Windshield washer jets or pump

[aclarker]

Hey Guys,

In Calgary we are in the midst of a dirty melt. The city uses a mixture of salt and sand on the roads, when things thaw out the roads are a complete mess. Betty has seen better days to say the least. My question is. Is there any way to increase the spray power from the windshield washer jets without replacing the pump? Or is pump replacement needed? I have a pathetic drisel coming from my drivers side jet.

This is what I have done. I have shot the jets with compressed air, and have tried to clean them out with a needle. No luck..

If anyone can help that would be great!
Cheers,
aclarker

[FalcoColumbarius]

Just a thought.... do you think shooting WD-40 through the nozzle might help? I used to use it to keep my bicycle chain clean when I was a courier in London. The streets there were filthy and my chain would attract gritty crap from the street that caused the chain to derail. By using the WD-40 (being a cleaner) the chain kept clean ~ perhaps it might help clear the passage. Also, why is the passage blocked? I am thinking that maybe lime scale might have something to do with it ~ perhaps making a solution with water and CLR (caustic) and soak the nozzles in that.

These are just shots in the dark and I would be careful and read the warnings on the label before rushing in. How easy is it to remove the nozzles from an L400?

Falco.

[Jungle Jon]

Hi aclarker,
I've had the same issues since the weather turned cold. I also discovered that the contents of my tank were mostly water when the spray promptly froze into a layer of ice. I tried the needle and compressed air too, and it took about 6 - 8 cycles of poke with needle --> spray the fluid out --> shoot with compressed air on each nozzle until the dribble became a reasonable stream.

I'd really like to take the tank out, and clean the tank and pump, since I suspect there is black mold in there, but it looks like that may involve removing the coolant expansion bottle and the fender to get at it. I'll need a warmer weekend and empty honey-do list to accomplish that.

How easy is it to remove the nozzles from an L400?

I picked up some new nozzles from Crappy Tire, so I'll probably be tackling this soon. I'll let you know how it goes.

[mrdueck]

Mine is weak as well. I'm wondering if it would work just to put another generic pump inline? Did this to my old VW Beetle that used the spare tire for pressure. That system never worked that great but with the electric pump I could squirt cars 20 feet behind me! (OK, I exagerate).

[jessef]

The stock L400 pump really pushes out the fluid hard.

If only one side is weak, clean the nozzle and lines.

If both sides are weak, clean the nozzles and lines.

I had to spray/air many times to get the nozzles to spray good.

It's not the pump. It's the lines and nozzles. They clog up easily.

Just keep at it and the gunk will work loose.

Either that or just replace the lines with fresh one's.

[madmazda]

I had problems with mine as well but I figured out that the 2 little silver nosels will move around to aim the spray properly as all of mine were turned so that the water barely came out a small dental tool helped with aiming them now they work awesome....

[aclarker]

Okay,

I'll continue the process. Spray and poke with a needle to clear the lines. This coming summer (Not spring, as is snows in the spring in Calgary ) I'll disassemble and clean the washer system. I may try wd40 if the frustration continues..

Thanks for the input.

aclarker

[Jungle Jon]

The crappy tire nozzles I tried were a bust. Although they were adjustable, they tended to spray forwards, while the stock ones spray more upwards at an angle. I put the stock ones back in.
Once again, I did another few rounds of disconnecting the hose, blowing out with compressed air, reconnecting and spray until clogged, and repeat until it stopped clogging. However, I found the next day I could only get a trickle... but then I discovered why I wasn't getting any pressure - When I was closing the hood, the hose was bending over on itself and getting kinked! Once I arranged the hose so it wouldn't fold over on itself when I closed the hood, I was getting great pressure.
If you've cleared your nozzles and you are still getting poor pressure, check that your hose is not pinched.

[jaggedfish]

I too have to take mine back apart and give it a good cleaning. My passenger side gets nice and clean but my wife is getting tired of guiding me... It's pretty easy to get at the hoses and nozzle connections but when it's -30 out it's tough having the patience to take all the plastice bits off to get to them and persevere with unplugging. Now we have some warmer weather so hopefully I can tackle it again.