When I operate the windscreen washer on my Honda civic the blades will wipe the screen 2 or 3 times before the washer fluid reaches the screen. If the screen is dirty this can only scratch the screen before it cleans it.
I used to drive Mitsubishi Galants before changing to Honda Civics and the wipers on those would not operate until fluid had reached the screen.
Is there any kind of modification I can do to the system ie. non return valves to stop the fluid draining back into the reservoir or electronic delay perhaps?
Regards,
Malcolm.
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Hopefully, someone will know how this car is wired - and may prove me wrong. I would assume that the washer stalk (if that's what the car has) operates the wipers and washers via one or two relays. I can't see any logical reason why there should be an electrical time delay between the two.
Therefore, it seems most likely that the fluid drains back into the reservoir after the pump stops. Try a quick test - if you get the washers working, release the washer stalk and observe that the washer stops instantly (the wiper may continue for its customary few sweeps) and then immediately re-activate it. Does it squirt instantly, or have you still got the same delay. This should eliminate the possibility of an elctrical delay.
If it's drain back then non-return valves should cure it. I remember my son's Punto had a problem with its non-return valves. They were quite fragile diaphragms and had rotted (the car was less than two years old).
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Someone complained about this with Passats. But I have a sludged up reservoir on my Mondeo which means very little fluid gets to the wipers, yet the screen is not scratching.
HJ
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Annoying Vectra (common) fault.....application of washer stalk will automatically give you four cycles of the wipers and spray water at the time but only if
1. there is water in the container
or
2 the b****y system feels like it
My 1978 Cav and every Vauxhall since got it right. Not this one though.
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Buy a Rover!! They have an 'anti dry wipe' screenwash system and it works very well - dousing the screens front and rear (as required) with screenwash before the wipers operate.
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Does anyone know how I can get an intermittent wipe on the rear wiper of a pug 405 estate.
It doesn't collect enough water to need the wiper on the whole time and turning it on and off is a distraction.
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Brian,
This was a popular Halfords "Saturday purchase/Sunday fit" in the 70s and 80s before screen wipers had it as standard. If I remember the unit was behind the dash with just a knob on show...if you understand me.
Wonder if they have any old stock left?
David
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I have a 405 estate and have the same complaint.
I went to a breakers yard and "liberated" a time delay relay from a Vauxhall Astra ( I knew which relay it was on an Astra as I used to have one). I haven't wired it in yet though. I intend to add an extra switch to allow either intermittent or continuous operation, as in very heavy rain it does need to be on all the time.
Mike Humpherson.
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David
Thanks for that. I will have a sniff around our local Halfords, although they are all chrome plated and strip-lights now - unlikely to hold old stock.
The other, similar, useful item I DID get from Halfords for a previous car was a courtesy light delay which clipped into the door switch and dropped into the pillar for those cars which did not have that as standard. I haven't seen those on sale for some time: most modern cars have a delay as standard I suppose so there is not the demand.
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I know Maplin Electronics used to stock a kit to make an intermittent wiper kit. I think I've got a circuit diagram somewhere for one if it'll be of any use?
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Brian,
Our Halfords has gone all "Max Power" now, loads of tuning goodies. Car park is full of £300 Novas with £500 alloys!
Give them their due though the normal parts range is perhaps better than ever.
Just have to watch out for a crowd holding back aforementioned Nova while the driver spins his tyres away in a parking space...why do they do that?
David
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Thanks,Mark. I'll bear that in mind if I can't get a ready made job.
As it happens, Maplins is fairly local.
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Malcom,
Not much help to you but I must tell you that when motorways first opened in the late 50s windscreen washers were an unknown luxury.
This presented problems as going down the M1 on a wet road used to splatter the windscreen in minutes with dirt, making visibility almost zilch as the wipers wouldn,t move it and you couldn't stop to clean it.
The genius of the British for inventiveness came to the fore and we used to take washing up liquid bottles mixed with water with us. Periodically we would lean out of the cab or car, reach round the front and spray it on the windscreen and then use the wipers. Wonderful invention.
Is it to late to patent it or once again has it already been taken up by the Japs or Yanks.
Alvin Booth
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This is exactly what happened over Christmas on the M6 - everyone, but everyone had frozen washers and the hard shoulder was full of people cleaning their windscreens every few miles. I think it says a lot about the way we've changed as a nation that the majority were cleaning the screen with mineral water. I was using snow, which was lying around in abundance. Incidentally it was so cold that there was frost on the inside of the car even after an hour of driving with the heater on.
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Brian,
I had one of those aftermarket delay wipers on my Sprite in 1974. Worked well and you could adjust the delay as you wanted. Same on my 93 Nissan Maxima but fitted as standard. By co-incidence I fitted one of those interior light delays to a 82 XR2. Also worked well. My opinion for what it's worth, is put the wipers on slow constant and then squirt. YOU can see when the screen is clean better than any machine.
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Reminds me of a trip across the Peak District one night from Manchester airport in a taxi where the driver proceeded to explain in such detail (you know what taxi drivers are like) about how he used his fog lights to pick out the verges more clearly. Yet every so often he would swerve from side to side to try and slop what little water he had in the washer bottle so the the washers could pick it up and squirt a few drops on the screen. Eventually it got so bad that when a garage loomed up I had to order him to stop the car, go and get some water, while I cleaned his headlights. Needless to say after that, for some strange reason, he did not need his fog lights any more, not that they were needed in the first place.
Again, needless to say, after another trip with the same firm where every control was either full on/off, including brakes and gas, my custom is now elsewhere.
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