Weak washer jets.....

Ben Cole

Ben Cole

Ben Cole

Soldato
Joined
24 Feb 2003
Posts
3,162
Location
Porthcawl and Southampton
Stripped things out, verified no blockages (or so I thought).

Presumed motor was on the way out or the pumping action was worn.

Bought a cheap motor from the rain forest. Despite being supposedly compatible I had to switch the input polarity to make it operate front Vs back correctly.

Anyway, it was much weaker than the original motor so I switched them back and now think there's something else going on.

Am I dismissing the pump as the culprit too soon given that it was a cheap Chinese knock off? My reasoning in buying was that I would expect it to work but maybe not last as long, at which point or sooner I could buy a decent unit. Basically bought it for diagnosis purposes/ temporary fix.


Other than tubes being pinched or blocked, any other ideas?
 
Check the washer bottle for sludge at the bottom (it’s really common on BMW’s for example), and pull the washer pipes off the jets and see how the flow is.
 
Sinbad2000 said:
Also check for leaks in the pipes
Click to expand...

Thanks. I don't think there's any leaks, I checked all of it before I ordered the new motor. I'm starting to suspect a partial blockage between motor and the rail that goes along the bonnet lid. There's three jets and they all have the same power so I'm thinking if there's a blockage it's before them.
 
Is the back not working either ? that being a different tube off of pump and unlikely to be blocked too
I've pushed some 25guage solid core wire with wool attached to check for blockages before, and at least on bmw's multiple 1-way valves near each nozzle, which are unlikely to be all blocked,
but the diaphram in them hardens with age so i removed them.
 
The back works, in fact I'd say that is as good as it has ever been.

Haven't seen any things that could be valves unless they're in the blocks that house the jets.

After all the faffing and cleaning, things have improved but it's still not the all covering torrent they used to be. I put some isopropyl alcohol in the rail and forced it through before flushing the system with tap hot water.

I can't see into the tank to check for sludge, but since it flows out when I removed the pump I suspect there's no significant restriction.
 
Last edited:
Do you guys think this is pumping enough water or providing enough pressure?

Thanks for all your input by the way.

 
Here it is with the jets reattached.

All reinstalled and as I said, it is definitely improved but nowhere near as good as it was before. In the absence of an obvious fix I guess I will just leave it until it becomes unusable again or fails it's MOT.

 
if the backs fine with it's additional pipe length / flow resistance, the front should be similarly good -
there's no kink in the front tubing ? car has not been dismantled in the vicinity of cable path - maybe sediment/crud has built up at low point on tube path (so attempt to push something through to clean)

volume looks ok (month ago, I had run my rear wiper feed into a 300ml water bottle whilst fixing rear wiper motor/jet-path, and only had a couple of cm for a couple of extended lever pulls, feed pipe keeps 100ml odd of water
in it, which had surprised me - after syphoning blue screen wash from tanks and adding some warm soapy water for cleaning)
 
No, the car is mint. One day, it just wasn't very good....literally overnight. It's what made me think it was pump failure.

I'm suspecting a partial blockage between the pump and the first jet.
 
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