Windscreen washers

[Heartworm]

My windscreen washers don't work on the car, anyone had anything similar (I can't even see where the water would come from, what looks like the water pipe comes up the wiper arms, does a u-turn and returns down the wiper arms).

[Pacman1972]

Heartworm said:

My windscreen washers don't work on the car, anyone had anything similar (I can't even see where the water would come from, what looks like the water pipe comes up the wiper arms, does a u-turn and returns down the wiper arms).

The pipes supply the water. There should be a couple of pin holes in the pipe that the water comes from. If memory serves, the pipe on the wipers should attach to another pipe at the base of the wipers that leads to the washer bottle. On mine the two pipes had become disconnected.

Do you hear the washer motor when you pull the wiper stalk?

[Heartworm]

Don't hear the motor when I pull the lever, but I haven't tried doing it without the engine running.

[drivingfroggy]

My initial guess would be corrosion on the connectors to the motor. This happened to my old S series. I just cut off the old crimps and attached new ones, job done. The motor is attached to the bottle in the nearside wing. There should be a pipe coming from it through a check valve into a two way splitter then up to your wipers. I replaced mine because the old stuff was all crushed and the check valve didn't check.

[Heartworm]

drivingfroggy said:

My initial guess would be corrosion on the connectors to the motor. This happened to my old S series. I just cut off the old crimps and attached new ones, job done. The motor is attached to the bottle in the nearside wing. There should be a pipe coming from it through a check valve into a two way splitter then up to your wipers. I replaced mine because the old stuff was all crushed and the check valve didn't check.

Been pouring outside all day, I will try get a look at it next week, hopefully it is something simple like this.

[Heartworm]

A brief look in the rain today tells me that the motor is running, and the water tank is full but still no water coming out, Will try and check tomorrow for the hoses to be connected under the main bonnet.

[Konrod]

I had this problem. Mine was the non return valve that was stuck. This looks just like a small joint piece somewhere around the pioint where the pipe comes through the nearside wing to cross the car at the front. In the end I drilled through the valve to remove the springs and ball-bearing inside - I don't have a non return valve now, but just means an extra second or two waiting for water.

Easy to test where the problem is, disconnect the pipe before and after each joint, and then try the washers - There should be a strong flow (as the front of my shirt found out the first time

[drivingfroggy]

Mine failed again recently. Today I removed the tubes that feed the wipers and fitted two single jet "ordinary" washers. The pressure on them isn't fantastic because of the small inner diameter of the T piece I had to use. But it is still better than having those crap tubes tywrapped to the wipers. IMO anyway. You don't even notice the washer jets because the bonnet covers them up.

[netnewt]

Another thing to watch for... the heat from the engine exits through the vents around the washer tubes.... and often melts them such that they close. Solution is to extend the thicker tubing so that the thin plastic is well away from the vents.