Vehicle-Specific Installation Notes

Rain Tracker Model: RT-40A
Vehicle-Specific Installation Instructions
The instructions included with the product tell you how to install a Rain Tracker. This page gives special vehicle-specific information. Print this page using your browser's print function.

Application Vehicles
These instructions apply to these vehicles, which all have similar wiper systems:

SPECIAL-APPLICATIONS SHADE-BANDS ALL

Wiring Diagrams and Drawings:

Wire colors used in this vehicle:

Special Rain Tracker Installation Notes for this vehicle:

More detail than you want to know about the shadeband:

The colored (usually blue) band at the top of the windshield is
called the shadeband. This is made by coloring the inner layer
of plastic (called the interlayer) in the windshield. Up through
the early nineties, shadebands were always made by using a pigmented
dye. This dye was almost transparent to the infrared light the
Rain Tracker uses. So, on older vehicles, it is never a problem
to mount the Rain Tracker sensor in the shadeband.

Around the mid nineties, most American cars went over to a pigmented
shadeband. The main reason is that the pigmented shadeband does not
fade with time nearly so much as the older, dyed shadeband. The new
pigmented shadeband blocks almost all infrared. So, the Rain Tracker
cannot see through the shadeband. The Rain Tracker will not work when
mounted deeply within the shadeband of most newer cars.

The Rain Tracker has enough power to spare in the infrared emitters
(it adjust the emitters for the windshield) so that it can still be
mounted on the very edge of the shadeband. This is enough so that
the Rain Tracker (not that it was noticeable before) is not at all
noticeable from outside the vehicle.

If you have a car, van, or light truck with what appears to be a
faded shadeband, you may mount the Rain Tracker within it. If the
shadeband appears to be reasonably dark, then you need to mount the
Rain Tracker sensor on the "fade-out region" or below. Some non-US
vehicles, and some aftermarket (replacement) glass is still made
using dyed, IR-transparent shadeband material. If you are in doubt,
mount the Rain Tracker sensor below the shadeband.

The Rain Tracker wiper control system features better rain sensing performance than many OE rain sensor systems. Hydreon Corporation tests all its products to exacting standards. This page generated by vehicle data file name: shadebands.veh