Rear wiper cycles one time when vehicle is started????

[feralcomprehension]

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.

 

[Renol]

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

 

[Atlanta_man]

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

 

[AZ07Runner]

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.

 

[ZebRuaj]

-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.

 

[Barefoot]

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.

 

[Atlanta_man]

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

 

[dschan]

Panasonic battery from 2006 finally gave up

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!

 

[hanslerc]

Toyota built this feature into the 4th gen 4Runner to alert owners when their batteries are starting to die. When the battery drops below 50% of it's original cold cranking amperage rating, the rear wiper will cycle one time to alert the owner that it's time to think about installing a new battery.

Just kidding...lol...but that is interesting that installing a new battery stopped the rear wiper from cycling.

Best answer by far! :rockon:

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! :dancin:

:drummer:

 

[Ron Helmuth]

Reviving the thread almost 5 1/2 years after last posting. Same thing happens to me when the battery is failing. Single swipe of the rear wiper at first start up of the day, but upon replacing the battery no more ghost wiper action.

Too bad Panasonic is not in the replacement battery business.

And a brief word about Interstate batteries at Costco. I can't recommend them whatsoever. Costco used to have a full 36 month free replacement warranty, and sometime between February of 2023 and August of 2023 they went to a prorated reimbursement. I tried two of the Interstate batteries from them in 2023 and the first one lasted only 5ish months and the 2nd one has been faulty for a couple of years now. I just kept putting off taking it back to them thinking anytime before August of 2026 would be fine for a free replacement. And to my dismay I learned I was entitled to only $20 some dollars back and a $15 core charge since I was surrendering the battery to them for refund.

I am now trying one of the EFB models, Enhanced Flooded Battery. A Die Hard from Advance Auto with 4 year warranty, which the guy at Costco recommended as an alternative. We'll see how this goes. $234 here in the Denver market.

With regards to Auto Zone batteries, I just replaced a Duralast Gold in my 08 Honda Ridgeline that lasted 8+years, when only rated as a 36 month warrantied unit.