Hello,

I've just found out that my cars screenwash jets are not working. They were working a couple of days ago, but now only one jet sprays out a tiny amount for every 10 seconds of the switch being held. I can hear the motor and it's pretty loud when outside operating the switch. I'm not sure what to do about this. Is there any liquid that I can use to remove the dirt sucked in (which is probably what has happened) or is there a way of accesing the pipes and blowing out some of the dirt?

The Car is a Ford Focus 1.6L LX 2004

Thanks,

Stephen

too much soap was my problem try to keep toppin up with just water til it balances out worked for me..

too much soap was my problem try to keep toppin up with just water til it balances out worked for me..

ah yes thank you. I will try this there is just the problem of making it too full then not being able to try other fluids (I herd white vinegar can work)

Forgot to add the washer bottle is all foamy and the little water that does come out of the jets was all foamy too, I dont know if that affects it at all

the water will dilute any concentration, you might find it handy to flush the bottle, put a hose into the bottom of the filler bottle, and flood it out at a wuick flow rate, if there is any guff in there, hopefully the sater pressure will disturb it, raise it to the top and push it out. That might at least get it away from the pump.

the water will dilute any concentration, you might find it handy to flush the bottle, put a hose into the bottom of the filler bottle, and flood it out at a wuick flow rate, if there is any guff in there, hopefully the sater pressure will disturb it, raise it to the top and push it out. That might at least get it away from the pump.

Thanks, if it overfills, and spills, it will spill through the engine bay etc, near the computer and battery, is it alright to spill out like that?

I am pretty sure it Is, I have done it once before on my own and it never had any problems, if you can drain the bottle by running it through the jets, and then flood from empty, then try drain it again, see if that helps. I dont think there are any major organs around there, just check for the alternator, but as long as you dont get over excited with the hosepipe and wash theentire engine bay, it shouldnt be a problem. Take a look around, make sure there are no naked electric connections before you do so.

I am pretty sure it Is, I have done it once before on my own and it never had any problems, if you can drain the bottle by running it through the jets, and then flood from empty, then try drain it again, see if that helps. I dont think there are any major organs around there, just check for the alternator, but as long as you dont get over excited with the hosepipe and wash theentire engine bay, it shouldnt be a problem. Take a look around, make sure there are no naked electric connections before you do so.

I'm not sure if I can drain the entire bottle out right now, if thats what you mean. This is because i'd probably burn the motor out as VERY little actually comes out of only one of the jets

could use an old trick...

Buy some cheap flexipipe (the sort used for goldfish tanks for oxyegen) put one end deep into the screenwash reservoir, and dangle the other end next to the wheel.

(this isnt the nicest bit) if you now sit on the floor next to your wheel, and suck through until you get some water come through (or if you can somehow create a vacuum around the pipe)then it will start to drain the tank, if you now leave it dangling next to the floor, it will drain the tank.

If you dont want to suck through the pipe (cant blame you) then view this site - it shows you how to convert a bike pump to create a vacuum, and if you attach this to the other end of the line, it will suck through the water for you!

The other option is that you could go under the car to the reservoir, and then disconnect the pipes leading to the pump. this will just drain through.

could use an old trick...

Buy some cheap flexipipe (the sort used for goldfish tanks for oxyegen) put one end deep into the screenwash reservoir, and dangle the other end next to the wheel.

(this isnt the nicest bit) if you now sit on the floor next to your wheel, and suck through until you get some water come through (or if you can somehow create a vacuum around the pipe)then it will start to drain the tank, if you now leave it dangling next to the floor, it will drain the tank.

If you dont want to suck through the pipe (cant blame you) then view this site - it shows you how to convert a bike pump to create a vacuum, and if you attach this to the other end of the line, it will suck through the water for you!

The other option is that you could go under the car to the reservoir, and then disconnect the pipes leading to the pump. this will just drain through.

haha thanks, that's pretty good. I don't really want to take it to the garage over something that's fairly minor so ill try whats been listed above and see if that works, if not then im running out of things to do :S

Hope it helps, I would say if it doesnt work, you might want to take the water pipes out and check for blockage, could be a simple pressure wash to clean them! let us know how it goes!

The other thing to check is that the jets themselves are not blocked, but taking them apart, is probably more difficult than flooding your water bottle ;)

Hope it helps, I would say if it doesnt work, you might want to take the water pipes out and check for blockage, could be a simple pressure wash to clean them! let us know how it goes!

The other thing to check is that the jets themselves are not blocked, but taking them apart, is probably more difficult than flooding your water bottle ;)

haha thanks, yeah, this is my first car, so I really have no idea about these things. I didn't even know you could take the water pipes out and even how! Last weekend I did stick a pin into the jets on the bonnet and it didn't seem to work. I guess it's some sort of filter or dirt in the pipes. I just dont want to damage anything lol

Lol, start simple and work your way up, flood then check the pipes!

Lol, start simple and work your way up, flood then check the pipes!

yeah, ill do that first. Check back here on the weekend and see if i've messed it up or fixed it lol.

Just tried filling up with pure water, didnt work. However, I didnt overflow it and let it spill out because there seemed to be cables near where it would spill? What should I do now!?

Anyone?

Oops, first post didnt get through! oh well!

I havent been on over the weekend due to lack of time!

I would say fill it up slowly. I overflowed mine by 1 litre of water, slow overflow, and it spat over the top, and down the inside of the wheel arch and wet my wheels! I am pretty sure its s a seperate compartment altogether, so it should not even touch the engine bay. Do a slow overflow, before you blast the bottle!

Oops, first post didnt get through! oh well!

I havent been on over the weekend due to lack of time!

I would say fill it up slowly. I overflowed mine by 1 litre of water, slow overflow, and it spat over the top, and down the inside of the wheel arch and wet my wheels! I am pretty sure its s a seperate compartment altogether, so it should not even touch the engine bay. Do a slow overflow, before you blast the bottle!

Lol, thats ok. I'm not sure if the problem is dirt because the bottle has been filled up to the brim and I could not see any dirt in the filler cap at all, even when moving my finger around the bottom of the bottle.

How much do you reckon it would cost to fix? I dont have that much money as im a student so it may become a bit of a problem on the money side. Thats why im trying to find ny possible way of fixing this problem!

Thanks,

Stephen

Could be anything, it could be a blocked jet, blocked tube leading to jet, bad pump etc. I think the best thing to do is get the car off two wheels and see if you can remove the tubes leading from the washer bottle, to the pump and see if they are clear through. if the pipes are clear, it could be a job for Ford to look at the pump, I would expect they need to remove it and bench test it to make sure that they have the correct voltage. other than that, does either one of the jets squirt better than the other? if they are both poor, it could well be the pump...

One washer jet did seem to give out more water than the rest. (Well, one actually gave out a little bit of water, the rest gave out nothing) I think, it could be the filter (I herd there is one) As the back washers will not give out any water at all either.

The problem with doing it myself is that I dont have the tools and I think i'll mess something up in the process of trying to fix it! So I really want to avoid touching things that I dont reall understand yet, I might give it ago if it was easy to do, but removing the wheel then looking behind the wheel arch doesnt sound easy to me!

If I remember rightly its just a couple of torx screws, you can pick up a cheap pack of these screwdrivers for about 7/8 pound from a cheap shop. all you do is unscrew, peal back, play, and put back to gether again!

If you cant do it, then you cant do it, but you might want to get it checked out. its a pain in the ace if you cant see! I tried driving around at winter, unfortunately the roads kept throwing guff on my windscreen, and the jets were frozen.

I had to pull over every 6 or 7 miles, to squirt the windscreen with de-icer to clean the window to drive on!

If I remember rightly its just a couple of torx screws, you can pick up a cheap pack of these screwdrivers for about 7/8 pound from a cheap shop. all you do is unscrew, peal back, play, and put back to gether again!

If you cant do it, then you cant do it, but you might want to get it checked out. its a pain in the ace if you cant see! I tried driving around at winter, unfortunately the roads kept throwing guff on my windscreen, and the jets were frozen.

I had to pull over every 6 or 7 miles, to squirt the windscreen with de-icer to clean the window to drive on!

jeebowhite, thanks for your help. I think it's fixed now for the time being, as a friends dad knew about this problem and knew how to fix it so I brought it along and sure enough, it got fixed! This all happened pretty quickly, so I wasn't able to post this quickly to say that it could get fixed.

The washer jets now push out a lot more water than before, continuously, and the back also works well now. However, there is one washer jet that is not working too well at the moment, but i'll try fixing this with the same method that fixed it. There is also a awful smell when the water comes out, I guess it's just mould. What he did was open up the pipe and just blow into the jet pipe, just had to keep cycling the washer motor for a while untill the water started coming out.

But thanks for your help, maybe later ill need to do this as well.

Thanks,

suddste

jeebowhite, thanks for your help. I think it's fixed now for the time being, as a friends dad knew about this problem and knew how to fix it so I brought it along and sure enough, it got fixed! This all happened pretty quickly, so I wasn't able to post this quickly to say that it could get fixed.

The washer jets now push out a lot more water than before, continuously, and the back also works well now. However, there is one washer jet that is not working too well at the moment, but i'll try fixing this with the same method that fixed it. There is also a awful smell when the water comes out, I guess it's just mould. What he did was open up the pipe and just blow into the jet pipe, just had to keep cycling the washer motor for a while untill the water started coming out.

But thanks for your help, maybe later ill need to do this as well.

Thanks,

suddste

i usually fill the bottle to the brim then blow mate as someone cycles the jets

i usually fill the bottle to the brim then blow mate as someone cycles the jets

yeah, I think thats what was done B)

Sounds good! Im a bit confused what he did? so they brimmed the bottle, and then "blew into the pipes" - out of curiosity which pipes where they? certainly seems a top tip!