Washers won't work

Slippin Jimmy

I have an 09 vw golf. I went out the other day to go to Dublin and noticed that my washers weren't working. When I say weren't working, I mean there was no noise out of the motor on them. I decided to fill my car up with water and just see did that make a difference. It worked a while after that.

Today i went out to my car and again there are no noise coming from the motor. There is plenty of water in the washers. When I go to squirt it on my windows, my wipers work but no water. Is the motor gone?

kildareman09

the nozzles that the water go through are probably frozen

wexican

kildareman09 wrote: »

the nozzles that the water go through are probably frozen

Have a 06 golf and the nozzles have been frozen since the cold weather started. Motor works fine, can hear it trying to pump water but nothing comes out!

greenman09

Mine haven't worked since the cold as well so i assumed they were frozen, common sense.

Plug

There seems to be a few of these threads popping up lately. Its because of the artic conditions. Try and see does it work in another 10 days. Don't keep pressing it if its frozen because you will blow the fuse probably.

Slippin Jimmy

Thanks for the advice. just got worried when I couldn't hear any sound whatsoever.

granturismo

If you cant hear the motor, check the fuse. The motor should be ok on a newish car.

If the nozzles are frozen, the motor should still be working.

Slippin Jimmy

granturismo wrote: »

If you cant hear the motor, check the fuse. The motor should be ok on a newish car.

If the nozzles are frozen, the motor should still be working.

Will do, thanks.

Plug

granturismo wrote: »

If you cant hear the motor, check the fuse. The motor should be ok on a newish car.

If the nozzles are frozen, the motor should still be working.

Not true. The motor can't operate if it has frozen water in it, simple as. Not a lot of people will have there washers working over the next 10 days.

PaulKK

When its really cold the washers make no noise either in my passat, its just that the motor is completly frozen, once it warms up a bit you can hear the noise but no water. Once it warms up a bit more the washers work

r3nu4l

Try adding more screenwash concentrate to the water. The antifreeze should work if you have 50/60% screenwash to 50/40%water. The colder it gets the more screenwash concentrate is needed.

Matt Simis

Plug wrote: »

There seems to be a few of these threads popping up lately. Its because of the artic conditions. Try and see does it work in another 10 days. Don't keep pressing it if its frozen because you will blow the fuse probably.

I just think its weird that common sense (ie water freezes) doesnt seem to apply when people sit in a car..

DublinDilbert

Plug wrote: »

Not a lot of people will have there washers working over the next 10 days.

Unless they are using good windscreen wash and have heated nozzles... I can't believe that the nozzles on an 09 Golf aren't heated, maybe they are but he's just topped up the system with water and all the pipe work is frozen too...

AugustusMaximus

Pour some warm water over the nossles. The underside of the bonnet will heat up with the engine.

They will work after this unless they are broken.

AugustusMaximus

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Unless they are using good windscreen wash and have heated nozzles... I can't believe that the nozzles on an 09 Golf aren't heated, maybe they are but he's just topped up the system with water and all the pipe work is frozen too...

Surely the heat of the engine will unfreeze the pipe work.

Mine have not failed to work after I have poured warm water on the nozzles.

vibe666

r3nu4l wrote: »

Try adding more screenwash concentrate to the water. The antifreeze should work if you have 50/60% screenwash to 50/40%water. The colder it gets the more screenwash concentrate is needed.

Christmas eve i got some nice bright blue 'all weather' screen wash from Halfords. it said to use 25% screen-wash with water in freezing conditions to keep your washers from freezing.

i didn't have time to put it in the car but i left the bottle on my dash overnight. when i came out at about 10am on Christmas morning, the whole bottle was filled with pretty blue ice crystals. i opened it to see how bad it was and tried pouring some on my windscreen but it came out like a slush puppy.

the temp gauge on the car said it was -8 so I'm guessing it was never meant to be used at all in cold like that.

someone said i could mix radiator anti-freeze in with the water in my washers to stop it freezing, but i'm worried that it could do more harm than good, maybe damage pipes or the washer motor?

Lord Nikon

Seriously, look outside, it's freezing. Water doesn't react well to cold weather, it freezes, I though everyone knew this. Unless of course your in Australia or something then the weather isn't the problem with your washer jets.

I have heated washer jets, and even they are near useless at -10 degree weather....

deaglan169

i have found using electrical switch spray clears the jets in no time its a much higher alcohol content than deicer, spray a good amount on and let it soak in, in a few seconds there working:D

r3nu4l

vibe666 wrote: »

Christmas eve i got some nice bright blue 'all weather' screen wash from Halfords. it said to use 25% screen-wash with water in freezing conditions to keep your washers from freezing.

i didn't have time to put it in the car but i left the bottle on my dash overnight. when i came out at about 10am on Christmas morning, the whole bottle was filled with pretty blue ice crystals. i opened it to see how bad it was and tried pouring some on my windscreen but it came out like a slush puppy.

the temp gauge on the car said it was -8 so I'm guessing it was never meant to be used at all in cold like that.

I have noticed that not all concentrates are the same. The one I have tells me what percentage I should use to protect against temperatures as low as -15C. Not much use to the people in the UK that had -21.6C last week

Del2005

deaglan169 wrote: »

i have found using electrical switch spray clears the jets in no time its a much higher alcohol content than deicer, spray a good amount on and let it soak in, in a few seconds there working:D

Some of the solvents in these sprays may damage the paint. I'd make sure and give it a a good rinse with water after spraying, not much good when trying to defrost them though:D

biko

Just wait for them to thaw? Use sponges at service stations to keep windscreen clean.

Fey!

You could use the high pressure air in your local garage to clear the nozzles when you're checking your tyres. I did this by unplugging the pipe from the back of the nozzle first; the nozzles had filled up with grit and dirt off the road.

I also got some of the antifreeze-type screen wash and mixed it in to the water reservoir, which should help. €10 for 5 litres in Car Parts Warehouse. The guy in there recommended a 30-40% mix.

As for the sponges in the service station, these aren't too good if you're on a long trip. Try keeping a 500ml bottle of water (the type of bottle with the sucky tube) in the car, so that if your screen gets particularly dirty and the washer won't work, you can stick your arm out your window and spray the windscreen with the bottle, then just turn on the wipers (water first, or the wipers will fling the water off!). Only do this at slow speeds with no traffic, as visibility disappears for a second or two!!!

A spray bottle of window cleaner and a roll of kitchen roll in the boot can also be handy.

langdang

Del2005 wrote: »

Some of the solvents in these sprays may damage the paint. I'd make sure and give it a a good rinse with water after spraying, not much good when trying to defrost them though:D

Ya, if you've a newish car I'd be careful with home-brew solutions, eg mixing engine anti freeze with screenwash.

I've noticed that Halfords De-icer spray contains IPA (Iso propyl alcohol)
Not sure what concentration. Probably not very high for safety reasons.
Don't know if this has any effect on paint, that bottle had no warnings, but I've seen "anti-freeze screenwash" that did have warnings about paint.

Engine antifreeze is etylene glycol which isn't the best for paint apparently, although maybe ok if only a small amount was added and wasn't left standing on paintwork?

Was slightly disappointed this morning as it wasn't cold enough to test my homebrew mix of water, concentrate screenwash and IPA.
Some whiff off the separate spraybottle of de-icer I mixed up tho, extra alcohol hehehe

Plug

Mine are working today, the sunny south east 4C!