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Intermittent wiper dial BACKWARDS?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by ElMariachi, Jan 30, 2008.

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  1. ElMariachi

    ElMariachi New Member

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    Last week, my wife and I became a two-Prius family with the addition of an '08 Spectra Blue to our existing '06 Seaside Pearl (both with pkg. 6).

    Yesterday was the first day the '08 was driven in the rain and I noticed that the intermittent wiper dial is actually BACKWARDS compared to our '06. In other words, turning it all the way forward provides the LEAST amount of delay.

    I thought that Toyota may have changed the design for some odd reason, but the labeling is the same on both the '06 and the '08 stalks, so I can only assume that this is actually a manufacturing or assembly defect. Has anyone else encountered this?

    Obviously, if it were a turn signal switch, shift knob, or they had the brake/gas pedals reversed :eek:, this would be a much bigger deal than a simple intermittent wiper switch. I'm trying to decide whether or not to take this in for repair under warranty or whether to just learn to live with it. I don't like anyone poking around in the guts of my car unless I have to, especially cars as complex as our Priuses, no matter how experienced and Toyota-certified the technicians may be, but I also don't want to find out a few months later that some wire harness was installed or built wrong and is potentially causing some other electrical problem that is not so obvious right now.

    Any advice or opinions?
     
    #1 ElMariachi, Jan 30, 2008
  2. Skwyre7

    Skwyre7 What's the catch?

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    My advice is learn to live with it. When it's raining and I'm driving, I don't take the time to look at the stalk. I just turn it one way and wait to see the delay. If it's too long, I turn it the other way. Tada! Perfect.

    Re: other problems, I doubt it will cause any. Next time you take it in, mention it, just so they have it on record. I wouldn't make a special trip though.
     
    #2 Skwyre7, Jan 30, 2008
  3. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    If you sit backwards in the driver's seat the control will work just as it does on your 2006. Happy to help.

    Tom
     
    #3 qbee42, Jan 30, 2008
  4. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    :confused:

    Interesting... care to post pictures??

    because as far as I know, all the Toyotas that we've owned that had variable intermittent wipers had it the reverse. Rotate towards you for the shortest delay, away for the longest delay.
     
    #4 Tideland Prius, Jan 30, 2008
  5. mkiefer83

    mkiefer83 Junior Member

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    I noticed that mine was 'backwards' as well...

    I used to have a 2006 Base and the longest delay was rotated all the way up and the shortest at the bottom... When it was raining the other day, I noticed that it was the opposite on my 2008 Touring.
     
    #5 mkiefer83, Jan 31, 2008
  6. firepa63

    firepa63 Former Prius Owner

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    It may have been a change by Toyota. My 04 Prius and my 06 HiHy are opposite of each other for the delay control.
     
    #6 firepa63, Jan 31, 2008
  7. brick

    brick Active Member

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    Hey, this might be a "feature" for some people. If you do a search you will find people with older Prius asking why on earth the intermittent switch is the way it is. This is one case where there are two kinds of "intuitive." One intuition is that bigger bar means more wiping, the other intuition is that the bigger bar is a longer time delay. Just convince yourself of whichever is correct depending on which car you're in and you'll be fine. ;) Or just turn the dial the opposite direction of whatever you think is right...either way.
     
    #7 brick, Jan 31, 2008
  8. Winston

    Winston Member

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    I personally do not like the direction that you have to move the wiper stalk to turn on the wipers. Moving the stick down, is not intuitively an "on" motion. (think light switch). Also, I must rotate the delay clockwise to minimize wiper speed. That is intuitively backwards to me too. I drive a friends Audi A4 and the wiper controls are all exactly opposite than my Prius. Up to turn on the wipers, and the rotation of the delay is opposite.

    Yea, I know, so what, but I think the Prius wiper controls are all backwards.
     
    #8 Winston, Feb 1, 2008
  9. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Was your last car a Saab?
     
    #9 Tideland Prius, Feb 1, 2008
  10. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    I like the way they are. They are similar to my last Toyota.

    When you come to Australia you will find that our light switches are different, up is off and down is on!
     
    #10 patsparks, Feb 2, 2008
  11. IsrAmeriPrius

    IsrAmeriPrius Progressive Member

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    Is that because Australia is down under? :cool:
     
    #11 IsrAmeriPrius, Feb 2, 2008
  12. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    it's the same as Asia actually.
     
    #12 Tideland Prius, Feb 2, 2008
  13. ElMariachi

    ElMariachi New Member

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    I would post pictures of the '08 wiper stalk, but they would be identical to my '06. The printing on the two stalks are identical, the switches actually just function opposite to one another.

    It would actually be easier to get used to it if we owned cars that weren't virtually identical, since it's easy to forget which one you're driving. But with all other things being equal, I'm still happy with the car and happy that my wife and I are lucky enough to be driving an (almost) matched set.

    -M
     
    #13 ElMariachi, Feb 3, 2008
  14. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    ahh ok. I thought they'd might use another stalk (e.g. a Camry's or a Corolla's).
     
    #14 Tideland Prius, Feb 3, 2008
  15. ctmurray

    ctmurray Member

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    I just noticed the same think with my 2006 Prius and 2010 Prius. I noticed because this weekend it rained both days and I happened to drive both back to back. I came here to see if anyone else had seen the same thing.
     
    #15 ctmurray, Oct 6, 2009
  16. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Yeah. I know Toyota wants to standardize everything so I gues they figured theirs is probably a minority and that the reverse is what is found on the majority of cars out there. Basically, instead of the bars indicating the interval time, it's indicating speed (i.e. the wider the bars, the faster/more often the wipers wipe... or the shorter the interval time).

    Take a look at the switches, they've all been standardized.

    e.g.


    The wiper stalk no longer says MIST, OFF, INT, LO, HI. They're all symbols.

    The light stalk no longer says OFF, -, headlight, AUTO. It's a solid dot, -, hollow dot, AUTO


    The cruise light is no longer CRUISE. It's a symbol of the speedo with an arrow
     
    #16 Tideland Prius, Oct 7, 2009
  17. tbstout2

    tbstout2 Member

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    I've had five Toyota's - all had the same wiper switch. Until this 2010 the longer bars at the top of the dial meant that there was more time between wipes. The shorter bars at the bottom meant less time between wipes.

    I can live with it easily, but it's damn odd.
     
    #17 tbstout2, Mar 29, 2010
  18. randallintacoma

    randallintacoma New Member

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    I am glad I stumbled across this thread...as I was about to create a new one. I am glad I am not the only confused Toyota owner. This has been the only operation of my new Prius that has flumoxed me. My 09 TCH had the same wiper stalk- but, just as others have said, it worked opposite of the control on the 10 Prius...but had the very same graphics.

    Thanks to Tideland for coming up with a Prius explanation for the graphic- wider bar=faster speed. I can live with that.
     
    #18 randallintacoma, Apr 12, 2010
  19. shagmwp

    shagmwp New Member

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    I just purchased a 2010 Prius and the dial doesn't change the speed. Does anyone else have this problem?
     
    #19 shagmwp, Dec 29, 2010
  20. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    The rotary control is supposed to adjust the delay between wiper strokes, not the speed of the wipers when they are operating.
     
    #20 Patrick Wong, Dec 30, 2010
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