varuscelli

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Rain-X myself. Sometimes I don't even use the wipers after a fresh coat of Rain-X. The stuff is just that good.

Oh, in case it helps anyone in any manner whatsoever, I did take a few pics while I was experimenting with the rain sensor on my ES330. It is important to note that there is a plastic pin (not pictured -- sorry) at the bottom right of the rain sensor housing that must be pulled out before the housing can be pulled loose from the windshield mount. That pin looks like a sort of curved square "door" about 1/4 inch square on the bottom right of the housing, and it can be pulled all the way out (the pin itself is about an inch long) to allow the housing to be worked upward (toward the top of the vehicle) and off the windshield mount. I had to pull the base of the housing down a bit and then slide it upward toward the top of the car to release it. Caution must be used if you are removing the sensor itself from its housing since there are a couple of clips near where the cable plugs in that must be properly depressed in order to pull the sensor out. Those are NOT the clips on the side of the sensor as shown in the kevinwang example, but two clips that are close to the cable plug-in (look near the top of the second pic, two clips left and right of the plug-in).

Thanks, 1990LS400. Thanks for confirming what I was suspecting about there perhaps being a design change in the ES330 that does not allow the same alterations as the ES300. I suspected this might be the case when I went through the steps as described in this post (and in a couple of other references I found on various forums) and got no results other than shutting off the rain sensor completely. I'm assuming the rain sensor on my ES330 works as it was designed to work. What I find personally distracting is what I consider the semi-unpredictable way the wipers come on when the rain sensor is activated. My own sense of when the windshield should be wiped is not always in accordance with the way the sensor works. I much prefer a regular rhythm that I can set manually. Just personal preference. Not related to Lexus, but I think I got a bit spoiled a few years back when I drove a VW Passat wagon. The wiper design on that vehicle was such that you could set the exact interval you wanted by hitting the wiper switch once and then hitting it one more time when the windshield needed it. That exact interval would be maintained until you changed it or switched over to one of the "canned" intervals (if I recall correctly). Loved that instant user programmable feature. ;-)

Old post, I know -- but I'm trying to deal with the same issue of not being very happy with the way the rains sensor behaves on my vehicle. I find it too distracting and would much rather have standard intermittent wipers for which I can set my own preferred wiper speed. I've got an '05 ES330 and have been trying to disable the rain sensor and switch over to intermittent as kevinwang has shown. I got the housing for the sensor detached from the windshield and tried merely disconnecting the main cable from the sensor. When I disconnect the main cable, I get nothing as far as intermittent. I have low and high, but the dial for intermittent (or sensitivity) does nothing. I'm not sure I quite understand what the difference would be from removing the sensor from the housing (as shown by kevinwang) and just disconnecting the cable. Perhaps the way it is configured in the ES330 is different, but the sensor and housing seem the same as what kevinwang shows...still, when I follow the steps, I get no intermittent. Just looking for suggestions. I can easily put it all back to standard rain sensor state, but would like to know if manual intermittent wipers can be achieved on the ES330. Thanks! :)