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Intermittent wiper question

Discussion in 'Prius v Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by pdp, Nov 20, 2011.

  1. pdp

    pdp New Member

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    In all the previous Toyotas I've driven, you'd turn the intermittent wiper knob "up" to slow down the wipers and "down" to speed them up. And this behavior corresponded with the marking on the wiper switch where the marker line would be thicker at the top (which I assumed to mean wider gap in time between wipes) and thinner at the bottom.

    However on our Prius v, the behavior seems backwards. While the markings are the same as other Toyota's, you turn the knob "down", toward the thinner part of the marker line to slow down the wiper and "up", toward the thicker part of the marker line" to speed up the wiper.

    Is this the correct behavior for the Prius v, and/or Prius hatchback, and/or all recent Toyotas? Or is this just a quirk with ours?
     
    #1 pdp, Nov 20, 2011
  2. dtuite

    dtuite Silverback

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    do not know about history, but if you turn the knob "clockwise" as seen from the end, the blades cycle more often. seems like standard human factors.
     
    #2 dtuite, Nov 20, 2011
  3. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    I have no v but my interpretation of the markings is the same as the OP's.

    FWIW, the direction in which the knob should be turned to increase/decrease the delay between wipes is reversed between my 06 Prius and my former 04 Nissan 350Z.
     
    #3 cwerdna, Nov 20, 2011
  4. tomtomsf

    tomtomsf Junior Member

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    The intermittent wiper control turns in the opposite direction from my previous Nissan. I found it took me long time to get used to it.

    Now, the knob for the rear wiper is confusing. To this day, after one year of ownership, I can not simply turn on the rear wiper without washing the window first. I don't know why they made that knob so tricky to use.

    Tom G.
     
    #4 tomtomsf, Nov 20, 2011
  5. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    I used the wipers today on my 06 Prius and found that turning it up (towards front of car) increased the interval between wipes (slowed it down) and that also corresponded with the longer/wider line.
     
    #5 cwerdna, Nov 20, 2011
  6. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    We had this discussion when the 3rd Gen Prius debuted in 2009. That's when Toyota started switching their variable intermittent wiper knobs around.

    The idea is going from interval timing (old method) to frequency of wip (current method). It took me a while to get used to it too as I kept rotating it down to increase the frequency of the wiper (decrease the pause between wipes) and decreased the frequency instead.

    They've gone to a lot of standardization with the new models and the variable intermittent wiper is just one part of it. Others include the CRUISE light replaced with a speedo and an arrow pointing at some part of the speedo (add a car to the symbol if DRCC is engaged), the headlight stalk now just has symbols with "AUTO" being the only word (OFF is replaced by O)

    The wiper stalk's "MIST, OFF, INT, LO, HI" have also been replaced with graphics. Ditto the rear wiper.
     
    #6 Tideland Prius, Nov 21, 2011
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  7. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    ^^^
    I wonder if the above replacement w/icons and symbols is to reduce localization costs. There are fewer parts that need to differ depending on the local language of where the car is sold.
     
    #7 cwerdna, Nov 21, 2011
  8. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Could be but I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that it's more for standardization for people whose first language isn't English and to make it easier to move from manufacturer to manufacturer with standardized symbols.
     
    #8 Tideland Prius, Nov 21, 2011
  9. pdp

    pdp New Member

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    Thanks for clarifying this, I was just afraid it was a fluke where two wires were crossed in our new Prius v.

    Just curious, what standard are they supposedly standardizing to? I haven't driven many cars newer than 2007, but pretty much every one I've driven with intermittent wipers have the "current method" you mentioned. Also, it's funny how the Prius v "standardized" the behavior of the intermittent wiper knob direction but did not standardize the "MIST, OFF, INT, LO, HI" because they're still letters, not graphics!
     
    #9 pdp, Nov 21, 2011
  10. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    No idea. Maybe just within Toyota global vehicles?

    LOL. That's hilarious. I'm pretty sure they're graphics on my 2010 (while they're words on our 2005). Interesting mix.....
     
    #10 Tideland Prius, Nov 21, 2011
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