Rain sensing wipers appear to be worthless on a 24 SLT Premium... perhaps I'm using them incorrectly?

DubVBenz · March 2

From what I understand, the intermittent scale and options on a Sierra with auto rain sensing wipers are intended to control how aggressively they adapt (please correct me if I'm wrong). Mine appear to do nothing, and I have verified the rain sensing wipers are enabled in the Vehicle settings via the infotainment. No matter the setting, mine only seem to come on (beyond once every 20 seconds) when I manually change the setting back and forth. My only previous experience with rain sensing wipers is on a almost a dozen Mercedes dating back to as early as 2000, and all seem to work pretty reliably (with no good manual intermittent fallback though). I'm wondering if I should bother taking my truck into the dealer to inevitably tell me it cannot be reproduced, or if this is just the expected behavior with GM's implementation.

Edited March 2 by DubVBenz

discgolf01 · March 2

19 hours ago, DubVBenz said:

From what I understand, the intermittent scale and options on a Sierra with auto rain sensing wipers are intended to control how aggressively they adapt (please correct me if I'm wrong). Mine appear to do nothing, and I have verified the rain sensing wipers are enabled in the Vehicle settings via the infotainment. No matter the setting, mine only seem to come on (beyond once every 20 seconds) when I manually change the setting back and forth. My only previous experience with rain sensing wipers is on a almost a dozen Mercedes dating back to as early as 2000, and all seem to work pretty reliably (with no good manual intermittent fallback though). I'm wondering if I should bother taking my truck into the dealer to inevitably tell me it cannot be reproduced, or if this is just the expected behavior with GM's implementation.

You might be able to play around with this using a hose. It's my understanding that the way the rain sense works is using one of the cameras against the windshield located behind your rear view mirror that looks for drops, size, and rate, so in theory you could set it up and hit it with the hose in that area to see how it increases/decreases. This of course assumes rain sense works with the car park.

repairman54 · March 3

I'm not happy with the rain sense either. It's not enough wipes or too many depending on conditions, daylight, etc. Also wipers going to high speed vs low in some conditions.

Windshield camera based and like any automated system it's not perfect for sure.

SFLTruck · March 3

On 3/1/2024 at 9:43 PM, DubVBenz said:

From what I understand, the intermittent scale and options on a Sierra with auto rain sensing wipers are intended to control how aggressively they adapt (please correct me if I'm wrong). Mine appear to do nothing, and I have verified the rain sensing wipers are enabled in the Vehicle settings via the infotainment. No matter the setting, mine only seem to come on (beyond once every 20 seconds) when I manually change the setting back and forth. My only previous experience with rain sensing wipers is on a almost a dozen Mercedes dating back to as early as 2000, and all seem to work pretty reliably (with no good manual intermittent fallback though). I'm wondering if I should bother taking my truck into the dealer to inevitably tell me it cannot be reproduced, or if this is just the expected behavior with GM's implementation.

My rain sense wipers on my 23 work pretty well. As far as reproducing goes, a garden hose should solve that obstacle.

Edited March 3 by SFLTruck

redwngr · March 5

My '23 1500 has them.

At first I also didn't think mine were working.

Wipers still have to be turned 'on' for rain-sense to work (the 'off' position is still an off position, if that makes sense)

The knob positions that would have adjusted intermittent speed still do that, but with rain-sense the amount of rain landing in front of the camera is also factored in. If it quits raining, they will quit wiping. If it rains harder, they run faster.

The higher in the 'intermittent' range, the higher the sensitivity and the more often they will wipe. Heavy enough rain and they will go to non-intermittent using the slow or fast range as necessary.

I find that I still need/want to adjust the sensitivity/intermittent setting -- but don't have to mess with it near as much as with conventional intermittent wipers..

Edited March 5 by redwngr

rrmccabe · July 21

Just want to add GM did a horrible job documenting this feature in the manual. I cant say how well they work on my 2024 LTZ yet as I am struggling to figure it out. Seems there should be a AUTO section on the turn signal stalk with slow fast and intermittent.

Not that you could see it because for me they have hidden it behind the steering wheel so you struggle to see it. Much like the top of gauges which makes me thankful for buying a truck with the HUD.

Jus Cruisin · July 21

36 minutes ago, rrmccabe said:

Just want to add GM did a horrible job documenting this feature in the manual. I cant say how well they work on my 2024 LTZ yet as I am struggling to figure it out. Seems there should be a AUTO section on the turn signal stalk with slow fast and intermittent.

Not that you could see it because for me they have hidden it behind the steering wheel so you struggle to see it. Much like the top of gauges which makes me thankful for buying a truck with the HUD.

Maybe you need to adjust your steering wheel a bit. I can see all of my gauges while driving. As far as the wipers? One click and they are "on". Pretty simple, I think. I actually leave them off until I sense rain I don't like the start up swipe on dry glass.

rrmccabe · July 21

I leave my wipers off too. My comment is more about the poor documentation.

As far as steering wheel tilt, I am going to make that adjustment based on comfort. Gauges are secondary. As I said the HUD helps. And no matter where I place wheel the turn signal stalk info on end is behind the leather wheel. I am sure once I am used to the truck I won't need to look.

cef2lion · July 21

I have a 22 ZR2 and it has rain sensing wipers. If I recall there is a setting to enable in the Informant Screens. Then on the turn stalk you turn to the first setting and that is for rain sensing auto mode. I thought anything past the first setting is manual intermittent mode.

redwngr · July 21

6 hours ago, rrmccabe said:

Just want to add GM did a horrible job documenting this feature in the manual. I cant say how well they work on my 2024 LTZ yet as I am struggling to figure it out. Seems there should be a AUTO section on the turn signal stalk with slow fast and intermittent.

Not that you could see it because for me they have hidden it behind the steering wheel so you struggle to see it. Much like the top of gauges which makes me thankful for buying a truck with the HUD.

Auto happens when the knob is set in the section that would have been 'intermittent' with the regular system.

Off is still off.

Low and high are still low and high.

I find that I still fiddle with the 'intermittent sensitivity' but not as much as I usually did with traditional 'intermittent'.

systems.

Rain droplet size seems to change the way the system responds -- so it changes the sensitivity level I prefer.

I have had the wipers go all with way to max speed when the control is in one of the intermittent settings.

I had to drive it during multiple rain events of varying intensity before I believed it was actually doing anything.

rrmccabe · July 21

So just to be clear. Off is obviously off and the area shown with orange arrow is all rain sense when enabled in infotainment center?

LO and Hi overrides the rainsense and is just manual old school mode

Edited July 22 by rrmccabe

Jus Cruisin · July 21

25 minutes ago, rrmccabe said:

So just to be clear. Off is obviously off and the area shown with orange arrow is all rain sense when enabled in infotainment center?

Low and Hi overrides the rainsense and is just manual old school mode

Yes

repairman54 · July 23

Rain sense is hit or miss in my '23 LTZ. Not impressed with it, I would prefer the old style manual control. I don't like it going to high automatically when I can get by with low speed or it's poor sensing in mist conditions.

I usually have to turn it up to notch 3 in those conditions to sense some mist conditions.

I also don't like the dry sweep on start up if I forget to turn it off.

Edited July 23 by repairman54