Question -Rain Sensor ...

bbacho2002

bbacho2002

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This is probably one of the dumbest questions in here but I just got the LS and didnt come with car manual.. What is the rain sensor ( what does it do? ) on the LS and does every LS come with one?? I have a 02 LS ( non-sport Thank you guys.. I really appreciate your help.
 
automatic winsdshield wipers. on the windshield wiper lever i think u need to have the knobs set to "INT" and "AUTO" and just to check to see if its on, make sure the car is on and go outside and look at the little box below the rear view mirror and you should see a flashing orange light.
 
Just out of curiousity, what are the things that could cause this thing not to work. Mine doesnt seem to work and im not sure if i should just try checking the fuses or if there is something else it could be.
 
Check for any cracks in the windhield around the sensor or any loose dirt around the housing. When we got my '02, the windshield was actually cracked where the sensor was and it was hacked together. Also make sure that there's no RAIN-X on the windshield in front of the sensor, or any tinting. Check your fuses also. Hope this helps
 
mine also doesnt work, is this an option on cars does it come with all of them? ive checked and no or tint or dirt anywhere, no orange light either thou
 
teh_milz said:
mine also doesnt work, is this an option on cars does it come with all of them? ive checked and no or tint or dirt anywhere, no orange light either thou
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I believe it was an option on the 00-02 models. If you have it, there should be a black box about the size of a pack of cigarettes on the inside of the front windshield right behind the rear view mirror.
 
The sensor is a mixed blessing. Some of us like it some of us don't. I don't.

They either work perfect and will wipe rain when you need it or in many cases they seem to have a mind of their own. Mine is possibly possessed.

I prefer intermittant wipers.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson
 
I personally love the thing. It's less to juggle around with than all of my previous cars. (My Land Rover's wipers only worked once when you hit the button so I had to press it each time individually) You just have to make sure that the sensor and surrounding areas are immaculate (smudges trick the camera something fierce) and that there are no cracks. Like I said before, check the fuse box (both of them) for any baddies. Make sure your car actually came with the auto rain sensor. As previously stated a black box the size of a cigarette pack (or a bar of soap) will be mounted on your windshield BELOW the rear view mirror mount on the inside. If you do not have this box, you do not have auto wipers despite what your interior controls may say. Also, some models blink orange, and some do not. Mine has never blinked so that's also not clear cut. Your wiper controls must be set to INT and AUTO, this is the only setting under which the auto wipers will work. Make sure you're also testing in the rain because simple splashing water may not trigger the sensor (didn't work for mine) clean the sensor area with some windex and remove and waxes, gunks, or slimes on the windhsield. Past that, you're going to have to take it to a dealership unless someone else can think of something.
 
Jim Henderson said:
The sensor is a mixed blessing. Some of us like it some of us don't. I don't.
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I'm with you; that's one of the things my '04 had that my '06 doesn't, and I don't miss it. They were usually fine in heavy rain, but in moderate rain they had a habit of just "taking a break" every now and then for no apparent reason. In misting conditions, they were useless--worse than that, they eliminated the intermittent setting that would have been useful.
 
I don't remember mine ever blinking of glowing, but it did one weird thing--one day last year when it snowed, there was a visible square of almost-clean glass above the moisture sensor (the rest of the glass was covered with about 3/8" of fine white snow).

Use some Bon Ami cleanser on the area over the sensor. Also check to see that the sensor pads are in contact with the glass; IIRC, within the last year, someone around here got his windshield replaced, and the installer didn't get the sensor pads "stuck" to the glass correctly, so the moisture sensing didn't work. Also, make sure that you have the correct windshield installed; if a previous owner had it replaced, but didn't get the correct glass, it also won't work. The correct glass should have clear glass over the sensor area, but should have the black "dotted" tint surrounding the sensor cover.
 
I had my glass replaced by Safe-T-Lite. They provide OEM windshields so it's going to eb the right part. Also, they do the work wherever your car is (so you could get it done while you're at work and have the bill sent to you later). I had mine done for around $200 and you get a lifetime warranty on the windshield for as long as you own the car
 
i will take pictures later to show you all and ill check my connections etc, is there a fuse for it thou?
 
teh_milz said:
i will take pictures later to show you all and ill check my connections etc, is there a fuse for it thou?
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I don't know, but if you look in the Tech section (or https://www.fleet.ford.com/maintenance/owners_manuals/default.asp ), you'll find PDFs of the Owner's Guide (the 2000 MY doesn't seem to be available, but a 2001 should be close enough). The Owner's Guides have the fusebox diagrams, so you should be able to check there.
 
I used mine briefly after buying the car. The wipers didn't sweep often enough to provide the best visibility. I've used intermittent ever since.
 
Hi all,
Our 2003 LS has the auto wipers and they work great for us. On the freeway when passing 18 wheelers the wipers speed up when the spray increases in volume.
The wipers will make one sweep when you first start your engine if you leave them in "Auto". Hope this helps.
 
automatic wipers,and other options that vanished since 2000.......................

instead of deleting this option, Lincoln should have refined it!

why did they trim down features like that? not to mention strut tower caps, rear door sill scuff plates,telematics system, etc. ?

I could understand cost-cutting measures on a bread and butter sedan, but on a car pushing 50 grand fully optioned?

I am a die- hard american car fan and always will be,but I cannot understand why Ford let this car die; They could have put a little more effort into marketing this car,let alone improving it.

As of late, import brands just keep improving what they have and usually succede in sales and profits..............

Cadillac did a 180 in the past seven years and the fit and finish,materials etc. although improving every year,still leave room for improvement if you ask me.

Lincoln can do it,they just need better "follow- through"..........................
 
mint05LS said:
instead of deleting this option, Lincoln should have refined it!

why did they trim down features like that? not to mention strut tower caps, rear door sill scuff plates,telematics system, etc. ?

I could understand cost-cutting measures on a bread and butter sedan, but on a car pushing 50 grand fully optioned?
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The reason for dropping the rain-sensing wipers was a plethora of customer confusion and warranty claims. I'm not sure if it was they system not working properly, or owner misunderstanding how the system works. I note that BMW and Lexus have the rain sensing system and it works fine in those cars. It worked fine in my 2003 LS and it works great in my wife's 2006 Lexus IS250. It may be the Lincoln demographic, who knows...

The other items were bean-counter deletes. Very sad.
 
mint05LS said:
why did they trim down features like that? not to mention strut tower caps, rear door sill scuff plates,telematics system, etc. ?
Click to expand...
Warranty claims killed the moisture-sensing wipers; part of it was probably drivers who didn't RTFM, but in my case, the auto-wipers were flaky and generally just didn't work like I wanted. Adding insult to injury, having the auto-wipers eliminated an option (intermittent wipers) that would have made them work like I wanted.

And what do you mean by "telematics system"? If you're talking about the cell phone option, they replaced it with the MobilEase Bluetooth system, so you can pair any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone with the car, and not have to be tied to any particular phone or carrier. That's a much better way to do it, IMHO.
 
Can the rain sensing function be turned off?

When did they eliminate this as an option? They're not even mentioned in my 2004 owner's manual, I looked at the earlier manuals but the control is completely different. There doesn't seem to be any difference in my wipers between the Auto setting and the intermittent settings, the wipers just operate at random times/speeds on any of the settings.

Is it possible to turn the option off and just go to regular intermittent wipers?
 
MDavis0424 said:
When did they eliminate this as an option? They're not even mentioned in my 2004 owner's manual, I looked at the earlier manuals but the control is completely different. There doesn't seem to be any difference in my wipers between the Auto setting and the intermittent settings, the wipers just operate at random times/speeds on any of the settings.

Is it possible to turn the option off and just go to regular intermittent wipers?
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They were eliminated during the 2004 MY production run, and they're not in any of the '04 Owner's Guides I've seen. Early '04s may have the moisture-sensing wipers, but later '04s (and subsequent) don't. If you have the moisture-sensing wipers, you do no have intermittent wipers; AFAIK, there's no way for the moisture-sensing to be disabled and have them behave like intermittent wipers. You might be able to pull the appropriate hardware from a later '04 (or newer) that doesn't have the rain-sensing wipers, but I think it would include at least the control stalk and the FEM (or at least a different PCM flash), and probably a harness change--it all depends on where the logic for the rain sensor is located.
 
Figured it was worth a try - I unplugged the rain sensor, and the wipers now work like regular intermittent wipers.
 
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