W169 intermittant / rain sensing.

[IanMBFORUM]

First click on the stalk should be intermittant. How do I know if I've got rain sensing. Also if it is. Seems patchy as needing a lot of rain to work.

Is that normal? Any way to improve?

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[wongl]

In my opinion, the best way to check if there is a rain sensor fitted or not is to switch the wipers on to intermittent mode when it is dry. If the rain sensor is absent the wipers will work intermittently regardless. If the rain sensor is fitted the wipers shouldn't work.

 

[Trickythemerc]

Rain sensing wipers need good wiper blades to work anything like they should. Mine were random till I fitted new blades, the difference was amazing. I had previously convinced myself that the sensor was faulty.

 

[wongl]

Rain sensing wipers need good wiper blades to work anything like they should. Mine were random till I fitted new blades, the difference was amazing. I had previously convinced myself that the sensor was faulty.

Also the front wiper blades on the W169 are not symmetrical in that the left and right are of different lengths. To make matters worse, these two lengths are swapped around on the pre-facelift model compared to the facelift models! The best way to check is to make sure that one of the wiper blades is fully clearing the rain sensor area.

 

[rangerovering]

Also the front wiper blades on the W169 are not symmetrical in that the left and right are of different lengths. To make matters worse, these two lengths are swapped around on the pre-facelift model compared to the facelift models! The best way to check is to make sure that one of the wiper blades is fully clearing the rain sensor area.

Ah good advice, my A150 has always been prone to being very sensitive to rain and the wipers go daft! Where do you all buy your wipers? It have MB ones on it but they may not be the right ones..

 

[wongl]

Ah good advice, my A150 has always been prone to being very sensitive to rain and the wipers go daft! Where do you all buy your wipers? It have MB ones on it but they may not be the right ones..

I have tried several different makes of wiper blades, from BOSCH, Halford's to Valeo, and I have found that none of them works as well as the MB wiper blades over a period of time. In the end, I have found that the more expensive MB wiper blades work more consistently (less judder/squeak) over a longer period of time (typically 2 to 3 years).

For the rear wiper blades, I use Valeo VM26 that I purchase for EUC on sale for under £5. They are perfectly okay for flick wipes (which do not seem to judder) to the rear and generally last around 2 years before the rubber splits.

I generally stock up with MB wiper blades when there is an offer on - the last offer was £24 for a pair of MB wiper blades for any Mercedes models a few years ago, and I still have two new sets in stock in my study.

One more note, MB (used to?) have two different part numbers for the W169 wiper blades - one part number seems to be for the facelift model. As I run a small 'fleet' of W169 of both models, I actually stock up with both parts. I am not sure, but I think both parts actually contain the same wiper blades, but with the A/B packaging swapped around to suit the pre and post-face-lift models.