Emptying washer fluid

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

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Ran into a bit of a dilemma lately, I ran out of screen washer mid journey, pulled over and filled it up with a 2lr bottle of water. Came home and didn't add any winter grade or screen wash to it. Now, I believe it's frozen as for the past 5 days I haven't managed to get them working, even by adding anti-freezing screen wash.

I was thinking the heat from the engine would surely melt it? Which leads me onto thinking there must be another cause? It makes the usual buzzing noise but nothing comes out the nozzles.

Any ideas?
 
Just add neat concentrate to it, after a while it should sort it out, same happened to my brother's car.

The temperatures up in Scotland mean it may take ages mind..

In some cars the fluid bottle is a few inches from the engine meaning it'll never really get heated enough by the engine to sort it out
 
How long have you run the engine for? I would have thought it would have melted after an half hour or so of running.

At least your bottle isn't in the boot like mine!
 
noobs, its the jets that freeze outside of the car not under the bonnet.

you don't need boiling water, just luke warm water, pour that over the whole she bang and start again with your new fluid...

if your a real pro what you'll do is extend your washer hose by 2foot and wrap the excess around the hot water pipe on your engine, never get frozen jets again, but then if you were real flash don't good cars have heated washer jets anyway?
 
It's not an exterior issue, my hoses are patted down with a luke warm sponge when defrosting the car everyday. Generally run the car for 30-50 minute motorway trips so that should be plenty of time.
 
[TW]Fox;18074470 said:
Surely it does? My 530i does?
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Maybe it does perhaps it was just the snow on top that didn't melt, thereby making the fluid dribble out..

Cars in the UK are have much better spec than the ones over here though. It's done with option packs over here and it gets quite complicated :p
 
Had this problem with my new car, spent 2 days ****ing around with it to get it working. Adding neat screen wash didn't help, adding a full kettle of boiling water didn't help either. In the end I just took the pump out (getting soaked in screen wash in the process, nice) to find it was totally full of ice.
I can't see how the engine heat could thaw out a washer bottle unless it was right on top/behind the engine, even then I'd have thought the wind chill would put pay to that idea.
 
mjt said:
Anybody who puts pure water into their car anywhere is an arse, be it radiator or washer fluid :p
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Indeed

My brother said he'd never bought any because he figured it would cost too much :confused:

He's been carrying bottles of water to do Ace Ventura clearances every now and again on the way to work :p
 
I bought 7.5 litres of ready-mixed stuff and it cost less than £1 a litre. Should see me through the winter :p
 
To defrost the pipes , I'd try boiling water all over the tank and pump and the jets, if that fails just chuck it in a garage and put a fan heater under it for a couple of hours much easier than taking it apart..

For screen wash I'm currently using 95% methanol 5% water, its a waste product from my Biodiesel production so free and good down to about -90 degrees :)
 
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