never had this happen before?

[sparkzz]

I am not sure if it is just down to the design of the car, but travelling down launton road near Bicester, and hit a large puddle on the near side, the water came over the bonnet and across the windscreen. There was oncoming traffic and by the time i grabbed the wipers i found myself going into the path of the oncoming, but luckly mangaged to get over (having to make the car slow though!!.. sorry about that if you read this!!)

I have never expericed that before and found it very hole clenching moment!!

anyone else been drowned?

[Simonl]

set them to auto, they come on by themselves.

[mikemod]

Yea, set them on Auto.

They come on in Turbo mode when that happens before your hand even moves to put them on yourself.

[RedRobin]

Deffo keep your wipers set to Automatic and override manually as appropriate. I've had several very nasty moments "saved" by the wipers automatically allowing me to actually see where I'm going when at speed.

I got hit on a moonless dark night while 'making progress' by a very sudden heavy downpour as if The Grim Reaper had suddenly hurled a cauldron of water at my windscreen. I was about to overtake and was very grateful that my wipers sprung into action at their fastest speed.

[nhs]

Agree auto mode safest for just this eventuality

[Calm Chris]

High water volume on a screen at 30mph will blind you for 1 sec or so.

It's scary when it happens, but a good driver will have a mental note of what was going on before going blind .

Natural action is to turn, which as you found out is not good .

Set the rain sensor and see if it helps, but say water falls off a 40 tonne flat top and lands on the screen, no wiper can cope (immediately), so beware these things happen.

Sneezing (or multiples of) is just as bad, always happens near a bad bend, when you need your eyes. With the sneezing reflex the eyes close tight shut and I assure you multiple sneezing at 60mph on a 90 deg 40mph bend is no fun

[sparkzz]

i do agree, but in my 12 years of driving, i have hit a lotl of puddles, and maybe a splash reaches the screen and "sprays it", what happened to me, i have never seen before, in that the water "flooded" over the bonnet and covered the screen. It was very very odd!

I didnt have my auto wipes on, as when its not raining, i tend to use the single wipe function a lot, when bird crap or a lorry spray on the screen etc etc, abit of a habbit really.

[GTiCrow]

Just a another example. It had been raining quite heavy, but had momentarily stopped. I was travelling at 160 kph (100 mph) passing a truck which threw a huge pool of water onto my windscreen. Wipers were on auto but did not operate before I hit the stalk to set the wipers going. I estimated for under a second I was blind, but at that speed and on the wrong side of the road, it certainly gave me a moment or two. The car of course held it line and kept flying.

It did concern me that the auto did not operate as quick as I thought they would.

[RedRobin]

I couldn't help but be very impressed just how quickly I thought the auto wipers sprung into action in all the instances I have experienced so far. I think it's as chri5 says re being able to retain the previous mental snapshot through the blind second. If you are focussed on your driving it should come automatically.