nile13

Well, I've made it 4K miles from the left to the right cost but am still about 400 miles from home. And whatddaya know, the windshield washers 9and headlight washers) quit working on me. The bottle is full and overflowing after I dumped almost 2 gallons of washer fluid in there.
Looking at the wires unders the hood it appears that one or two of them are pinched and possibly broken. There's a red, purple, brown and brown/white wires going to the connector. The pinch is fairly deep under the cowling so I can't examine it in 35 degree weather. The washer fuse, however is definitely OK.
Questions:
- Can someone tell me which wire is which and which needs to be fed 12 volts to get the pump going?
- Where exactly is the pump?
- What else am i missing or should look into?

Thanks in advance for all your help. As a reward I promise to publish the diary of the 2-week trip with some pretty interesting pictures.

STLPCA

Mike
I'm at work w/o access to a wiring schematic so can't help w/wiring other than red should be hot ("+"). The pumps (windshield & lights) are located at the front of the washer tank which can be easily seen & is accessed by pulling the left (driver's side) headlight. A circuit tester & a friend to activate the pumps should determine if you've got a power problem. BTW, what wires are you referring to that may be crimped? Where are they located?

A simpler cause of your problem may be frozen lines from the tank pickup to the squirter nozzles. Was there water in the tank before you filled it w/the proper windshield washer antifreeze? If you're 400 miles from home, it's well below freezing. Just a thought.

nile13

Dan, thanks!
The wires are at crimped at the hinge of the front trunk. It's the harness that foes to the white molex connector next to the driver's side squirter. Which is a strange place for a harness to go to, I'm not sure that it's the wiring for the pump.
The chronology is this:
1. Put a gallon of windshield fluid into reservoir while still in California as it was showing the warning light. Got the low fluid light about 2-3 days later while still in worm climate. Strange, as I used the squirter maybe 4-5 times. It worked OK even with low fluid light on.
2. Got stuck in snow in Virginia, pretty cold, below freezing. Driving to DC the next day had the low level light on again and nothing coming out of nozzles. Fun.
3. Put a gallon of fluid in late yesterday in the dark. Light stays on, no squirts.
4. Put another half a gallon in today, light goes away, fluid overflows, so it's full. But no squirts through either windshield nozzles or headlight nozzles with lights on.

This is all a bit weird. Yes, it's cold here, but I would not think it's frozen, as it's not water in there. If the pump and level reader are the same unit like they are in BMW, that explains some but not all that's happened. Is there a secondary pump for the headlights?

How does one remove the headlight? Could you do me a big favor and look up the wiring when you have a chance? I still have to drive to NYC and to Boston and the salt is all over the windshield.

Tim Ashfield

Mike

Headlight removal


Detach the side carpet under front decklid. Locate headlight release lever which rests in a clip pointing towards the front of the car. Unclip and rotate lever upward and backwards so it is pointing to rear of car then move it back to a vertical position. Headlight can now be pulled out.

To replace push fully back into body and pull release lever down into clip facing front of car. Sorry I can't help with the wiring. Hope you get sorted soon.

FlyYellow

Mike,

just so you know there are two motors there. one is for the windshield nozzles and the other is for the headlight nozzles. I find it highly unlikely that both went bad at the same time. Therefore, i'll ask the stupid question - have you checked your fuses or switch?

FlyYellow

oh and glad the car made it back without any major incidents....

STLPCA

Mike
If you have your owner's manual, headlight removal is described & pictured. If not, Tim's post should get you through it.

I just took a look at my car. If I understand your description, the wires you describe are for the heated windshield squirter nozzles & unrelated to the pump operation. However, mine are a brown & black pair routed together with the reinforced fluid hose up the hinge, into the trunk lid & to the nozzles.

There are 2 separate pumps for the windshield & the lights. If neither works, 2 bad pumps would be unlikely. Once you get the headlight removed, you should be able to narrow down the problem. I know you checked the fuse, but to be sure, I'd replace it.

I won't be home until quite late tonight, so don't count on me to check the wiring before tomorrow night. Anyone out there w/a handy shop manual? I mean, the poor guy's out there with a gunked up windshield & a WiFi laptop outside a Starbuck's.

nile13

OK, a couple of things begin to make sense.
1. The wires I'm looking at are probably for heated nozzles and something else (4 wires, snaking up with the fluid tube).
2. I checked fuse 24, swapped it with fuse 25 as both are 25A- no change.
3. I can't really check the switch, or can I? The switch works in intermittent and other positions, but not forward and back for washing.
4. The fact that the fluid level warning was on might indicating a break in connection to the pumps/level float?
5. I do have the owner's manual, so I should be able to take the light out. Would love to know which wires are +12 and which are ground.

Thanks!!
PS. The car so far made it OK. Some oil stink from oil dripping on hot manifolds, weird issue with roof popping up at 90+ mph, cruise not working (I found out that my right foot's limit is 10 hours of pushing the pedal)...

Wsp964

Hi guys,

I ve got a different problem. The headlight washers work OK but there is no or hardly any pressure on the windscreen washers.

Is the little motor fried ?

Thanks,

WSP993

Terry Adams

Nile, when I had a similar problem, I found deltajetfixer's w.s. pump relay check very helpful. YMMV, hope you get it solved.

FlyYellow

mike, if the washer fluid light is on that means it thinks the tank is empty.
i'm assuming it is not by your earlier post.

as such do the following:

- remove the driver's side head light
- locate the resevoir behind the light. big black thing. two pumps at the bottom side (one for headlight one for windshield). On the top there is a plug with wires - that is the float to the tank.
- there is a round float on the top side of the resevoir - unplug it and then your low windshield fluid light should go out.
- then unplug the wires to the motor/pump. while having someone hold the wiper determine if you are getting +12V and a ground.

then report back with results.

nile13

Boris, the light finally went out today, so that is all set.
The interesting thing is that I was driving tonight and pushing the headlight washer lever resulted in slight diming of headlight (but no water). Which tells me that at the very least the switch is OK.
I will check relays tomorrow, although when I was looking at the fuses the relay description on the fuse box did not reveal which relays are the washer ones. Reading the Terry's suggesttion it appears to be R43.
What it all sounds like after all is possibly frozen fluid in the pumps. But we shall investigate further.

FlyYellow

hmmm. i'd buy that - frozen fluid. i guess we never have to worry about that here in sunny CA. ;-)

Tom Pepper

Mike, The cruise control won't work if your clutch pedal gets hung up. Stick your toe under the pedal and make sure it's pulled up to the top .
We have to be jealous of those who don"t know what frozen water is like.
Tom

FlyYellow

can you spell kinematic update lever?

just did mine.