Turning on rain sensor

[Bearsvw]

I would like to activate rain sensor for closing and wipers. Also like the close feature by remote. Does anyone ln my area do this or can it be done .

 

[Rico567]

I can answer the latter of your two questions (I'm assuming that our 2013 Passat TDI Sel Premium is the same car as your Highline— in fact, the vehicle information sticker in the spare tire compartment on our car didn't say "SEL," it said "Highline," even though the vehicle is otherwise badged and marked for US delivery).
It can be changed, despite the fact that some may tell you "no." We took our car in to the dealer for the complimentary 1,000 mile check, and asked if the wipers could be activated. Their reply? "Only in South Korea." At that time, I knew that further dialogue would be useless, so I waited until I got the deal I wanted on VCDS and activated it myself. I haven't tried the auto-close, but the wiper sensor works fine.

 

[atc98002]

Don't forget that VW removed the rain sensor some time between the 2013 and 2014 models. Mine doesn't have it, even though it still has the same housing on the windshield. Make sure it's actually there!

 

[Bearsvw]

Yeah mine is there

 

[tadawson]

The procedure is in the sticky at the top of this section . . . So, if you can find someone with VCDS, it's not too bad to do. We have a 2013 SEL, and I enabled (and verified) the rain sensor, as well as auto close, and while in there, put the ability to turn off the DRL's in the menus . . . all have worked fine for years . . . .

- Tim

 

[tdiatlast]

tadawson: I don't know how many rain sensors worked/didn't work, but the reason VWoA discontinued them during the 2013 run, according to some, was because they didn't function consistently. Caveat emptor. In my 2012, they were erratic.

 

[sleek98]

our 2013 works, it sometimes random goes off when its dry out but not enough to make me want to turn it back off. I like it a lot.

 

[tadawson]

Yeah, I get the random swipe at times too . . . seems like it's when there is a flutter of light/dark and similar, seems to fake it out . . . Not a big deal, and if you turn the wipers off when no rain, becomes irrelevant anyhoo . . .

 

[tadawson]

tadawson: I don't know how many rain sensors worked/didn't work, but the reason VWoA discontinued them during the 2013 run, according to some, was because they didn't function consistently. Caveat emptor. In my 2012, they were erratic.

Unless you are in other countries . . . they they thought they were gold. I greatly suspect this was a marketing decision, to not give an "Audi-esqe" feature more than anything related to function, but likely we will never know for certain . . .

 

[Booth44]

I activated my rain sensor with VCDS and love it. As others have noted, the only real problem with it is the occasional random wiper swipe on a dry, sunny day. I find the sytem works very well for controlling the wipers in all types of rain. I rarely manually override it.

 

[jrm]

just don't rain x over the sensors, luckily I haven't done that but others report crazy wiper behavior

 

[VernK]

I could see RainX causing a problem, as it makes the water bead up. The beads would act as little lenses, and that probably confuses the sensor which works optically.

As I recall, the rain sensor was disabled because the software was buggy, not the sensor itself misbehaving. But as mentioned we'll never know for sure.

Yours
Vern

 

[IXLR8]

I activated the rain sensor on my '12 Passat, I like it. It has gotten confused occasionally and won't work at all and I need to turn off the wipers, shut off the car, then restart the car and this seems to clear it's head for a while. This has happened 3 or 4 times in the last 4 years. I get an occasional wipe when dry, but my '16 BMW X5 does the same thing as well.

 

[dzampi]

I activated the rain sensor on my '12 Passat, I like it. It has gotten confused occasionally and won't work at all and I need to turn off the wipers, shut off the car, then restart the car and this seems to clear it's head for a while. This has happened 3 or 4 times in the last 4 years. I get an occasional wipe when dry, but my '16 BMW X5 does the same thing as well.

Same thing here...sometimes it works perfect but sometimes it does not. Shutting the car off and restarting it will sometimes clear the problem and then it works flawlessly...

 

[Rico567]

We get the occasional dry wipe, but nothing that needs fixing. I think the disconcerting thing about the operation of the system (for a little while, anyway, we got used to it) is that the operation isn't continuous, as it was with an earlier car we had. It can activate the three modes that existed (intermittent, low, high) before it was activated, and that's it. The other car, a leased '04 SAAB, had a rain-sensitive system that apparently operated continuously, that is, it had available any number of speeds, which it adjusted to the current amount of water hitting the sensor. The VW system is different, but it works.

 

[tdiatlast]

I'm OCD about dry swiping of the wipers, which over time, contributes to premature wear of wipers and glass. I disabled the sensor on our (traded) 2012. I never move my wipers unless the windshield is wet.
Did I say I was OCD? I can't remember, my ADHD jumps up every once in a while.

 

[tadawson]

It's not like the once a month it happens is much of an issue, and if you turn the wipers off when it's not raining, it won't do it all all. Maybe it's me, but I don't use this as the "duh" mode and leave it there all the time, but simply as a better choice than intermittent in light spit, and still select slow or fast when the rain required, and off when it's dry . . . . Never an issue . . . Perhaps it's *MY* OCD that won't let me have the control anywhere but off when it's not raining . . . just need to learn how to apply our quirks for the greatest benefit!

And again, I note, that the only place that got the BS about "the software being flaky" was the US . . . it deployed in other countries, so I tend to call BS on that . . . I *still* maintain it was to maintain the gap between VW and Audi via "stupid feature wars" (TM) . . .

 

[VeeDubTDI]

I'm OCD about dry swiping of the wipers, which over time, contributes to premature wear of wipers and glass. I disabled the sensor on our (traded) 2012. I never move my wipers unless the windshield is wet.
Did I say I was OCD? I can't remember, my ADHD jumps up every once in a while.

Pro tip: Even with the rain sensor enabled, the OFF position on the wiper stalk still works.

 

[tdiatlast]

"Pro" tip: Yup...off works, of course. Kinda defeats the purpose of a rain sensor, doesn't it?

Please consider that there are OTHERS driving our cars, folk who aren't as OCD as the average TDI owner...wives, sons, daughters, who aren't always capable of noticing it's raining, hence the value of a "rain sensor" that will close all the windows/sunroof, and turn on the wipers. HAHA!

 

[VeeDubTDI]

If your fellow drivers aren't capable of responding appropriately when it rains, perhaps they should go back to driver's ed, eh, Ed? HAHA! Sorry, that was terrible.

 

[tdiatlast]

Thanks, VeeDubTDI. I've forwarded your advice to my fellow drivers, along with your phone numbers, email addresses, and physical address. They now know where you are.
They will be contacting you directly.

 

[VeeDubTDI]

Thanks, VeeDubTDI. I've forwarded your advice to my fellow drivers, along with your phone numbers, email addresses, and physical address. They now know where you are.
They will be contacting you directly.

 

[tadawson]

"Pro" tip: Yup...off works, of course. Kinda defeats the purpose of a rain sensor, doesn't it?

Please consider that there are OTHERS driving our cars, folk who aren't as OCD as the average TDI owner...wives, sons, daughters, who aren't always capable of noticing it's raining, hence the value of a "rain sensor" that will close all the windows/sunroof, and turn on the wipers. HAHA!

Not in the slightest! i regard the sensor more as "smart interval" than "no-thought" mode, so for me, off is completely natural. The sensor just keeps me from having to dick around with setting the interval as the rain rate varies, nothing more . . .

 

[tdiatlast]

^^^got it. It's not a "it's starting to rain" sensor, but a more sophisticated active wiper system. You're right!

 

[DEAD-BROKE]

you people drive in the rain,,,,, now thats just crazy talk.