06 Sonata intermittent wiper delay

What are folks seeing for the delay times on your 2006 Sonata's
intermittent wipers? Mine seemed to have a pretty short delay compared
to my other vehicles, so today I timed them. My Chrysler minivan and
Chevy truck run 20+ seconds on max delay (the truck is probably closer
to 30 seconds, the van is 20). And even on min delay, they still take a
short pause between wipes, maybe a second or slightly less. You can
easily tell the difference between min delay on intermittent and
continuous on low speed.


My Sonata delay is only 9 seconds on max delay, and on min delay the
wipers run continuously with no discernible delay between wipes. I
can't tell the difference between min delay on the intermittent setting
and the continous wipe position. This doesn't seem right to me and is a
pain in light mist conditions as the wipers run way more often than
necessary. What are you other 06 Sonata owners seeing?

Matt

 

Here's the specs on the intermittent wipers:

Shortest period, T = 2.6 +/- 0.7 sec

Longest period, T = 18.0 +/- 1.0 sec

The manual makes the implication that the longest period can only be
achieved if the vehicle is not moving.

I had to get this out of the hard copy of the manual. I'm not sure why
it's not available online.

 

I was traveling between 55 and 60 when I timed it this morning, but the
shortest period wasn't even close to 2.6 seconds, or even 1.9 seconds.
It was zero, or at best a few milliseconds. Less than what I could
perceive as any delay at all. I'll time it setting still sometime.

Matt

 

My observation would be closer to HT's numbers, with the exceoption of the
shortest cycle...I'd guesss it to be one second at most.

 

Is this at a stop or while at highway speed?

Matt

 

I have to agree. That manual is either wrong, or our cars are "broken".
On the fastest setting there is no perceivable "stop" at all, but as you
said, it could be a few milliseconds at most.

Eric

 

Below 20 MPH perhaps, but even in a residential area (25 MPH by me) the
stop time was nothing.

 

It has been a while since I studied human factors stuff, but I think
most humans can perceived events that last even 50 milliseconds, 100 for
sure. I can't perceive any delay on the S end of the range, so I'm
pretty sure it is less than 50 ms.


Matt

 

Holy sh*t. We actually agree on something

Eric

 

Well, random chance says that should happen from time to time.

Matt

 

If the new sonata is set up like my 03 Santa Fe the delay time is
related to what speed the transmission is moving. Once you hit third
gear the shortest delay pretty much becomes a continuous wipe. Below
3rd gear or at a stop there is a brief pause when on the shortest
delay.

The assumption is that there will be more mist as you go faster. It is
supposed to work like those car stereos in other makes that raise or
lower the volume with the car's speed.

Check it out... Is the new Sonata set up the same way?

 

Yes, I will check it out next time I drive the car. I was going 55 or
higher when I did the first check so that may explain the short delays.
However, 9 seconds is still too short for the longest delay setting,
even at cruise speed.


Matt

 

Time for me to eat crow! timed the intermittent wipers with a "thousand"
count last night......8 for longest notch, 4 for the next, 1 for the third,
....2 more notchs with no perceivable delay from "on"........I did this at
modest hi-way speeds (55-65 mph)......don't mind the 1st 3 settings at
all-seem good to me, but the useless last two are a bit odd.

 

That sounds pretty much like my timing, although I did use my trusty
Timex rather than counting.

I think only my last notch was "useless", but I did think once that both
of the last notches gave continuous operation as you say. However, I
tried it on the way home and couldn't replicate what I thought I saw on
the way into work, so I'll need to check again to be sure.

Matt

 

If the 2006 Sonata intermittent wipers are like the prior Sonatas, I
believe there's a two- or three-tier timing system based on vehicle speed.


I believe once you reach a predetermined speed, the fastest setting
becomes constant operation, and when you reach the next predetermined
speed, the fastest two settings become constant operation.

I actually had to replace the time and alarm control unit (basically a
"dumb" body control module) in a 2003 Sonata because the customer noticed
it wasn't changing speed as it was intended. I don't think technical
assistance was even able to provide me with the exact details of how the
delay changed other than that there were tiers as described above.

Sounds to me like they may be operating normally. Check 'em again when
not moving and compare with the specs.

 

Thanks, will do.

I honestly can't understand the logic of having the fastest speed or,
worse yet, two speeds be continuous operation when you already have a
continuous operation level position. That is just nuts. What was
Hyundai thinking when they designed these wipers?


Matt

 

I just checked my wiper delay with the car sitting still in my driveway.

The shortest period is 1.0 to maybe 1.2 seconds. Appears to be well
below the spec.

The longers period is 17 seconds plus or minus a little, so that's
probably pretty close to spec.

Is there any adjustment to this? I'm assuming the delay is set by a
varistor (or set of resistors) in the switch itself and thus non adjustable.

Matt

 

I'm guessing that they intended for you to set them when sitting still and
then the delay lessened as you sped up.

Speed sensitive wipers. It's the latest thing. Haven't you heard? All
the big-guy cars have it, so Hyundai needs it, too. Well, I'm sure you
already know the logic behind this.

 

Your body control module reads the resistance of the wiper switch and then
sets the delay accordingly.

What's worse, the shortest delay being out of spec isn't necessarily a
problem, either. Those sorts of things get changed all the time during
the manufacturing run (for who knows what reasons) without anyone telling
the people who work on the cars.

 

Yes, design by MBA or design by marketing.

I'm not against the speed sensitive wipers, I just think that it is dumb
to have the shortest period go to a point that it overlaps a setting
already available. This is just poor design. The short setting should
always maintain some delay regardless of speed. Maybe it is 3 seconds
when standing still and 1 second at 70, but having the short period go
to zero just makes no sense to me.

Personally, I'm more tha happy with my conventional intermittent wipers
that let me set the delay from a second or so up to 30 seconds. Works
great, no surprises!


Matt