Headlight Washers

I have a 2004 Carerra. According to the option list under the frunk it has listed a 288 code. It looks like that should be headlight washers. As far as I can tell, I don't have them. I can't see them nor do I have a switch on my wiper switch arm. Any idea what this 288 is? Thanks

The washers themselves may not be noticeable because they don't look like traditional ones. They are a round chrome disk on the headlight assembly that pops up to spray. To activate it you push the wiper arm forward.

Okay. I do have a chrome disk. I will try it. Thanks for the info. The manual shows a switch on the wiper arm on the bottom. I appreciate the response.

I may be vague on how to activate it but I'm pretty sure it's push the lever forward. I haven't used mine since I first bought the car so I can't quite remember.

I will mess with it tomorrow. The window sticker didn't say it had them. The option sticker is the only place that made me go hmmm. But I do have the chrome disks. Tnx

You can see the chrome disks from this pic.

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The headlights must be on for them to be activated by pushing the wiper lever forward. Do not activate them while moving more than 15 mph, they will catch some wind and blow right off.

No reason to mess with them especially when driving as stated above. I did once and one flew off.

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Are you sure? Something isn't right if yours blow off at >15mph. Bad repair? Faulty parts? Kids futzing with them? They are great to have, but useless unless they can be used at normal highway speeds.

I think the plastic may fatigue over time because when they 'blow off' it is just the chrome cap part, not the entire jet assembly. I'd love to know if a newly replaced set would stand up to highway speeds vs. ones that are 14 years old.

With all respect, I wouldn't use them even if they came with the car. I have personal experience with this one. Using them regularly, especially at highway speeds, turns them into mini-sand blasters that scratch the surface of the headlight enclosures. The chrome covers are prone to come off too. You're better offer just keeping the wind shield and headlight enclosure clean with a soft cloth. Cheers!

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....not to mention the damage the chrome caps do to your hood, windshield and roof as they bounce over the vehicle at 50MPH.

Hmmm. They sound worthless and possibly dangerous. I will test them but then probably never use them. Thanks all.

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You only drive 50 mph?! pffff... hahaha Tell the truth "FastM96"!

You can't just buy the cap if it flys off either. Entire washer nozzle needed. Useless feature imo, if your headlights get that dirty a simple spray isn't going to clean them anyway.

^^^ Amen to that thought!

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One of mine flew off without even using them. I was just throwing 15mph as an arbitrary low speed. I would never activate at highways speeds.

^^preach it brotha!

My '01 washers work great! Another case where newer isn't better.

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Okay sometimes I go a little faster. But that's how fast I was driving when both of mine blew off within the first 15 minutes of 996 ownership which didn't make me happy. I was fiddling with the trip computer, hit the wrong stalk and then lift-off - the chrome discs fired out of their coves and onto the highway landing somewhere in indigenous Detroit. Scared the **** out of me and then hit the SUV behind me, scaring the **** out of them I would have to think. Two for one.

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Gets my vote

+1 on everything said. Worthless option. When you lose the disk the whole spray assembly has to be replaced, which is easy but costs $80.

Thats strange cause I have tested mine a few times at 65mph without any issue. Works normal.

^^^Mine work too, but I'm not going to use them at 65 mph. In fact, I'm never using them. Windshield wipers, Yes. Windshield/headlight washers, No.

I didn't want them with a new build but they come with a package with dimming mirrors, heated seats and PDLS light system. If you chose the mirrors and heated seats only, it is still $500 more plus the very basic lights than the $620 option. Go figure. Will never use the washers. I had a Volvo with wiper blades on the headlights. Really ridiculous.

When HID headlights were approved for use in Europe, the regulators fretted over the brighter more intense light output blinding oncoming drivers. Some design features help mitigate this: A clean sharp light-cut-off to keep all the low beam on the ground and good optics to prevent small shards of light from escaping the intended beam and hitting grandma�s ancient eyes. Mud splatters on the outside of the headlight will disperse some of the light as glare, again blinding oncoming drivers. Headlight washer/cleaners will keep the headlights within their design spec. Euro drivers must demonstrate knowledge of this and when to use the washers in order to pass their driver license test. Here in North America even the license examiners are ignorant of this.

I think the whole idea of headlight washers is a crap idea in my opinion. Unless you have a 4x4 and go mudding a lot, I can't see how they are useful. Talk about dispersed light... both of my Volvos have suffered scratched enclosures from using washers on a regular basis... you should see them... looks like a cat had a clawing conniption on both of them. Fortunately, headlight enclosures only cost $200 each on the Volvos unlike the $2000 each on the Porsche.

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True with today's 911 because our headlights are swept back and aerodynamic. They are still included out of tradition IMO. The older 911 with the bug-eye euro headlight trims did get crap stuck in them. Back in the day you could turn the fixed nozzles that stuck out of the front bumper on the 930/911 to point to the side. Then you could shoot a 20' stream to the side on cars as you passed them or on the rare occasion, they were passing you.

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This is also my thought process. For anyone that has a porsche, most likely will keep it clean and wash it regularly. However, for those of us that live in snow climates, this can be extremely helpful in washing off the salt and thus restoring the light output. But of course, how many Porsche drivers(other than SUV) drives their car when it's snowing outside and there is salt? I've deleted mine to reduce my drag coefficient by 0.0003 so that I can increase my fuel mileage by 0.0000005 mpg.

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Wow, you�re right, wiper blades on soft polycarbonate headlamp covers doesn�t seem like a good idea. The only cars I�ve seen with wipers were old Mercedes and Volvos etc. with the old school rectangular glass headlights. Once cars changed to the stylish plastic covers, they adopted the high pressure squirters. Reams of info are out there for your edification (NHTSA et al) on this subject. It became a hot topic when cheap poorly executed ricer car HID conversions became available.

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I'll expand on alpine's comments, too, since you are so errant in your thinking. My story about winter driving doesn't include a Porsche. I was traveling with a co. president on a day when several inches of wet snow had fallen quickly and turned to slush. Road crews weren't out, or couldn't keep up. The air temp fell dramatically as night fell, but the slush remained. So the slush tossed up by passing cars/cars I passed froze on the car and headlights. The very regular use of headlight washers allowed the headlights to penetrate the darkness, and not insignificantly, kept me from stopping on the side of the road to clear the frozen slush off the headlights. I used about a gallon of washer fluid in one day, traveled unimpeded and as safely as possible in difficult, if not dangerous conditions.

Naw Steve, errant thinking is driving a Porsche 996 (that only has about 5 inch ground clearance) in nasty salt and sand infested snow. Ok ok ok... I get it, some folks drive their 911s in snow, but come on... don't you know that driving your Porsche 996 in salty snow will cause IMS catastrophic failure? oppsss.. sorry, errant thinking again. I'm just messin' with you! Seriously, to each his own and if you like to blast pretty pink colored unicorn semen out of those fancy chrome capped washers on your $4000 set of HID Porsche headlight enclosures, by all means, go right ahead. But I've learn my lesson... don't use'm. But of course, I don't even drive my 996 in rain much less snow and so I'm good. However, I have gone through two sets of Volvo enclosures and I'm not gonna spend the mega bucks it takes to replace the Porsche versions. I know, I know... some people do the headlight restoration, but that doesn't work perfectly either and in many cases makes the enclosure look worse.

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Huh?

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(((Loud voice))) That's good to know Steve!!! (Snicker)

I use my headlight washers in Fla often. They are very helpful during Love Bug season, ( Love Bugs are flying fornicating while flying bags of acid filled sh***) I use my washers after driving through swarms of bugs on the bridges over swampland and also in the aftermath of rain where its just enough to kick up wet road road schmutz. Used them up to 90+ MPH. Still there, and just fine.