Rover 200. Screen Wash.

Can you hear the pump run? If no, find and check for a blown fuse. If yes, use a pin to clear any obstruction from the jet. If no good, post back.

Chris

if the pump works, pull off a pipe and see if water flows, if it does clean the jets, if not pull the pump out and clean the filter. if the pump doesn't run then check for power and if there is power replace the pump, if no power check the fuse, then the switch

Been here with this, and not obvious either.

This is assuming the pump works and you have checked for blockages, if you look on the underside of the bonnet you can see where the screen wash supply pipe comes up from the bottle. On the 200/25, both front and rear are supplied from the same bottle which is mounted inside the drivers side wing just behind the front plastic bumper module. The two pump motors are stacked one above the other, the lower pump is the front screen wash, the assumption is that if you run out of rear wash first it will be an obvious indication that your bottles need topping up plus you still have some reserve for the front screen.

Anyhow, back to the front. Rover, then BMW, used plastic moulded T and right angle pieces to connect the feed line to the squirters. They have a nasty habit of splitting down the moulding edge so that when you use the washers you get a nice wet engine bay and nowt out of the squirters. To test, run the washer with the bonnet up and get somebody to watch. The plastic used is very piss poor and rather nasty. They also have a nasty habit of blocking in the right angles so pulling the pipes apart and testing each section is advisable.

To fix, a trip to your local pet shop for a meter of plastic air line and some assorted connectors. Your rear washer has a similar problem in that the hose hardens, then parts at the point where it runs through the flexi boot into the tailgate. Usually you can see a puddle of screen wash dripping down by the rear passenger side wheel as it finds it's own way out via the insides of the car metalwork or you can see rust around the point where the flexi boot plugs into the bodyshell. Again, replacing the damaged section with new is the only cure as replacing the whole run from front to rear is near nigh impossible. The hose (slightly transparent blue in colour) fitted by Rover/BMW is really cheap and nasty stuff, it has a habit of going brittle in cold weather. The build quality on late 200s into the

One other area of problem is where the rear washer line plugs onto the rear wash motor unit. There is an internal right angle inside the motor where the fluid is directed 90 degrees up through the centre of the motor spindle to the squirter head. This right angle has a nasty habit of blocking right on the corner and I have cleared this out with nothing more that a piece of coat hanger, grinding out the muck. Again, to test and assuming that the tailgate pipework is intact, pop the hinged squirter cover off the wiper spindle and then run the rear washer motor while watching for a large goosh of water going in the air.

Rdgs

PDH

If the pump runs, go for the filter in the pipe at the bottom of the water bottle. Also check the nozzles are not blocked. Next trick is to pour really hot but not boiling water in to the bottle and leave for a few minutes. Then try the pump again. Do this a few times and it takes the sludge from the filter and pump. I had to do it last week. The problem is caused by adding screenwash that is crap. The supermarket brands tend to have a water softener and foam up. Only use a minimal amount of diluted solution.

I don't know how the Rover washers work, but if operating the washer also automatically sets off the wipers I find this annoying and disable the function from the relay unit. In this s***ty weather with a lot of dirty spray being thrown up from the vehicles in front, I prefer to do a squirt of wash followed by just 1 swipe of the wiper which is usually enough to clear. Instead of the obligatory half a dozen swipes which often ends up smearing the kak back onto the windscreen!

A good one is the Mondeo. Squirt, wipes three times. Waits a sec until prime opportunity for smudginess, then it wipes that annoying one more time.

And then you get the dribble down the centre of the screen where the wiper arcs meet if you do it going slow enough or stationary! LOL

Chris

That's why some cars wipe one more time after a certain delay if the speed is or falls below a certain point...