Headlamp wash borked.
Discussion
And not just not working - it's broken, properly fubar'd. No idea what's happened here, I stuck the car on the driveway this afternoon with the intention of chucking some soapy water over it and was confronted with this. There's no external damage whatsoever, but I take it that the fact the mounting brackets have sheared means a new headlight assembly is required?
It's been stuffed back in its hole and secured with numberplate tape for now, in true bish bosh style.
It's been stuffed back in its hole and secured with numberplate tape for now, in true bish bosh style.
I had a couple of these go when I had mine. Great design feature in that they can get bent out of shape when used at motorway speed and then don't retract properly. I suppose I was lucky in that mine were covered by warranty and it was just the washer jet unit.
It is actually a Jaguar part. Might be cheaper to source that way if you find it is just that rather than a bigger problem with the light unit? IIRC the part is around £120 from Aston.
It is actually a Jaguar part. Might be cheaper to source that way if you find it is just that rather than a bigger problem with the light unit? IIRC the part is around £120 from Aston.
hello
mine did the same thing, good news is you can repair it without buying a new headlamp,the washer is screwed to small plastic bosses cast into the headlamp case.
over time with heat etc the plastic becomes brittle the bosses disintegrate and the washer falls off.
the repair involves removing the wheel, arch liner and headlamp assembly. when you get the headlamp out you have to "rebuild" the bosses.
the fragments of disintegrated bosses were all in the bottom of the undertay so i carefully glued them back onto the headlamp jigsaw style using superglue and activator, this gave me something to work with ,the next step is to rough up the area around the bosses with some glass paper, then mix up some epoxy resin ( readily available from motor shops usually says something like 4 ton epoxy cures in 5 minutes) and build it up around the bosses to strengthen them.
when its fully cured you can screw the washer back on and rebuild.
My observation was that the bosses are quite small and when i had finished reinforcing them they were much stronger than before.
I did mine 2 years ago and i use the headlamp washers frequently just to see if it will fail!.
Took about 4 hours all told but if i had taken it to dealers , new headlamp £800 ish a couple of hours labour well over a grand!
If your going to give it a go and you need any help give me a shout and i can try and guide you through it
good luck!
craig
mine did the same thing, good news is you can repair it without buying a new headlamp,the washer is screwed to small plastic bosses cast into the headlamp case.
over time with heat etc the plastic becomes brittle the bosses disintegrate and the washer falls off.
the repair involves removing the wheel, arch liner and headlamp assembly. when you get the headlamp out you have to "rebuild" the bosses.
the fragments of disintegrated bosses were all in the bottom of the undertay so i carefully glued them back onto the headlamp jigsaw style using superglue and activator, this gave me something to work with ,the next step is to rough up the area around the bosses with some glass paper, then mix up some epoxy resin ( readily available from motor shops usually says something like 4 ton epoxy cures in 5 minutes) and build it up around the bosses to strengthen them.
when its fully cured you can screw the washer back on and rebuild.
My observation was that the bosses are quite small and when i had finished reinforcing them they were much stronger than before.
I did mine 2 years ago and i use the headlamp washers frequently just to see if it will fail!.
Took about 4 hours all told but if i had taken it to dealers , new headlamp £800 ish a couple of hours labour well over a grand!
If your going to give it a go and you need any help give me a shout and i can try and guide you through it
good luck!
craig
Nice info, Craig. 
It's definitely the moulded mounting points on the base of the headlight itself which have disintegrated, so maybe your fix is worth investigating. But I'm not treating this as a matter of urgency just yet, I'll wait until I've next got the wheels off. Although, having written that, I seem to recall headlamp (bonnet!) washing systems are an MOT testable item on Xenon equipped cars?
It's definitely the moulded mounting points on the base of the headlight itself which have disintegrated, so maybe your fix is worth investigating. But I'm not treating this as a matter of urgency just yet, I'll wait until I've next got the wheels off. Although, having written that, I seem to recall headlamp (bonnet!) washing systems are an MOT testable item on Xenon equipped cars?
craig elam said:
hello
mine did the same thing, good news is you can repair it without buying a new headlamp,the washer is screwed to small plastic bosses cast into the headlamp case.
over time with heat etc the plastic becomes brittle the bosses disintegrate and the washer falls off.
the repair involves removing the wheel, arch liner and headlamp assembly. when you get the headlamp out you have to "rebuild" the bosses.
the fragments of disintegrated bosses were all in the bottom of the undertay so i carefully glued them back onto the headlamp jigsaw style using superglue and activator, this gave me something to work with ,the next step is to rough up the area around the bosses with some glass paper, then mix up some epoxy resin ( readily available from motor shops usually says something like 4 ton epoxy cures in 5 minutes) and build it up around the bosses to strengthen them.
when its fully cured you can screw the washer back on and rebuild.
My observation was that the bosses are quite small and when i had finished reinforcing them they were much stronger than before.
I did mine 2 years ago and i use the headlamp washers frequently just to see if it will fail!.
Took about 4 hours all told but if i had taken it to dealers , new headlamp £800 ish a couple of hours labour well over a grand!
If your going to give it a go and you need any help give me a shout and i can try and guide you through it
good luck!
craig
Nice one Craig.mine did the same thing, good news is you can repair it without buying a new headlamp,the washer is screwed to small plastic bosses cast into the headlamp case.
over time with heat etc the plastic becomes brittle the bosses disintegrate and the washer falls off.
the repair involves removing the wheel, arch liner and headlamp assembly. when you get the headlamp out you have to "rebuild" the bosses.
the fragments of disintegrated bosses were all in the bottom of the undertay so i carefully glued them back onto the headlamp jigsaw style using superglue and activator, this gave me something to work with ,the next step is to rough up the area around the bosses with some glass paper, then mix up some epoxy resin ( readily available from motor shops usually says something like 4 ton epoxy cures in 5 minutes) and build it up around the bosses to strengthen them.
when its fully cured you can screw the washer back on and rebuild.
My observation was that the bosses are quite small and when i had finished reinforcing them they were much stronger than before.
I did mine 2 years ago and i use the headlamp washers frequently just to see if it will fail!.
Took about 4 hours all told but if i had taken it to dealers , new headlamp £800 ish a couple of hours labour well over a grand!
If your going to give it a go and you need any help give me a shout and i can try and guide you through it
good luck!
craig
8Tech said:
I believe they use the water pressure to open the jet.
It's crossed my mind to check whether the mech is free to slide properly while poking around under there. Perhaps if the jet is gummed up and reluctant to move it could put more stress on the mounting points, hence the failure.Gassing Station | Aston Martin | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff