Wiper speed issue

[Emirahep]

Can anyone with a recent delivery comment if they have the wiper problem or not. Is it the earlier batches that is affected?

Collected car yesterday and yes I have the wiper issue.

 

[Wonza]

Collected car yesterday and yes I have the wiper issue.

Thank you for confirming. I see a big shortage of wiper motors coming up. New wiper motor plus software me thinks. Not as simple as updating the software on the wiper motor. I can’t really understand how wipers can be botched up?

 

[Emirahep]

Yesterday my dealer (Komotec) installed new version of the software, which suppousedly fixes wiper issue. Tested it today, works so far.

Is it still working ?

 

[bpleroy]

I collected my Emira three weeks ago from Lotus Thierry Verhiest in Ostend, Belgium. I ran it in to Potsdam, Germany from Ghent, Belgium and the, to Noordwijk, The Netherlands. I noticed the windscreen wiper speed issue coming back from Potsdam. Not being able to switch to the high speed was downright dangerous, as it rained during the entire trip, changing from drips to torrential downpours rather quickly. It needs a solution fast! Even it means ditching the rain sensor altogether. My wife’s RR Evoque MY 2012 also has the rain sensor, which never seems to give one quite the right speed.

 

[ott]

Is it still working ?

I’m out of country and unable to test it like described here. They told me its fixed, reading the replies here seems like its not possible. Will have access to car again in 2-3 weeks, lets see. If I understood correctly they fixed the problem inhouse, independently from Lotus.

TBH starting to loose faith that Lotus is able to support its cars, waiting for replacement of defective tailgate since November when it was apporoved by their warranty dept. Not a problem as such, because I can still use the car, but in case if it needs something to get moving, 4-5 months downtime makes owning it kind of pointless, however good the car is.

 

[hml_xy]

Moderator note: copied from issues thread

On the fast wiper point - I was told the same thing (don’t use auto just go straight to speed one and then two) but it doesn’t work. On my drive home from pick up in torrential showers there was no way to get the wipers into high speed and I never went anywhere near Auto. See wiper thread.

I know there is a separate thread but wanted to answer here to keep the context.

It definitely works but is really easy to mess up as there is no way to move the lever to fast or fastest without at least for a millisecond closing the switch contact of auto. Only way is starting the car in fast wiper position.

My opinion is that the following procedure is the best workaround:

1) first make sure the interval dial on the wiper lever is on the highest interval setting and never ever touch that setting again as it will trigger the bug

2) start car with wiper speed on highest

3) put it back into interval (not completely off as this will again trigger the bug!) and hope whatever auto speed comes out of it is matching the amount of rain

What that does:

I have managed to get the full range of wiper speeds on the interval setting this way. Means the auto mode goes up to the highest setting itself and lowers down as well.

But if you ever touch the interval speed dial or move the wipers to the off position it will immediately trigger the bug and you're back to slow wipers.

 

[eclat2emira]

Moderator note: copied from issues thread


I know there is a separate thread but wanted to answer here to keep the context.

It definitely works but is really easy to mess up as there is no way to move the lever to fast or fastest without at least for a millisecond closing the switch contact of auto. Only way is starting the car in fast wiper position.

My opinion is that the following procedure is the best workaround:

1) first make sure the interval dial on the wiper lever is on the highest interval setting and never ever touch that setting again as it will trigger the bug

2) start car with wiper speed on highest

3) put it back into interval (not completely off as this will again trigger the bug!) and hope whatever auto speed comes out of it is matching the amount of rain

What that does:

I have managed to get the full range of wiper speeds on the interval setting this way. Means the auto mode goes up to the highest setting itself and lowers down as well.

But if you ever touch the interval speed dial or move the wipers to the off position it will immediately trigger the bug and you're back to slow wipers.

Thanks - I'll be giving that a try...

 

[Cooper]

Moderator note: copied from issues thread


I know there is a separate thread but wanted to answer here to keep the context.

It definitely works but is really easy to mess up as there is no way to move the lever to fast or fastest without at least for a millisecond closing the switch contact of auto. Only way is starting the car in fast wiper position.

My opinion is that the following procedure is the best workaround:

1) first make sure the interval dial on the wiper lever is on the highest interval setting and never ever touch that setting again as it will trigger the bug

2) start car with wiper speed on highest

3) put it back into interval (not completely off as this will again trigger the bug!) and hope whatever auto speed comes out of it is matching the amount of rain

What that does:

I have managed to get the full range of wiper speeds on the interval setting this way. Means the auto mode goes up to the highest setting itself and lowers down as well.

But if you ever touch the interval speed dial or move the wipers to the off position it will immediately trigger the bug and you're back to slow wipers.

Excellent, worth trying. Have the wiper issue on my Emira collected from Hethel last week. Scott at Lotus forewarned of the issue before I left.

 

[Nellie]

Oh well, after a month of trouble free Emira motoring I today hit heavy rain (Always had wipers in auto, not touched it since purchase and in most conditions it was okay) and boom wipers did not react, had to touch lever as could not see a thing and they proceeded to do a slow wander across the screen.

Got so bad had to stop driving, stopped engine and restarted to see if it would reset, no joy so had a rather leery drive home.

Called Lotus Silverstone to log the issue (I am their 4th customer to report the issue) and been told its the software glitch and still no news on when it will be resolved!!! BUGGER!

Nellie

 

[dgrace]

Seriously, WTF is Lotus doing? This issue has affected every car off the line for _literally_ months. Maybe once China deliveries are affected someone will get the appropriate fire lit under their ass.

 

[Emirahep]

I went through the heaviest rain I have ever driven in yesterday in Norfolk. Thankfully not in the Emira. All traffic slowed to around 15 mph even on high speed wipers. Would not have been remotely funny in the Lotus.

Why is there no communication at all on this safety critical issue ???

 

[Lotustoronto]

Seriously, Lotus owners need to file some sort of class action law suit. Wipers not working properly on a car is a very serious issue and could lead to a serious accident. This is only comical until someone gets injured or worse... driving the Emira in heavy rain would be like driving your car heavily intoxicated. Not cool from Lotus.

 

[GAVLA]

Seriously, Lotus owners need to file some sort of class action law suit. Wipers not working properly on a car is a very serious issue and could lead to a serious accident. This is only comical until someone gets injured or worse... driving the Emira in heavy rain would be like driving your car heavily intoxicated. Not cool from Lotus.

I don't disagree that the wiper issue is serious and should have been fixed already, I've had to pull over in heavy rain because I cannot see out, but a class-action law suit is pushing it... even by America's standards

 

[SmallerBaller]

I am a bit confused about how this happens, is there a certain mode on the column that goes to auto rain sensing mode? Is this something that if I never turn on, it wont be an issue? In my life I have never had a vehicle sense if it is raining, and I do not care to have that feature at all. Will this be a non-issue for someone who just wants to control their own wiper speed manually? Or will it impact that too

 

[Lotustoronto]

I don't disagree that the wiper issue is serious and should have been fixed already, I've had to pull over in heavy rain because I cannot see out, but a class-action law suit is pushing it... even by America's standards

Perhaps.... But after 8 months of production and no fix as of yet for something pertaining to safety is unacceptable. I hope no one gets into a serious accident because of it.

 

[TomE]

I am a bit confused about how this happens, is there a certain mode on the column that goes to auto rain sensing mode? Is this something that if I never turn on, it wont be an issue? In my life I have never had a vehicle sense if it is raining, and I do not care to have that feature at all. Will this be a non-issue for someone who just wants to control their own wiper speed manually? Or will it impact that too

You can read back through the thread to understand more about the issue.

Many cars now have auto-sensing as a standard wiper option and it is common for this to be position 1 on the wiper control (which on non-auto sensing cars would have been the Intermittent wiper setting). The issue occurs after an undefined time left in Auto. Some people have found that even briefly switching through Auto to get to normal wiping is enough to trigger the issue. But sometimes it avoids the issue. Sometimes starting the car after pre-selecting normal wiping avoids it, but that then means starting with the wipers activated.

 

[SmallerBaller]

You can read back through the thread to understand more about the issue.

Many cars now have auto-sensing as a standard wiper option and it is common for this to be position 1 on the wiper control (which on non-auto sensing cars would have been the Intermittent wiper setting). The issue occurs after an undefined time left in Auto. Some people have found that even briefly switching through Auto to get to normal wiping is enough to trigger the issue. But sometimes it avoids the issue. Sometimes starting the car after pre-selecting normal wiping avoids it, but that then means starting

I split out the 3 relevant pages of the User Guide PDF and have attached them here.

I interpreted this diagram as

• Stalk up/down has 4 positions and a momentary switch, listed bottom to top:
  • ▼ - Single Wipe (spring loaded return)
  • 0 - Off
  • AUT - Auto Intermittent
  • ▲ - On
  • ▲▲ - On (High)
• Rotate stalk end ring to adjust Rain Sensor sensitivity, including AUT / intermittent.
• Push stalk away for manual Rain Sensor operation/override (toggles state & light on dash)
• Rain sensor mode engages automatically on vehicle ON or restart when in AUT mode. Rain sensor mode should not engage automatically if stalk is in 0 position.
• Pull stalk toward driver for windscreen wash spray.

Gotcha, I had read back a bit but I was confused on this post, whether Off and Auto are the same position or not, but it seems like they are vertically the same but different positions front to back. Apologies for re-hashing an old topic here, was just very confused since I never even looked at them during my test drive or used one before. So you cant just go Off, On, On High and never touch the auto, you have to go through the auto state.

Thanks!

 

[981KMAN]

I don't disagree that the wiper issue is serious and should have been fixed already, I've had to pull over in heavy rain because I cannot see out, but a class-action law suit is pushing it... even by America's standards

Not in the least... Don't need a Class Action, only one car in an accident during rain. The wipers will take some blame regardless and then Lotus will be on the "Hook" for a multi-Million dollar payout, depending on injuries, etc. This issue might be another reason Lotus is not delivering cars to the USA market.....

 

[SmallerBaller]

I don't disagree that the wiper issue is serious and should have been fixed already, I've had to pull over in heavy rain because I cannot see out, but a class-action law suit is pushing it... even by America's standards

Is America stereotyped for frivolous lawsuits? I did not know that! Interesting. Probably checks out.

 

[981KMAN]

Is America stereotyped for frivolous lawsuits? I did not know that! Interesting. Probably checks out.

Well, a lawsuit regarding folks getting injured as a result of faulty wipers is not frivolous. It would be stated that Lotus knowing sold and delivered to customers a defective product that has a significant safety issue. In my view, I find it incredible that Lotus is still delivering cars with this known defect and has been so slow in implementing a fix.
In the US, they would not be allowed to continue selling cars - heck, the US Gov. put a "Stop Sale" on Porsche Cars with "Sport Chrono" when they simply didn't meet emission standards. Plus Porsche is paying out millions to current and former owners of their cars for bogus EPA estimated miles per gallon ratings.
Lotus would be smart to get the safety issue corrected prior to any sales in the US.