Rain and light sensor retrofit question

[80stech]

As far as I understood the sensor has a fixed focal length for the thickness of the glass and the calibration was for sensitivity on the surface at that focal length. I looked into getting a new windshield for mine a while back and it was impossible to get the original thickness other than from the dealer at about 4-5 times the cost.

BTW My rain sensor works flawlessly other than speeding up when driving under LED street lites! I wonder if that is a problem with the newer ones as well??

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by 80stech

As far as I understood the sensor has a fixed focal length for the thickness of the glass and the calibration was for sensitivity on the surface at that focal length. I looked into getting a new windshield for mine a while back and it was impossible to get the original thickness other than from the dealer at about 4-5 times the cost.

I am not sure on that one. Pilkington and St. Gobains Sekurit were the manufacturers for BMW so I just got Sekurit glass for my E46 retrofit and the replacement glass for my E53. I would never consider Chinesium glass like Safelite.

[andrewwynn]

When I had my windshield replaced, they didn't realize I had rain sensor so they had to come back with a different piece of glass. As Overboost is saying it does seem there is something on the glass to interface with the sensor, I just thought it has a clear spot for the sensor that you could clear out if necessary.

I would look for YouTube video of prior retrofit. It's not difficult to find optical adhesive; look on Amazon under phone digitizer optical glue but you'd have to find out if there's something special on the glass.

My understanding is the sensor sends some light out the glass and measures how much comes back. When rain drop is on the outer surface it lets out some light that would normally bounce back.

You can test without glue using oil. I've fixed old iPhones using cooking oil between the screen and digitizer.

If you can get the sensor to calibrate using oil and gorilla tape to hold it, it should work with optical glue. Don't use whatever crap from Overboost's example that'll never work.

[Clavurion]

A proper windshield for rain sensor has the lens part already glued at the factory and the sensor itself is simply installed on the lens part.

[80stech]

So you would think then the lense would be correct for whatever glass it was installed on.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

Just called my mechanic and he quoted me $400 canadian, which I found totally fair.
He didn't have the type of glass I mentioned but said they never had any issues. He said he doesn't use "no name" glass. His glass comes with a bracket for the rain sensor and is green tint.
Looks like all I'll have to do is clip the sensor to the windshield, plug it in and it should work. No need for gluing which is nice.
Getting the windshield installed next Wednesday so I have a week to find the sensor.

[andrewwynn]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

Just called my mechanic and he quoted me $400 canadian, which I found totally fair.
He didn't have the type of glass I mentioned but said they never had any issues. He said he doesn't use "no name" glass. His glass comes with a bracket for the rain sensor and is green tint.
Looks like all I'll have to do is clip the sensor to the windshield, plug it in and it should work. No need for gluing which is nice.
Getting the windshield installed next Wednesday so I have a week to find the sensor.

Ask him who the manufacturer is. He should know. Best advice is Pilkington or St. Gobains Sekurit as mentioned. That's what came on BMWs from the factory.

Remember, you may need to code the car for RLS. Once done you can check it like I did in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvjZRp0DUD8

[Bmwe5320023.0]

Thank you Overboost.

So I was trying to remove the rain sensors from scrap vehicles. They do come off very easy if you pry with something from behind.

Basically if you're not changing the glass, you will need the backplate, or whatever it's called. It's easy to remove with the sensor as one piece.

Now if you have a new glass with the first plate pre-installed, you just need the sensor.

For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to separate them and I thought they just clipped in.
After breaking a few tabs I figured our how it works lol.
To separate them you gotta push on 2 tabs, one by one. Then the backplate plastic glass will be released.
I decided to take a few pictures so that whoever wants to separate them doesn't break the tabs by accident

I will be installing the sensor tonight, can't wait to test it out!
Also picked up heated rear seats while I was at the junk yard lol!

[Bmwe5320023.0]

The glass is good as yoy suggested.
Apparently the wiper switch is supposed to say "A" for rain sensing feature, and mine got "S".
Also for some reason I don't have that option in ZKE.
Central body electronic, is that the module behind the glove box?
Does it mean my module is too old?