Windscreen Washer Pump

R@tman · 3 Mar 2018 at 17:15

With the bad weather we had this week i think my washer pump froze and blew the fuse was minus -5 on Wednesday

Fast Forward to Friday night and put a fuse in tried it again no noise from pump and it blew .

I have looked in the washer bottle and it does not look frozen now

Put still blowing a fuse any ideas ?

Car it a seat Ibiza 2012

Cheers Ratty

sigma · 3 Mar 2018 at 17:22

Sounds like the pump might be goosed...

Finglonga · 3 Mar 2018 at 19:08

Is the fuse blowing as soon as you attempt to clean the screen? I would think it will still be frozen as it takes a while for a gallon of water to defrost when hidden away under a wheel arch.

Conscript · 3 Mar 2018 at 20:27

I got caught out this week, our Kia Sorento still had quite a dilute mix if washer fluid from the last refill and it froze. After a full day driving around, it still hadn't defrosted. I ended up having to pour boiling water into the tank and waiting for the pump to start working, then I siphoned out the remaining fluid and refilled with concentrate. Point is it can take a surprising amount of time to thaw, so maybe give it a while.

R@tman · 3 Mar 2018 at 20:31

Finglonga said:
Is the fuse blowing as soon as you attempt to clean the screen? I would think it will still be frozen as it takes a while for a gallon of water to defrost when hidden away under a wheel arch.

yes the fuse blows when attempt to clean the screen. Cant hear the pump run at all .

I would try to put hot water in but its full was a very weak mix of screen wash .

sigma · 3 Mar 2018 at 21:48

Good points raised

fuse blowing because the pump is trying to draw extra oomph due to bring frozen?

jpaul · 4 Mar 2018 at 12:32

Hope pump is OK.

I had never considered that runnning with a low dilution of washer fluid might cause frozen pump problems -
hopefully they have a low value fuse that blows easily, or good electronics sensing unexpected load.

R@tman · 4 Mar 2018 at 12:52

Well here is an update

Replaced fuse this morning , all working now pulled a load of screen wash through and topped up to increase strength

Lesson Learnt

Conscript · 4 Mar 2018 at 12:55

Good to hear. It's a real pain when it happens. When I got my pump thawed, I pulled one of the pipes from under the bonnet and pumped it all out into a spare bottle. Refilled with a litre of concentrate to last the unusual cold snap, it now it's warmed I can pour the other stuff back in rather than bin it. Tighter than cramp, me