Like many other owners, my auto rain function is not working on my '02 ES300. I've tried various methods to activate the wipers, but to no avail. As of now, the only settings that work are Off, steady & high.

I searched the forums and read about removing the sensor altogether to give me the intermittent functions. Today I removed the black plastic cover under the mirror & instead of finding a large black sensor like I've seen on other posts, I found a tiny circuit board.

What gives? Are there various control modules between the years for the auto sensor? Is there a way I can gain functionality of the auto OR the intermittent features? Or am a stuck to just steady & high?

Thanks in advance!

 

Any ideas? I'll try to take a few pics of it tonight and post up a few pics of what I'm talking about.

 

Just a thought, what does your wiper stalk look like?

I was looking into adding the mist feature to my cars by simply swapping the wiper stalk to one from a Camry or IS300.

You might be able to swap it out for one with the intermittent feature and forget the auto feature altogether. Have a look at the wiring diagrams and see if the pin-outs match, as from what I recall the intermittent feature is controlled by a variable resistor within the wiper stalk, so it shouldn't be too hard.

 

Hmm, that may work. Right now I'd rather take a route that would give me the intermittent function rather than troubleshoot the AUTO feature. Still don't know why I don't have the traditional sensor. I wasn't able to get any pics last night, we are having some CRAZY weather here.

As far as my stalk, it's the standard one w/ the "AUTO" feature @ Setting #2. I picked up this car to use as a commuter, and unfortunately don't know if the prior owner messed with the mirror where the sensor was OR the stalk.

 

I wasn't even aware that my 03 ES300 should / might have an automatic setting for the wipers...its never worked before. Thanks for the info.

 

After doing some digging into my headliner, it looks as though the cables for the AUTO sensor were tucked up in there. So I've come to the conclusion that the prior owner had the front window replaced, and the shop that replaced it didn't pull the sensor / hardware off the old window and just tucked the wires in the headliner.

My new question is does anyone have a close up picture of this sensor mounted (or un-mounted)? I'm trying to figure out what all I need to get either the AUTO or intermittent feature working.

I read on a different boad that simply removing the sensor give you the intermittent function instead of the AUTO. This is not the case in my car.