Windscreen Wiper Washer Jets - Failure - Ideas Please?

Hi Guys Car going well and still getting lots of stares (Usually cos of the fact that the car is so dusty, unusual for central London, must get it cleaned today!) Sadly the front wiper nozzles/pumps/jets have stopped working suddenly, mid flow! It went from a gush to nothing! The tank is full and not leaking The passenger jet is dry when i try it, the drivers one is "fizzing" a tiny amount of bubbly water out, just round the hole! Any ideas? Also, why does the rear wiper NOT have a washer jet, it DOES need one, because cos sometimes ones window is dirty and you need to clean it when driving when its NOT raining etc, obv when raining not a problem!? Kind Regards Edward

On the early cars like yours the washer jets can be taken to pieces to clean them. There is a small rubber tube in there which acts as a one-way valve. If you strip the jets down and take off the tube you will find all sorts of gunk in there. The earlier jets are adjustable too, whereas the later ones are fixed, and you can't get them to bits either. (Sorry, no diagram!)

Now your symptoms description doesn't necessarily match this fault (you appear to have "foaming" pressure at one) - but my screen wash pipe blew off twice. (OPC fixed with tie wrap or jubilee clip the second time) Quick check: does the car leak soapy water out near passenger front wheel arch? If not, could it be a blockage in pump. Sorry can't be any more help. As for rear wiper. Well the T&Cs get round that one! - the manual states only use the rear wiper when it is properly wet (and probably mostly clean of debris!) I suppose on a technical level, the rear screen is big for a rear window and very shallow sloped. On a Porsche the wiper area is 50% more area per degree of sweep and much more upright than a hatch. (18"^2/22"^2) The angle means less weight is applied to a hatch, where as the much larger blade and arm assemble lies heavily on the Porsche screen The steeper hatch angle assists in better run-on and run-off also. By "run-on" I mean the time to decent water lubrication to the screen and blade frontal area. In theory the new design "spray" or "fan" nozzles introduced to new cars over the past few years may better cater for this spread, but the water delivery speed and volume would still need to be better than a hatchback. They could copy Peugeot (and TVR, who used Pug wipers) and have the water jets built into the blade assembly, hence water is always *just* at the blade/dirt interface. Finally, perhaps a rear nozzle would push the OPC warranty over the edge into £2K territory!

Thanks Richard, will have a fiddle, and tips for removing them from the mounting etc? Kind Regards Edward

Thanks GT4 will have a look at the points yyou have raised too! will let you know! i need to do more fiddling etc good points re: the rear wiper too, thanks for this kind regards Edward

From memory (and it was a long time ago) it was all very straightforward. You have to disconnect the supply for the heaters, but I'm sure you will be able to wing it.

Had a peek down there, as you say the screen wash pipe had fallen off, i put it back on again (it was a bit loose going on) and it worked for a bit then fell off again, i have ordered some cable ties etc! cheers guys! Edward

A-ha! - so the nozzle foam was a red herring? (not a common phrase I'll grant you!)

Yes not quite sure how that happened as it was definately fizzing, but totally unconnected when i looked under, bizarre!!! Thanks again guys Edward