So, i’ve put stronger concentrate screenwash in the car, but the stuff thats already in the hoses and nozzles is frozen solid. The engine isn’t giving off enough heat to thaw and clear them, so what are your suggestions to do it please?

windscreen de-icer.
best to use the small one designed for door locks as it’s easier to get the can close enough.

BTW – even neat it doesn’t work below about -12.

Whatever happened to the ability to use the washers without the the wipers taking a couple of trips over the screen & smearing all the crap?

& why is the washer hose routed on the cold side of the bonnet insulation?

& breathhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…………….

😀

I feel your pain. I’ve put in mega strength washer fluid, but it can’t get through to the frozen bits and the frozen bits won’t thaw out. Her indoors won’t let me use her hair dryer on the pipes.

Grrrrrr!

How hard can it be to have some kind of heating for washer pipes, seeing as the time of year you need them the most are when they are most likely to be frozen…..!

And another thing – whole heartedly agree with uplink. On my Fiesta it was a button to squirt the fluid and another to wipe, so you could do a quick squirt to see if the fluid would actually spray before smearing the screen into an smeary, opaque oblivion.
Now on the new(er) car you can’t separate the two so have to risk spraying the screen and if nothing comes out then you just make more smeary, opaque oblivion…..

Gggggaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!

PS – I love my commute. 😯

My old Saab 900 had a heated washer system. The feed hose was coiled around the upper radiator hose. Genius, never ever suffered with frozen jets.

Pressing the button on the dashboard has never seemed to be that much of a burden, to be honest.

hot water or a hairdryer on all the bits of hose you can see.

uplink – Member
Whatever happened to the ability to use the washers without the the wipers taking a couple of trips over the screen & smearing all the crap? etc

+1

You’d think winter was a once in a 100 year event.

My Volvo S80 is hopeless on a cold morning. No windscreen heater, washers frozen up and you only discover this when you have your wipers scraping dry across the screen, thus wrecking the blades. Grumble, grumble, …

My suggestion would be use hot water mixed with salt to try and prevent it from freazing over the outside of the pipes and pour it over over any exposed pipes you can see then when everything is warm use the washers to try and force any of the un-diluted screenwash out.

Good luck

Rusty.

I’d also have a look at the temperature rating of your new screenwash as concentrat from supermarkets rarely goes below -5.

Just put meths in your screenwash?

Can I add a small rant of my own on a related topic?…

My car has a 2 litre washer tank…WTF!!….Im filling it up every other day. My previous vehicles have had at least a 4 litre capacity……….

FFS, put some anti freeze in your washer fluid mix. Amateurs.

Mrs LHS has heated Washer jets on her new Mini. Work a treat!

put some anti freeze in your washer fluid mix

because it acts as a paint stripper, is that why we should do it?

FFS, put some anti freeze in your washer fluid mix. Amateurs.

Mine froze last week & it has full Winter strength stuff in it

Meths!

Anti Freeze isn’t good for your paintowrk but meths is just alcohol so evaporates.

I just switch the nozzle heaters on.
Seems to work ok for me.

wwaswas – Member

because it acts as a paint stripper, is that why we should do it?

Piffle, just use a dash. Bum titty bum bum.

In reply to Glenh:

Nozzle heaters, have you got yourself a fancy new ride?

Whatever happened to the ability to use the washers without the the wipers taking a couple of trips over the screen & smearing all the crap?

Totally agree, bizarrely on my car I have the option to use the washers independently of the wiper or simultaneously on the rear windscreen but not the front!

annoys me not being immensly not being able to test the washer jets without the wipers making the whole salty mess ten times worse when they are frozen..

the reason they do this i would guess would be so that you cant obscure your vision with water/screenwash and then crash and sue the car manufacturer…

Mine froze last week & it has full Winter strength stuff in it

Theres winter strength and theres winter strength. Bought some from halfords at the weekend – neat its good to -15c. Some bottles in other places didn’t make any claims to what temperature they’d work at. But it was the last one in the shop and only a small bottle. Round the corner I found a wee motorfactors that sold bigger 5ltr ones so bought one of those too.

Got home and poured the halfords stuff neat into my gf’s car then put the 5ltr one neat into my van (the washer tank is huge so it all went in. Its only as the last few drops went in that I saw the phrase ‘dilutes to make 100 litres on the side of the bottle 🙂 Neat it’ll go down to -65c! Works a treat – the nozzles are on the wipers so they don’t benefit from heat from the engine and they get the wind chill too.

This morning at -8c one squirt of the washers and the screen was cleared of all ice, cloth with some of the screen wash clears the side windows and mirrors. – no scraping required. Smells pretty cruel though, and being so concentrated the wipers and screen are so clean they really squeak.

so far the only solution to the problem (ignoring the fact I didn’t put strong enough stuff in in time) is the hairdryer on the exposed hoses. Problem is that there aren’t any exposed hoses. They’re all hidden away between the insulation and the bonnet!!!

Any other suggestions?

copper wire, wrapped around the hose, running back to the warmer part of the engine to conduct the heat along. Thats what Triumph Herald drivers did

Theres winter strength and theres winter strength. Bought some from halfords at the weekend – neat its good to -15c.

Well it was -15 on the M6 in Cumbria the other day when it froze, no idea what that’ll be with windchill on the washer jets but it was the Halfords stuff I had in that froze at the jets

Currently using some Mercedes branded stuff that’s supposed to be OK to -35

so far the only solution to the problem (ignoring the fact I didn’t put strong enough stuff in in time) is the hairdryer on the exposed hoses.

Not easy in the middle of nowhere

Another annoying problem solved which wasn`t there in the first place.When i have the front windscreen wipers on and put the car into reverse the back wiper magically comes on and scrapes its was over the window. Neat screen wash with some isopropanol or cheap vodka does the trick every time

pee on them!

Well it was -15 on the M6 in Cumbria the other day when it froze, no idea what that’ll be with windchill on the washer jets but it was the Halfords stuff I had in that froze at the jets

Pretty sure wiper nozzles (and other inaminate objects) dont *feel* the affects of windchill. They’d need a nervous system to do that! 😉