Ha, no. Driving for 20 minutes at 80km clears the filter out and resets it. If you don't manage to do that before your unknown amount of available driving expires then you need to take it to the dealer and then pay someone to clean the filter out. It's happened loads especially with lockdown driving but if you can get to a motorway its ok, twice I've not made it though. It's still a 20 minute drive there, 20 minutes one way and then 20 minutes the other then 20 minutes back home. Its a proper pain. Has to be a mway too otherwise if you slow down the clock resets and you have to start again. Its like the film Speed but even more tedious and with no explosions.
What annoys you about your current car?
- Thread starter Martynt74
- Start date
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People always say this and it's so annoying. It doesn't defeat the point at all, the point isn't to help people understand when it's raining it's to control wiper speed once it is raining.
I really like the fact you have to switch them on the first time it rains in each journey because it avoids situations where it's dry and you get a little splash of water on the screen, perhaps a passing car uses the washer or something drips from a bridge and the auto wipers then smear your screen up by operating when you didn't need them to.
Sounds like a petrol car is the answer!
Last edited:
Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
Oh man that is hysterical. I understand it a lot more now. I thought you were just talking about an "Italian tune up" but it is a serious reset process?
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Diesel particle filter filling up due to lockdown driving - short trips, mostly slow moving. Get an orange warning telling to drive at 80km/h for 20 minutes. I am 15 to 20 minutes away from a road I can do this on (motorway) but no way of knowing when that will turn red. Sometimes it takes days of more driving, sometimes it's half an hour. When it goes red it goes limp, kills the turbos and it drives like a truck with a speed reduced to I think about 40kmh. Fortunately there is a dealer relatively close by. $300 each time, happened twice now
Surely it's cheaper just to purposely drive that 15-20 minutes out of your way
There should be a better design of the stalk though. If I flick the stalk up one, it sets the wipers to auto. If I then turn the car off, the stalk stays in the auto position.
It would be better if it was designed so the stalk either went back to the neutral position, or is just kept the wipers in auto mode. The auto lights don't turn off whilst set in the auto position and that's a pretty similar situation. I have enough faith in the rain sensor to not wipe a dry windscreen.
It's doubly annoying as occasionally you flick the stalk up thinking you're going from off to auto and it turns the wiper to an annoyingly fast speed, as the stalk was actually set to auto from the last time I used them.
Remains on in all the VWs I have owned which I like and prefer.
Soldato
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Going the long way home once a week would indeed sound like the cheaper option.
You can switch them off in the VW but it always remembers whether they were on auto or off when last used. Thats how it should be. I had no idea any other cars were set up differently.
Trip computer in the Volvo has some pretty weird behaviour. There’s a rotary control on one of the stalks to select between the various bits of information you can display, however if you turn the car off it forgets what you last had selected and shows nothing on next start up. Bit annoying as I like to have the remaining range displayed.
Fortunately there’s one exception to this which I can only assume is a bug of some kind - If you let the fuel level get low enough (down to 50 miles remaining or less), the display will automatically switch to show the remaining range (presumably as designed) however it will continue to show the range indefinitely even after switching off/restarting filling with fuel etc. As soon as you use the dial to change the display to show something else it goes back to it’s dumb forgetful mode.
Fortunately there’s one exception to this which I can only assume is a bug of some kind - If you let the fuel level get low enough (down to 50 miles remaining or less), the display will automatically switch to show the remaining range (presumably as designed) however it will continue to show the range indefinitely even after switching off/restarting filling with fuel etc. As soon as you use the dial to change the display to show something else it goes back to it’s dumb forgetful mode.
It's not though, is it? Whether it was raining yesterday has no bearing on whether I'd want the wipers on today, so I don't want my wipers to remember whether they were on or off the next time I use the car. The exception is mid journey, but that's fine as mine allows for that - if I get out for a coffee and get back in they are still 'on'. If I get back in tommorrow they won't smear crap all over my windscreen because something dripped on the screen just because it was raining last week when I last drove the car.
I see people complain all the time about having to switch on auto wipers but honestly, I can't understand the problem. I've driven cars with both ways of doing it and clicking 'Auto' when it starts to rain is far less annoying, IMO.
Unfortunately I've lost the argument as the last new BMW I drove had the always on functionality now instead of the helpful button. I only realised when the guy in front washed his screen and then my wipers automatically smeared all the dead bugs everywhere. Thanks
It's not though, is it? Whether it was raining yesterday has no bearing on whether I'd want the wipers on today, so I don't want my wipers to remember whether they were on or off the next time I use the car. The exception is mid journey, but that's fine as mine allows for that - if I get out for a coffee and get back in they are still 'on'. If I get back in tommorrow they won't smear crap all over my windscreen because something dripped on the screen just because it was raining last week when I last drove the car.
I see people complain all the time about having to switch on auto wipers but honestly, I can't understand the problem. I've driven cars with both ways of doing it and clicking 'Auto' when it starts to rain is far less annoying, IMO.
Unfortunately I've lost the argument as the last new BMW I drove had the always on functionality now instead of the helpful button. I only realised when the guy in front washed his screen and then my wipers automatically smeared all the dead bugs everywhere. Thanks
Well its on a stalk on the VW so for you just switch your wipers off (off automatic) when you park up the car. They wont come back on then until you want them to.
How is this better than just switching them on if it begins to rain and then forgetting about them until the next time you're driving?
You have to remember to turn them off which basically isn't happening is it. Whereas you can't not remember to switch auto on if it starts raining.
I reckon the BMW way was the best way (it even accounted for the fact you'd probably still want them on if making a stop during a journey) but they got sick of people like you moaning about it so changed it
Ok, so how do you deal with the annoying wipers reacting to a momentary splash when it isn't raining issue if they're always on?
You also end up eventually damaging the blades by dragging them across an otherwise dry screen because the sensor got a bit wet. Not a problem if you wait until it's actually raining before simply pressing the stalk..
Lights I agree, never a reason not to be always auto but guess what, that's exactly how auto lights work...
I just leave them to do their thing. If they turn on for a cursory splash then it doesn't bother me. I will accept my treatment of cars is different to most in here though and a few streaks are the least of my issues
Auto wipers work exactly like that for me too. I'd be gutted if they didn't, but they have across my last 3 cars (Alfa, Mercedes and Lexus). Always annoys me if the mechanic has messed with the setting after a service/MOT and i have to fiddle setting it again!
Soldato
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Same in my F56 Mini, and then a control to change how rapidly it responds (I'm assuming this is what it does) to the rain. Works well for me.
I reckon the BMW way was the best way (it even accounted for the fact you'd probably still want them on if making a stop during a journey) but they got sick of people like you moaning about it so changed it
I agree the current BMW auto wiper control is a step backwards. The button on the end of the stalk was perfect, having it as a position on the stalk instead means you can accidentally leave it in that position and also if you just want a quick wipe you have to push the stalk down two positions, then back up two positions to put them back into auto. On the old stalks you just tapped it down and it returned to the central position automatically without ever changing the auto setting. Proper first world moan I agree but its so annoying! This seems to have changed somewhere in the F3x series lifecycle as my pre facelift F36 had the old style ones, but I had an F30 loaner in 2018 that had the new style ones, as does my current G20.