About once a month when I start my car, the windshield wipers start sweeping even though the column switch is off. The wipers don’t respond to the switch. If I shut down the engine and restart the car, they remain off and operate normal. I mentioned this to the dealer when I had it in for service and he speculated it could be a weak battery that causes weird stuff to happen. My BatteryMinder thinks the battery is ok. Anyone have a similar experience and a fix?

 

Not on the XF, but on my old XJ8, the wiper will sometimes swipe just once across and back to the parked position upon engine start. More likely to happen in the summer months after I've left the car parked outside in the sun for hours with the windows up. If I leave the windows cracked open an inch and the sunroof tilted to let some of the heat escape, its unlikely to do it and since I almost always park indoors, it doesn't happen often. But I first noticed it well over a decade ago. At first I thought I was just accidentally bumping the stalk because of the proximity of the ignition switch on the column but no. Everybody was stumped. Doesn't seem to hurt anything and I just kind of learned to ignore it. Or if I've got a passenger in the car, I just tell them I bumped the wiper stalk rather than try to explain that its one of Jaguar's "quirks and features". Unfortunately, since the start button on the XF is in the center console, you can't tell the same lie. I park the XF and XJ8 in separate garages in case its catching.

 

Must be something in the rain sensor circuit. Can’t imagine the switch would fail in that manner. Thanks for the reply.

 

Has it ever had a new windscreen fitted?
i had a mondeo once which did similar things and before I got it, it had a new screen fitted. My problem was that the rain sensor was just rattling around in its holder. The fitters didn’t stick the sensor back. They are supposed to be stuck onto the screen with an optical gel. Once that was fixed, the wipers were fine
Worth a check?

 

Interesting. If the wiper switch is set to off it seems like the sensor shouldn’t be active. I doubt the windshield has been replaced. I bought it a year old with $17k miles. Worth checking into.