Well I guess my '04 V-6 doesn't have this option. I had to change my battery the other week. Been starting fine the last 4 years until that day I went to work, then went to get lunch and 2 hours later getting ready to leave and slow turn over and then clicking. Turned key back off and tried again and just clicking. Had to jump start it fired right up. Put a new battery in and been fine ever since.

I never got the back wiper swipe on the start up or any other kind of issue with my battery going bad. It started fine till that 1 time.

yup, battery going bad. I had this happen a few years ago and did the research and found this thread I think. Turned out it was the battery. Then when the cold hit recently it started doing it again, so I went to the auto store and it failed the load test. Swapped under warranty and they don't make the battery I got no more so they upgraded me and started a new 3 year warranty. I just call it the bad battery notification now.

Same thing just happened to me recently. Battery would not hold a charge. Also, concurrent with this wiper behavior the back cargo door would not open if I pressed on the button. In other forum posts people said the computer when not getting enough power can do whacky things like not like you open back hatch. They said you can get things back in order by cycling the driver side lock unlock at least three times. I did it four times and then tried back cargo open button and it worked. Strange stuff. Good luck with your runner ;)

I think this feature is awesome as the local parts store tested my battery and said it was fine but alternator was suspect. After youtubing diagnosing battery versus alternator I was very suspect of battery being good. As a final test I disconnected the battery after it was charged up by the alternator left it unconnected while at work. Reconnected before leaving work and car would not fire up. Battery definitely couldn't hold charge (parasitic discharging not involved). If I drove around for a while the battery would have enough juice to start car several times. But if left alone for hours it would fail to start the car but be able to power lights and such. Lights were a little dimmer than usual. Hope this helps someone out.

I've noticed the same thing on my car. Only happens once in a while and only the one time. I'm due for an oil change so maybe I can convince my wife to help me drop off the car for oil and battery check tomorrow.

Ironic that I saw this thread this morning.

Was noticing my rear wiper would cycle upon start up over the cold spell we had. Thought I was seeing/hearing things. Then one day, car wouldn't power over.

I hooked up the battery to a charger/maintainer to get a bit more life out of it, but it has also been warmer (above 0) without the rear wiper moving.

Ditto; have been seeing the same thing with last week's cold weather and just topped up the battery with water yesterday. Often times even 'sealed' batteries have caps that can be removed for service; you may just need to peel the sealing sticker off.

Just heard back from the shop. Sure enough bad battery. The mechanic had a good laugh about the wiper flip being the indicator.

This is the most reliable cause and effect deal on a 4Runner.

The wiper thing happened when my first battery went out, but not the second time. During the second time (3-4 days), I was experiencing an issue as if I had a fuel issue. The truck would stumble when accelerating and had a general decrease in power. It suddenly would not start. Had a tow truck come and give a jump. He tested the alternator and said it was fine. Drove to Autozone to use the prorate on dead battery, installed the new one and not a hiccup since.
Weird that it isn't a constant occurrence.

-10F this morning and the ghost wiper is back. Took a couple extra cranks to turn over.

Sears did a courtesy check over the summer and said the battery was getting weak.

I had the one rear swipe a couple of times in the last few weeks. This morning was a pretty sluggish start, so I went and got a new battery before its too late.

I think I got my moneys worth on the original '07 battery.

That factory battery is great. Now you will be buying one every couple years. Save your receipt.

I started getting the single rear wiper cycle intermittently around Nov 2018. Then, Jan 2019 the auto-down on my driver side front door stopped working. I saw this thread and checked my battery (original factory Panasonic from 2006).

Battery showed 12.2V when not running. When cranking, the voltage dropped down to 7.7V. I suspect that is the cause of the single rear wiper cycle. Electronics don't like it when the voltage drops below the specified operating range.

The indicator window on the battery was clear, which means "Charging Necessary" (see pic). I put the battery on a charger overnight but that didn't turn the indicator back to blue. So, I replaced the battery with an Interstate battery from Costco. Rear wiper no longer cycles when starting, and the driver door auto-down feature works after cycling window down and up.

That factory Panasonic battery from 2006 was amazing. 12.5 years of service!

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Best answer by far!

And yes, my rear wiper started doing his thing and a couple of months later the battery was completely dead...
Something else I noticed was the needles of the dash doing strange things too when turning the key during that time.

New battery, everything back to normal!