New Winshield

[Snipes]

I was just talking to a friend that has a Mazda 3 and she has the rain sensing intermittent wipers and her windshield is cracked. A gravel truck flipped a rock on the windshield and totally messed it up. She went to the dealership to get a new winshield and has been waiting for 4 months for the windshield to come in from Japan. All because of the rain sensing feature. How much does that suck!

[FLIPDADY]

Your like the fifth person I\'ve heard with the exact same problem. The backorders for these cars are terrible!! Well Mazda has paid out a lot of $$ for rentals since this car came out. Which dealership does she deal with?

[miggiddy]

Hopefully the crack isn\'t in her line of sight. Has she been pulled over by the cops for driving with a cracked windwhield?

Do we really need a \'special\' windshield from Mazda so that the rain sensor works? And how much did she or will she be paying for it? If it\'s some crazy amount I\'d just get some aftermarket windshield and forget about the auto sensing wipers.

[FLIPDADY]

Right now there is no aftermarket windshileds available. All the shops I deal with namely Apple and Speedy have to buy it directly from us.

[miggiddy]

No wonder for the crazy wait if Mazda is the only supplier. Out of curiosity, how much does it cost to replace it?

[Snipes]

Not sure where she bought her car, what dealership she has to deal with or how much a new windshield costs but I just hope that i don\'t have to replace mine. Maybe we should all get the 3M clear bra and put it on our windshields so that we never have to replace it haha:p

[FLIPDADY]

Actually I just ran an inquiry on the windshields. Both the regular and rain-sensing ones are avaliable. As for the cost the rain-sensing one is $527.28 part only. While the standard one is $487.53. Both the sedan and the 5-door share identical windshileds. I\'m not sure about the cost to install it though.

[Xenon]

$527.28?!? Holy Crap...

[M34ME]

I had to replace my windshield a three weeks after i got my car, Damn Dump Trucks piss me off. Anyways it took no more than two weeks for the windshield to get to the mazda dealership. It costed me a little over $500, under $550 though installed. Personally I think it expensive but at the same time I want that rain sensor I think that is an extremely usefull feature.

[Xenon]

That is very true.... I use the rain sensor all the time.

[dredd2099]

550!!!
dang
and when i replaced my civics windshield for 100 bucks installed
i thought it was expensive
:p

[Snipes]

My car doesn\'t come with the rain sensor feature but what is the purpose of it. Essentially I think it detects rain on your windshield and then turns your wipers on for you. To me it sounds like a lazy man feature. What happens if a bird craps on your windshield. Does it turn the wipers on then as well?

[rbart4506]

Originally posted by Snipes


My car doesn\'t come with the rain sensor feature but what is the purpose of it. Essentially I think it detects rain on your windshield and then turns your wipers on for you. To me it sounds like a lazy man feature. What happens if a bird craps on your windshield. Does it turn the wipers on then as well?

It senses the amount of rain and the speed of the car and adjusts the speed of the wipers accordingly...It\'s one of those things that is nice to have, but I could probably live without....

Now the Auto Headlights I like!!!

Rich

[Snipes]

How do the auto headlights work and does it come with all models?

[rbart4506]

Originally posted by Snipes


How do the auto headlights work and does it come with all models?

With the selector set to Auto the lights will either be full on or in daytime running mode. It senses the amount of ambient light and switches them. When the care is turned off the lights go off. Makes it very easy and saves you from accidently leaving the lights on.

The only problem I have is with the sensor and gray rainy days. I find that when it\'s raining the full lights won\'t come on so I have to manually turn them on for driving safety. It would be nice if the sensor would notice that the wipers are on and switch the lights one. Of course there would have to be a time delay so the lights wouldn\'t go full on after one swipe it should put them on if the wipers are one constantly for a minute or two.

Besides that, I love the feature...

Are they available on all models in Canada, I think so, but not 100% certain....

Rich

[miggiddy]

Originally posted by Snipes


How do the auto headlights work and does it come with all models?

According to the website the GX does not have this feature.

I would have preferred a conventional \'variable intermit\' wiper setting instead of the auto sensing. Sometimes I find the wipers are going at top speed with minimal rain on the windshield. I do like the single wipe feature, I find it extremely useful.

[Xenon]

Originally posted by rbart4506



Originally posted by Snipes


How do the auto headlights work and does it come with all models?

With the selector set to Auto the lights will either be full on or in daytime running mode. It senses the amount of ambient light and switches them. When the care is turned off the lights go off. Makes it very easy and saves you from accidently leaving the lights on.

The only problem I have is with the sensor and gray rainy days. I find that when it\'s raining the full lights won\'t come on so I have to manually turn them on for driving safety. It would be nice if the sensor would notice that the wipers are on and switch the lights one. Of course there would have to be a time delay so the lights wouldn\'t go full on after one swipe it should put them on if the wipers are one constantly for a minute or two.

Besides that, I love the feature...

Are they available on all models in Canada, I think so, but not 100% certain....

Rich


I made a full out explanation of how the Auto Headlights work in this Mazda3 Forums Post. (http://www.guessspace.com/%7Ealphadan/mazda3/viewtopic.php?t=8179&sid=2dce7fe53e4448461c92d23d0 81f4b15)

[snipe]

Originally posted by miggiddy



Originally posted by Snipes


How do the auto headlights work and does it come with all models?

According to the website the GX does not have this feature.

I would have preferred a conventional \'variable intermit\' wiper setting instead of the auto sensing. Sometimes I find the wipers are going at top speed with minimal rain on the windshield. I do like the single wipe feature, I find it extremely useful.

I feel the same way. I could have easily done without the rain sensing and taken intermittent rain wipers. I also dislike the auto head lights as well. I can\'t stand how I go through a tunnel or underneath a wide bridge and then headlights turn on then off. To me that\'s just bad and lazy programming. Not intelligent enough for my liking.

Ohh and another thing. When I adjust that + - thing on the sensitivity, I don\'t know if it\'s just me but I find that it does nothing at all. I can\'t see the difference in + or -.

[miggiddy]

I think it takes a few seconds for the wiper speed to adjust to the sensitivity setting you set.