Re: [All] Windshield washer nozzle cleaning

["Ron Buchalski" <rbuchals@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter,

I'm not motivated enough to pull the hood liner on my E36 M3 to verify this 
but...

I had a similar problem on my E30 318i.  It turned out to be a white valve 
that splits the washer feeds.  I think it has a valve to prevent washer 
fluid from flowing out of the hose and back into the reservoir, so you'll 
have windshield washer fluid as soon as you pull the lever.

Anyhow, when this valve gets clogged, it will inhibit fluid flow to the 
washer jets.  They don't cost much, and are easy to replace.

The question is: Does the E36 have one of these valves in the windshield 
washer fluid path?  Sounds like you're the guinea pig to pull off the hood 
liner and find out...

If you decide to pull off your underhood liner, check/replace this valve and 
find out that it fixed the problem, post a note to the list.


- -rb

>
>Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 11:30:46 -0400
>From: Peter Rossato <rossato@domain.elided>
>Subject: [All] Windshield washer nozzle cleaning
>
>This is a mundane and generic question but your help is welcome on even the 
>most trivial of problems.  The windshield wash spray on my coupe is very 
>weak (only reaches the bottom third of the windshield).  The spray used to 
>be weak on the driver's side only, but now the passenger side is also weak. 
>  I believe this is a result of clogging of the nozzles, though 
>deterioration of the pump could be a possibility.
>
>I tried using a pin to clean out the RH nozzle, but that had no effect. In 
>the past I've been told to blow out the hose with compressed air. So I 
>could remove the clamp at the wash tank and spray compressed air through 
>the hose to the nozzles.  The alternative to access the nozzles more 
>directly on my E36 involves fairly extensive disassembly of the hood liner 
>.  Have any of you shady tree types handled this before, if so how?
>
>Since the RH side spray is now weak as well, I suspect that another
>possibility is that the pump output pressure was enough to handle only the 
>closest nozzle (RH) but that as it weakened further it is now cant even 
>handle the other one.   The car has 100K miles, so that's a component that 
>may not owe me much more in the life expectancy department.  I'm trying on 
>the fly to recall the scant fluid dynamics knowledge I picked up in 
>college, and I'm not sure the dying pump theory holds.  I still think it's 
>a clogging issue, but what have others experienced?
>
>Peter Rossato
>'94 325 is "VDERZEN"


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

------------------------------