Nissan Micra (2003 - 2010) - 2003 1.1 Rain Sensor Fault

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Mon 15 Dec 2008 19:51
2003 1.1 Rain Sensor Fault - UpTheBracket
Is there anyway to disable the rain sensor on my 03 Micra?

Everytime the windscreen gets even the slightest drop of water, the wipers start working at full pelt and continue to do so when the water has gone. This continues for days after and is incredibly infuriating. It can mean I have the wipers working on gloriously sunny days and people must think I'm mad!

I asked at my local dealership and they wanted to book the car in for a full electrical diagnostic test to locate the fault which I can imagine would be rather expensive so I decided to see if anyone else has experienced this problem and could help me.

My kind thanks in advance for any advice or guidance.
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Mon 15 Dec 2008 23:50
2003 1.1 Rain Sensor Fault - rtj70
Sounds faulty to me - especially if it happens for days after too. The speed of the wiper should be dependent on how much rain so for light rain it would be at "intermittent" speed. To be full speed would take heavy rain.

So you might need help from the dealer.

On my cars with rain sensors then you still have the normal settings for the wiper with the auto setting replacing intermittent. So you could manually swipe the screen for light rain and manually set for normal/heavy rain.
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Tue 16 Dec 2008 11:43
2003 1.1 Rain Sensor Fault - UpTheBracket
Thanks for your reply.

My car sounds similar to the ones you describe in that the 'auto-sensor' should only work when set to the intermittent setting. When the wiper is set to 'off' or a faster setting, the auto sensor takes control and starts wiping irrespective of whether it is raining or not.

I was hoping there would be some way of simply de-activating this fairly pointless feature and control the wipers manully.
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Tue 16 Dec 2008 17:32
2003 1.1 Rain Sensor Fault - buzbee
The manual off-switch should turn them off.

However, if they are already working when you manually switch off, (other than using the ignition switch to do that) they will continue to work until the wipers reach the parking position. At that point, the wipe-switch opens that otherwise supplies a feed that bypasses the manual off-switch.

So my guess is that your problem has nothing to do with the rain sensor, rather it is the wipe-switch that is not opening properly.

An experienced mechanic ought to know that and also where to find and check it. Or is that expecting too much?

The wipe/park-switch used to be part of the wiper mechanism, worked off the wiper angle, and probably still is, because only the wipers 'know' when they are at park position.

Report back with your repair result.
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