause when you're stopped then when you are at speed. But don't get too excited, because at least with mine, the pause difference isn't that great...

Rocketboy_X

 

<<...and of course, I don't have the rain-sensing auto wipers. >>

maybe i'm confused, but didn't you just answer yourself.. you don't have that option? it's my understanding that the rain-sensing auto wipers ONLY work when they're on intermittent, which sounds like what you want...

ryan

 

As far as I understand the rain sensing auto and speed sensing are two different things. Rain sensing changes speed with the rain. Speed with the speed. On my Cooper 11/02 build I only notice a difference when the wipers are on super fast at a stop. It only changes at a complete stop. I thought it would change with slow speeds, but nada!! If I were you I would put your wipers on the fastest setting and test it out. Hopefully you'll notice a difference. I guess they made it sound a lot cooler than it actually is. :smile: Hope this helps.

 

Many & Wags.
I'm not talking about the RAIN-sensitive feature at all. I don't have that option and don't think it was availble when my Cooper was built. I just wanted that to be clear to readers.

What I am talking about is SPEED-sensitive wipers. There is some speed variation on the FAST constant speed setting. My Cooper is supposed to have this and it does work.

What doesn't work is any speed variation when the wipers are set to Intermittent.
Thanks.

 

Mine works and so should yours. MC late april build 2002. Slow intermittent when stopped almost slow speed when at 80. Good luck on convincing your dealer, maybe try it on one of thier demo cars to show them.

 

On my old MC, the wipers used to change intermittent speed (and used to switch from speed 1 to intermittent when I stopped) ... but they stopped doing it when I had the engine software upgraded.
So I don't know if it was just an option that got reset, or if it disappeared from later engine versions.

My new MCS has the rain sensing wipers and they work very well :smile:

 

my Oct 02 build of my 03 MCS is supposed to have intermitten wipers. Now I may be confused as to what they are to do, but I thought in all settings the wiper speed was supposed to vary depending on how fast you were driving. But, in my Mini, I have found that it only varies when I have it on the first setting, which is intermitten, as opposed to the second setting which is low speed, always on. And, even on the intermitten setting, it only seems to vary when I am stopped, its hardly noticeable when driving.

I guess that's howt hey are supposed to work? Are they supposed to work on the other wiper settings that arent intermittent?

 

Thanks!
The reply from "ryhtomit" is a great, concise description of what I thought the wipers were supposed to do based on my other reading. Also, what "iancull" writes may explain why I don't have this intermittent feature after I had the CD 3.1 software upgrade.

Any other owners/drivers who have seen the speed-sensitive intermittent wipers work on a MINI without automatic, rain-sensing wipers?

_________________
Indi Blue Cooper w/ Black top & mirrors, sport seats and Prem. Pkg. Christened "Ringo".

 

As far as I can tell the speed control changes the speed of your wipers to the slowest speed only when you are at idle and your wipers are set to the highest speed not a very useful option...

 

This feature can be enable/disabled by your MINI dealer, look at page 51 of the owners manual for information.

Also the "other" MINI forum has information on this topic at:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthrea...mittent+wipers
On page two there is a post that explains how it works in detail.

Good Luck,

retroom

 

Kensmini,
I too was excited at what my wipers could do, but I am a tad disappointed. If you go back to Rocketboy's post he could not have made it clearer. You can barely see the difference in the speed of the wipers.

I counted 7 seconds at a standstill. At approximately 30 miles per hour it was down to 5 seconds, and then any thing above 30 mph it was constant at one wipe every 5 seconds.

On my next visit to the dealer I will see if this can be improved since it is a programmable option. If your dealer is telling you it can't be done I would have to say they are B.Sing you. At least my SA was honest with me when he told me he was still learning about all the neat features of the MINI. It never hurts to ask a question and read the manual.

Lolo

 

Well, finally, I've heard back from MINI USA on the Cooper's speed-sensitive intermittent wipers.

It turns out that the Owner's Manual, the MINI Unwrapped CD-ROM and the little car itself are all telling the truth: the feature really does exist and is not in need of programming by the dealer.

The MINI customer rep phoned and apologized that although he had news for me, he was kind of embarrassed about what he'd learned in his research.

Yes, the MINI does have speed-sensitive intermittent wipers but the settings, made at the factory, are not very noticeable or useful. And, this rep says he's been told by MINI engineers that these settings are not among the ones that can be reset at the dealer.

Here's the factory settings:

So, yeah, the feature's there but it doesn't seem to be too useful.

Had a nice chat with the rep, though. He logged my concern about the lack of a manual boot release in my July 2002 Cooper.

_________________
Indi Blue Cooper w/ Black top & mirrors, sport seats and Prem. Pkg. Christened "Ringo".

 

Thanks for the info!
Maybe one day I'll be able to "confirm" the 4 sec. interval