Rear window washer frozen -- you should clean too?
Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:25 pm
My rear windshield washer hadn't been working when it was cold. Since I've only had my Delica for 6 months, I figured it was because it shipped over from Japan with water in the reservoir instead of washer fluid. But then I noticed that it got worse, and last week it would work at -5.
So on the weekend when it was nice I decided I would completely remove all the fluid and fill up with -35 washer fluid. I popped the inside trim panel, (carefully pry on the side) removed the filler hose, and stuck in a big syringe and hose in there. Imagine my surprise at finding lots of algae floating in there. That's was "freezing" the washer since it isn't designed for pumping algae.
So, I pumped it all out, filled it with hot water, pumped it out again,did that a couple of times until what came out was clean.
I'm guessing that in Japan, just like in most of Europe, they just use water. And given how rarely one uses the rear washer most of the year, the algae just grew. So, if you haven't had your Delica long, you might want to consider doing the same.
Just to "hijack" another thread, perhaps biocide in the washer tank would be more useful than in the fuel tank
So on the weekend when it was nice I decided I would completely remove all the fluid and fill up with -35 washer fluid. I popped the inside trim panel, (carefully pry on the side) removed the filler hose, and stuck in a big syringe and hose in there. Imagine my surprise at finding lots of algae floating in there. That's was "freezing" the washer since it isn't designed for pumping algae.
So, I pumped it all out, filled it with hot water, pumped it out again,did that a couple of times until what came out was clean.
I'm guessing that in Japan, just like in most of Europe, they just use water. And given how rarely one uses the rear washer most of the year, the algae just grew. So, if you haven't had your Delica long, you might want to consider doing the same.
Just to "hijack" another thread, perhaps biocide in the washer tank would be more useful than in the fuel tank
