# Headlight washers work, but windshield washers do not. What gives?



## lite1979 (Sep 9, 2005)

I'm going nuts right now in Buffalo. They're salting the roads, which means lots of salty white dried-up residue gets sprayed all over the place, especially my windshield. My wipers work fine, and when I pull on the stalk, after a few seconds, washer fluid sprays out of the aliens in the front bumper, but the regular nozzles in the rain tray aren't squirting anything. Is it normal for both of them to just become clogged like that? The only time I've ever done anything to the washer system is when I disconnected/reconnected the line to the aliens when I replaced my radiator last spring. The rain tray nozzles don't appear to be clogged, either. Help!


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

Line could be clogged or cut/torn. Activate the washers while stopped, run them long enough where fluid would run out of the engine bay if the hose has a leak, and look under the car for a puddle. I can't remember but I want to say there are two pumps (could be wrong on that), hence why the aliens activate after the normal windshield sprayers if the lights are on. Your main pump could be bad, can you hear it? You should be able to hear it with the engine off when you activate it.


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## mercavius (May 16, 2002)

^what he said

Remove the driver side fender liner for access to the reservoir/pumps.


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## lite1979 (Sep 9, 2005)

And wouldn't you know, I went outside to check my CV (weird noises made me think the new boots had leaked out all of the grease; this was not the case, oh well), and for the hell of it I got in the car, turn the key to the "on" position and pulled the stalk back to activate the squirters, and voila! I have squirting action! Thanks for the input. I don't know why they didn't work until now, but I sure am glad they do!

On an unrelated note, I'm thinking my front left noises may be caused by worn brake pads or a rotor. It makes a nasty squeaking noise twice per wheel rotation. It's more pronounced when brake to a stop. I couldn't see a metal tab on the outside brake pad, but perhaps it's on the inside brake pad? I have about a 1/2" of pad left on both, and the pad wear light hasn't come on yet. I'll be replacing the pads and rotors next month, but right now I'm trying to save up some cash so I can move away from my chimney of a roommate.


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## toy4two2 (Feb 6, 2012)

I had the same problem, i removed the wipers, the cabin air filter, and then the black plastic surround under the windshield. Found one of the tube had a leak, looked like a little critter got in there and chewed it up as I could see the bite marks. Repalced it and everything works. eace:

A neat little trick I did was run a long piece of rope to the sprayer stalk, roped it around the driver side seat, pulled it out the driver window to the front of the car. That way I could actuate the pump/sprayer while standing in front of the car looking for the leak, try it with lights on and off. If you don't hear the whine of the pump, you'll need a new pump, which isn't that expensive. Sometimes if you live in a cold climate, the plastic tank itself splits and leaks all over the ground.


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## lite1979 (Sep 9, 2005)

Well, it's looking like the pump died two nights ago. I was letting the car warm up after work an pulled the stalk to get some washer fluid on the windshield to clean off some of the salt and sand, and after three pulls, it just stopped making noise. Aliens still work... Is the pump dealer-only?


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## toy4two2 (Feb 6, 2012)

lite1979 said:


> Well, it's looking like the pump died two nights ago. I was letting the car warm up after work an pulled the stalk to get some washer fluid on the windshield to clean off some of the salt and sand, and after three pulls, it just stopped making noise. Aliens still work... Is the pump dealer-only?


nah lots of them on ebay, used on a ton of german makes


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