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In the spirit of learning more about my '89 C4, I removed the frunk carpet to give it a good cleaning and to see what lurks beneath. On the passenger side I discovered the reservoir for the intensive wiper system, which needs to be filled with special silicone (?) fluid. I'm learning that this was an optional item. It appears to me that the nasty brown fluid I found inside is probably a 1989 vintage, so I decided to remove as much as possible. Which prompted a couple of thoughts:
1. My owners manual shows an illustration of a rocker switch vertically on the dash near the clock that is supposed to activate this intensive washer. Well--my dash is lacking said switch. So I have no idea how to even use this feature. And perhaps this is true for the previous owners, which could explain why the fluid looks ancient.
Since I have no idea how to activate the system, I can't use the pump to evacuate the remaining fluid at the bottom of the tank. So I'm wondering if anyone has removed this system entirely?
I had it, removed it. The original product was most likely a silicone remover (not sure about that one though).
Removing it implies simplifying the washer tubing setup, which makes sense if you have a good diagram of the tubing without the intensive setup. There are one way valves in the setup, which are cheap and by now most likely clogged/ineffective.
You can also decide to use the intensive bottle/pump as your main setup after cleaning it, and remove the heavy reservoir in the front wing, such as in the RS. You'll need to reroute the wiring for the std pump for that, and bridge/deactivate the low level sensor.
See the post titled Windshield washer nozzles just updated today for a good diagram of the complete setup.
C'mon. Y'all are smarter than me when it comes to 964s. I've been looking at 964 dashes online, and most (not all) have the intensive washer rocker switch on the dash. So what happened to mine? Could it be a genuine "oops" from the factory? This is a pretty early '89, so were they still trying to figure things out?
Unless your dash fascia has been recovered, it is indeed an Oops from the factory. Witness the degraded fluid in the bottle (1989 vintage fluid?).
I would remove the speedometer and look for the relevant wires, unconnected.
I'd follow the wires from the pump in the bottle towards the dash.
Someone suggested that perhaps all 964s had the reservoir installed at the factory, but only those that paid for the option got the actual rocker switch in the dash. Seems a long shot theory, though.
Someone suggested that perhaps all 964s had the reservoir installed at the factory, but only those that paid for the option got the actual rocker switch in the dash. Seems a long shot theory, though.
VIN ends in 450673.
precursor to unlocking software modules upon payment. Visionaries!
Someone suggested that perhaps all 964s had the reservoir installed at the factory, but only those that paid for the option got the actual rocker switch in the dash. Seems a long shot theory, though.
Doubtful. OEM's don't install content that customers aren't paying for.
Best explanation for your car is it's simply a mis-build that didn't get caught and fixed at the factory.
I know this is a wicked old post - but you are looking at the wrong switch -- the one up between the gauges is the Headlight washer switch... the one underneath is the intensive washer switch.... nobody forgot anything - you don't have headlight washers....
12-10-2017, 03:24 PM
Intensive windshield washer option question
