Frozen washer jets

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Having had a recent service and inspection on my E92 I had assumed the indi BMW garage had topped up the washer bottle. The indicator was pinging and after service no more pings.
This morning found the washer jets were frozen, OK it was -2 last night but I didn’t expect the nozzles to freeze at that temperature. Or am I being unreasonable ?

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garyhun said:

Surely the nozzles just have a coating of frost on them?

1st world problems.

No they were frozen solid, something I didn’t expect tbh. Left in the sun for a few hours and they have now thawed out. Wish BMW had used a decent screen wash fluid tbh.

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^^^^
Yes this is my point, the BMW indie filled the washer bottle, I suspect with plain water. Penny pinching misers, why would a garage do that for such little profit on the issue. I was more concerned that the nozzles and/or water hoses would crack. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I am taking the car back on Monday to follow up my telephone conversation with a face to face complaint.

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Wills2 said:

crankedup said:

^^^^
Yes this is my point, the BMW indie filled the washer bottle, I suspect with plain water. Penny pinching misers, why would a garage do that for such little profit on the issue. I was more concerned that the nozzles and/or water hoses would crack. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I am taking the car back on Monday to follow up my telephone conversation with a face to face complaint.

That's why I don't use indies, much lauded on PH but I used one for years on an old sl320 and they ripped me off and cut corners and I decided that it wasn't worth it.

Your local BMW dealer wouldn't have done that in my experience.

It’s something that I will check out for the next service, we have a main BMW garage in town so it’s not going to be inconvenient to use them. Just a price and service quality check needed.

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Huff said:

-2degC air temp is likely,and easily a real -5/-6degC at surfaces radiating to the night sky - roads, bonnets...

(this is why the OBC warns you of ice at temps of +3degC and below..)


TBH - get over it. Maintain your own screenwash. You should anyway.

You'll find that keep fluid unfrozen at, say, -5degC you need a really, really rich solution of something rated to a far lower temp. i.e. a lot of alcohol in the mix (eg from looking at the MSDS, Halfords concentrate to do this is c.30% ethanol)

Edited by Huff on Saturday 24th February 22:10

BMW say that the screen wash is OK for around -15.Its. to the fact of frozen water more the issue of broken trust. If the garage skimps on this what else is missed or skimped.

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colin_p said:

Wills2 said:

But it's still a VW....

With washers that work when it gets cold.

Yes the BMW indie was left struggling when I told him our skoda bargain banger had screen washers which worked just fine, not frozen solid like our bmw car.

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mcg_ said:

A telephone conversation AND a face to face complaint about them topping up your washer fluid

Jesus are you retired with nothing better to do or something?

Personally I only want water in my washer bottle.

Paid for service which has been skimped on, more people should complain about issues and then just maybe garages would get the message imo.

Yes I am retired btw

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As you were everybody, tbh I was really very angry at the time and now I have calmed down I have partially emptied the washer bottle and added some decent washer fluid.
My annoyance was if the nozzles had split after being frozen, they haven’t.

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msej449 said:

Hi. You're aware of the notorious 'Don't mix BMW and non-BMW screen wash concentrate?' debate? Certain models like the 1 and 2 Series and some 5 seems very sensitive to 'gunking' of the screenwash system if you don't consistently use the same product.

I mention this because if you do now take your car to a BMW dealer for servicing, they'll use concentrate from their huge 25L down-to-minus-60?C containers. And if this gunks because you've used non-BMW they are likely to point to the section in your manual where there are big warning triangles ??telling you explicitly not to mix.

Cue a long chain of posts from people saying this is a BMW conspiracy and not to be believed / Read your manual, it's really clear, only yourself to blame / I've never had it happen / Well I have, and it's a pain / BMW only cost you an extra £12 a year more than Halford once you dilute to the same protection level / etc. Without getting into that, just make sure you consistently use the same concentrate and if you do have it serviced by a dealer, tell them not to top-up.

Another piece of advice I hadn't seen before, on the BMW concentrate bottle - Mix your water and concentrate before you add it to the reservoir, otherwise it may not mix.

Edited by msej449 on Monday 26th February 15:23

Thanks yup aware of this issue, the stuff my indie used most definitely isn’t BMW fluid. Read my manual and it doesn’t mention the need to use Bmw anti freeze anywhere in the book. Perhaps it’s because my car is an older model year 2010.

In my fifty years of car owing I have never had such a stupid problem with windscreen washer fluid, What a pia this all is.