Does LR do heated washers for a DII? My motor has the "winter pack", ie heated front screen, heated mirrors, heated seats, but not heated washers!
Having had to stop on the hard shoulder of the M6 twice today to clean the screen (with snow from the bonnet) of fine salt spray due to frozen washers I'm looking for something to unfreeze 'em in less than
2hrs that the heat from the engine seems to take. If LR don't do 'em are there any suitable and effective aftermarket kits? I don't know if it's just the jets freezing or the pipework as well.
I've tried that in the past without much success in maintaining functioning washers. -8C min last night and -3C now so not that keen on going outside.
Another problem is that when the temp gets to 0C or there abouts the wipers don't flex enough to touch the screen, old stiff rubber I thought. New LR blades but still have the problem. B-( I suspect the pivot at the arm base is gunged up or just simply stiff.
I've found that this is often due to the blades freezing to the bent-over bits they're supposed to slide through. The tiniest smear of Vaseline on the parts that slide relative to each other as the blades flex can be enough to prevent this from happening - presumably by excluding water. Must try the same trick around the washer nozzles - I suspect some of the "frozen washers" problems are caused by water or snow freezing over them rather than the washer fluid itself. Keep the Vaseline away from the edges of the blades and the screen, of course.
...and Autolycus spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...
I've had this problem several times recently, and the only time I can remember it happening on any car. The pivoty bits on the ends of the wiper arms freeze, and the wiper blade retains the curve it took up at rest, meaning that the blades only wipe the top and bottom bits of the sweep. The only cure is to get out and give the wiper arms some serious gym work (bend up, bend down ... and stop) to free up the pivoty joints. I wasted a whole tin of de-icer the other day before I realised this.
There was a post on one of the LR web sites some time ago that suggested extending the screen wash flexi pipe and winding it around the heating pipes or the radiator inlet hose. This in effects heats the water / fluid in the screen wash as it travels to your screen. Obviously it wouldnt be hot from the start but it would overcome the problem outlined in the original post.
I have been threatening to do it for ages but havent got around to it yet so I can not vouch for its effectivness. It also occurs to me that the RR has a heated headlight wash. Some owner may enlighten us as to how that is achieved.
BTW I have just returned from Sweeden (brrrrrrrrrr) and they dont seem to have any problem with screen wash. There they use it undiluted and it dosent seem to freeze.
I've also had a google and found very little, which suggests to me that heated jets don't solve the problem. Indeed I did nip out today and poured in as much washer fluid as I had (only about a litre in a 6 litre reservior) and felt the pipework. It felt decidedly "crunchy", I guess the whole lot freezes, so you'd need to heat all the pipe work as well. It's cheaper and easier to up the concentration of washer fluid...
I also gave the lower pivot a squirt of WD40 (I know but it was that or PlusGas, at least WD40 has some lubricant in it...). Didn't seem to make much difference to the speed at which the blade would hit the windscreen though. I'll also bear in mind the little slidy bits and iceing up, I did manipulate them and they didn't appear to be frozen or stiff.
This has just started happening to both mine and my sisters cars today too!. I've never seen it before. It was annoying - finally got the washers defrosted and working and then the wipers wouldnt wipe!
Either theyve changed what they make wiper blades out of so theyre more prone to it or its just been colder than usual. I can't remember the last time it was this cold for so long.
I've just been driving my 90 round the alps for a couple of weeks snowboarding and it was down to at least -18 at times. I topped my washer bottle up with undiluted winter screenwash after using most of the existing mix on the way down from Rotterdam. I reckon mine must have been 75% screenwash. After that it didn't freeze. Obviously its worth checking your nozzles are clear of snow/ice before you set off even if its undiluted.
Just wish I had headlamp, mirror and side windows washers too. It was only when I'd driven inside an unlit avalanche shield that I realised how filthy my lights had got!
Funny I was just thinking back to my Mini Se7en club days there was an attachment that fitted on the heater hose and routed the washer pipe through a coil which sat in the coolant ensuring very hot screenwashers not seen it for yonks along with Clearalex powder that was the dogs danglies used by the works rally teams mixed with alcohol to prevent freezing cracking stuff Derek
a series of coils of the 6mm diameter flexible garden irrigation hose around one of main engine to radiator hoses can do a fine job into heating the washer fluid before it reaches the washer jets for the windscreen. It is best to use the one feeding water from the engine to the radiator since there is no thermostat there to limit the flow.
Alternatively you can wrap a series of coils around the exhaust downpipe but you will have to use a copper tube and then heat resistant silicone hose in order to take the feed from the washer bottle and the supply to the windscreen washers.
Even though we do not have such a serious cold weather problem here in Greece we use this system since hot water is MUCH more effective when cleaning bugs and flies off the windscreen is required. It also tends work much better into cleaning mud and dirty water.
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Heated washer jets were fitted into several high specs RaRo Classic LSE vehicles and they tend to appear on a regular basis on e-bay. Alternatively try looking at a dismantler specialised on RaRos.
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Fitting headlamp washers on a Defender is not that difficult also. You can use the standard Discovery series 1 (1989 up to 1994 are a little different from 1995 up to 1998 ones but they can both be adapted to fit by cutting their face to the bumper or fitting a home made adapter so that they mate with the Defender's flat bumper. You will also have to drill a hole on the Defender's bumper. Apart from that you can either use a washer bottle from a Range Rover Classic (again) or adapt the system so that it borrows its water supply directly from the windscreen washers hose (using a T shaped connector). Heated water is also more effective for the headlamp washers.
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Another option (but more complicated and electricity dependent) is to fit a heated coil around the water supply hose to the washers. Such electrically heated "blankets" are available from any store selling electrical resistance heating elements (for electric irons, heated mirrors etc) You can also use the more easy to find 12V electric heaters for baby feeding bottles.
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Take care and Happy New Year Pantelis Giamarellos LAND ROVER CLUB OF GREECE
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