What did you do to / for your E53 today??

[EODguy]

Originally Posted by oldskewel

"Discovered" a weird feature on my 2001 3.0i. I don't know if it is temperature dependent (I'm up in South Lake Tahoe, where it is close to freezing temps), but never noticed it before ...



When taking the key out, with the wipers set to intermittent, (and maybe it has to be pretty cold as well), it moves the wipers up to 12 o'clock as the car shuts off.



This makes sense if you're worried about snow accumulation freezing the wipers into place down low. Also, you could pull them away from the windshield when up high, to prevent them from freezing to the windshield.



I tested it a few times, and was impressed. It automates something I used to have to do with my other cars when parking during snow - setting the wipers wiping, then pulling the key out at the right time to kill them when they're up high.

That is super cool!!

I wish mine would point downwards towards 6 o'clock to keep them from burning up when it's hot out.

Sent from my SM-A730F using Tapatalk

[Bdc101]

Originally Posted by oldskewel

"Discovered" a weird feature on my 2001 3.0i. I don't know if it is temperature dependent (I'm up in South Lake Tahoe, where it is close to freezing temps), but never noticed it before ...

When taking the key out, with the wipers set to intermittent, (and maybe it has to be pretty cold as well), it moves the wipers up to 12 o'clock as the car shuts off.

This makes sense if you're worried about snow accumulation freezing the wipers into place down low. Also, you could pull them away from the windshield when up high, to prevent them from freezing to the windshield.

I tested it a few times, and was impressed. It automates something I used to have to do with my other cars when parking during snow - setting the wipers wiping, then pulling the key out at the right time to kill them when they're up high.

My X has never done this, and I park it in freezing weather all the time. I wonder if it has to be coded or something. Too bad my laptop that I spent great deals of effort getting to work with PA Soft took a dump on me a few months ago, otherwise I could look. I could really use this feature, haha!



What drives me nuts is that the passenger-side wiper can't be pulled up while it's in the fully-down position. I'm sure many other X's like mine have chipped paint on the hood where people have tried to do this many times.

[Mouse]

In Texas, I will never know if my X5 has this feature.

Got mine detailed this weekend as I may have a potential buyer. Sorta bittersweet feeling I guess.

[c-bass]

Well the snow will be here before long so I'll be testing this feature also.

One of the things I hated about the design of the wipers in the e83 is the fact you can't leave them off the windshield because the arms hit the hood.

For all those lucky enough not to have to deal with snow, what usually happens is when you're driving around and park the car, the heat from the engine will melt the snow which will slide down the windshield and form a solid chunk of ice right where the wipers rest. Ice pick is a mandatory tool to have in the car if you're an e83 driver.

[oldskewel]

"When taking the key out, with the wipers set to intermittent, (and maybe it has to be pretty cold as well), it moves the wipers up to 12 o'clock as the car shuts off."

Since a few people seem interested in this feature, I did a few more tests on it today.

- Worked at 54*F exterior temperature (as high as it went)
- Confirmed it only works when the front wipers are set to intermittent. Does not work when they are set to off, or when they are set to a constant wiping speed.
- The wipers drive quickly to 12 o'clock as soon as the key turns to OFF/LOCK (the position before you can pull the key out). So you don't actually need to remove the key to make this happen.
- I don't know if this has been programmed in somehow. My car in general, other than having the high cluster, is pretty stripped and stock. I definitely did not program this feature. The only programming I did was to change the breakpoints on the temperature gauge.
- This feature (since I've noticed it) is completely reliable. Works this way every time. Maybe I never noticed it before since I'm usually in the Bay Area, where we either have no rain at all (e.g., April-Nov) or storms bringing heavy rain from Dec-Mar, so maybe I never used the intermittent wiper setting before, and it has nothing to do with temp???

[wpoll]

When you refer to intermittent mode, do you mean rain sensor mode or does you car not have the rain sensor and have a true intermittent wiper feature (unlike mine, which has no intermittent mode, it has a rain sensor mode instead)?

[Clavurion]

That wiper function could be related to this parameter in GM3. As default it's not active.

ABKLAPPSTELLUNG (Windscreen wipers service position to facilitate wiper blade change)

[oldskewel]

Originally Posted by wpoll

When you refer to intermittent mode, do you mean rain sensor mode or does you car not have the rain sensor and have a true intermittent wiper feature (unlike mine, which has no intermittent mode, it has a rain sensor mode instead)?

I'm pretty sure I don't have a rain sensor. On my wiper stalk, the bottom position is off. Then the first position above that is what I am calling intermittent - so it does a wipe, waits a fixed amount of time, then repeats.

The next position above that is constant wiping at a slow speed.

[oldskewel]

Originally Posted by Clavurion

That wiper function could be related to this parameter in GM3. As default it's not active.

ABKLAPPSTELLUNG (Windscreen wipers service position to facilitate wiper blade change)

Sounds good. It would be a convenient position for blade change.

The fact that it does it automatically from intermittent wiper mode when turning the car off, maybe (not confirmed) temp related ... that's what made me think it was a snow related thing.

On the temp - I'll be returning to the bay area in a few days, where it will probably be closer to 70*F - will test again there. Maybe the whole temp theory is wrong.

[andrewwynn]

I have left my wipers on rain sensing for months in all seasons never had wipers park upright but it's common for people in central north (what people for no good reason call Midwest) to pull their wipers off the glad e overnight when snow is expected so could be related concept for parking the wipers to do that.

Wife's X5 the train sensor isn't working so there car was smart enough after attempting to and failing calibration the first click is intermittent so I'm curious if her car will park wipers upright when in intermittent mode.