ScottArizona

Ok, so some of you may have seen my earlier diy post regarding removal of the headlight washer system. Being in Arizona, and given that I don't drive my car in inclement weather, it only made sense to go the next step and omit the entire washer fluid system. After all, if its raining, I don't need the washer system, and if its not raining, and I need to use the washer for some reason (pterodactyl poop, locust plague, etc...), I'm probably just going to find a gas station and give the windshield and old fashioned cleaning anyway.

I had previously drained my tank of all but the final two pounds of washer fluid that were needed to avoid a low fluid light. I'm all about reducing weight, but not at the cost of annoying lights, decreased safety, or compromised aesthetics. This mod will get rid of the entire washer system with NO WARNING LIGHT. Total weight reduction including headlight washers and assuming a full washer tank? 13 lbs 12 ounces.

So here it goes (my prior diy covers the headlight washer units):

Step 1: Jack up the driver's side front wheel and remove it, along with the rearmost finder liner (front fender liner can remain in place). Three plastic 10 mm nuts, and another 5-7 torx screws and the fender liner is off. The white plastic tank and associated sensors and tubes is now exposed (see pic. 1). You can see the level of fluid required to keep the light at bay, and the black sensor is just below that level on the left side of the tank in the pic.

Step 2: Remove the tank. This took some fiddling around but once I realized how it was secured, it was easy (surprisingly little info on the web, and lots of misinformation, about how to remove this). There is one 13 mm bolt near the top of the tank, and once removed, you need to jiggle and cajole the tank out. The only thing holding the tank in place at this point are two plastic posts coming off the back of the tank (facing the door) that sit inside rubber grommets/bushings attached to holes in the body sheet metal. The bushings are a bit tight, but if you shimmy and pull the tank toward the front of the car, rotating the tank back and forth as you do, it will eventually come loose (the grommets stayed on the tank’s posts and were not left on the car). I saw one post that claimed the door must be removed to get the tank out. This is definitely not true. Before you wiggle it out, make sure you remove the washer pump sensor clips (2) and the fluid level sensor clip, and pull any visible tubes off the tank. I drained the remaining fluid from one of the tubes I removed and caught it in a catch bucket. Also, pop the hood and remove the filler neck from inside the trunk. It just pulls out with a little bit of force as it is just held in by the friction of a rubber seal.

Step 3: With the tank now free, you will need to remove the sensor from the tank. The workshop manual says to use a special forked pry tool that looked a lot like one of those interior body panel removal tools. I had one of those which worked great (see pic 2). Just work it under the plastic lip of the sensor and gently pry it out. I imagine a right-sized flat blade screwdriver would also work. Mine came out without any drama.

Step: 4: Now for the cool part of this diy. Upon examining the sensor it was immediately apparent how to “trick” it into thinking it was still sitting in a full tank, slowing the driver down and unbalancing the car with all the extra weight on the driver’s side. It has two prongs, and when submerged, the circuit is completed. So I just got some copper wire I had laying around and twisted it between the two prongs (see pic. 3). I then wrapped it up with electrical tape, and fished it back into the trunk through the filler neck hole.

Step 5: Secure the now dangling pump sensor clips in your preferred fashion so they don’t bounce around, replace the trunk covers, replace the fender liner and wheel, and voila, you are 14 pounds lighter for free and only 30 minutes of work.

I know its not much, but I'm a huge believer that every little bit helps. The cars I have owned that have been the most fun to drive have not been the highest hp cars, but the most light and nimble. At the same time, I'm not going to go stripping the interior, removing safety features, compromising aesthetics, or spending 10k on carbon fiber fenders and doors, so this kind of mod is just perfect mod for me: free, invisible, and in my situation does not compromise my enjoyment or use of the car at all. To date, I've dropped 84.5 pounds of "invisible" weight that does not make the car less enjoyable, and I haven't yet touched the heavy adaptive sport seats or the 50 pound diehard battery up front (sparco's are on the way though). When I address both of those, plus the incoming lwfw, I may be close to 180 pounds total weight reduction.

MJFDDS

Thanks for the write-up. Handy DIY.

cpturbo

Thank you, Sir. You just saved me 2 hours of my life.

usctrojanGT3

Scott, I'll have to drop off my car on the way to COTA next year so you can do your weight saving magic on it.

ScottArizona

If you pass through AZ I'll treat you to lunch...still thinking about trying to make it to the PCA event at Chuckwalla later in October!

m5trol

Dude I am right here in Arizona, what do I have to do to get treated to lunch

Kidding aside, this is an awesome DIY.

Spyerx

will be at POC event this weekend (warm) and PCA event in a few weeks, then it's off to buttwillow for a couple weekends in Nov. c'mon out!

ScottArizona

You get treated to lunch as well...provided you bring the 4.0! But seriously, if you ever want to meet up for a lunch sometime, I could gather a few gt3 folks. I work at Raintree/101.

Cloudspin

Well done. Thanks for posting.

usctrojanGT3

Scott, here's the link to register for the PCA SD DE event at Chuckwalla in late Oct:

https://www.motorsportreg.com/events...6#.VCtD_1duVgs

Come on out.

m5trol

That sounds like a plan. Will pm.

ScottArizona

M5trol, pm replied!

Martin, I just sent an email to the event organizer. I have a committment with my wife on Friday night (10/24). If they will let me participate in the late saturday and sunday events without attending the mandatory "beginner" stuff early Saturday morning, I'm in, since I won't be able to get there until around 10-ish Saturday morning.

Jamie_GT3

Nice work...
just did this in mine as well!

usctrojanGT3

Did you email Robert Baizer at preregaway@pcasdr.org? He's the one that runs the show. Hopefully he'll be able to give you a quick one-on-one driver's meeting and you'll be set. They opened a nice new Holiday Inn Express in Indio (closest hotel to the track) so I'd recommend staying there.

ScottArizona

Yup. Been in contact with him. There is a mandatory Friday night "Chalk Talk" for anyone who has less than 7 DE days. No way I'll be able to make that as my Friday night committment is essentially set in stone and would result in massive marital discord if I tried to get out of it! So far, my wife does not hate this hobby, and I'm trying to keep it that way and need to pick my battles! They are not super motivated to move the time of the meeting since they are expecting to have to wait list a bunch of the beginner DE folks due to demand. Bummer.