Washers

Life's never boring with a Six is it?

I tried to "fix" my screen washers about a week ago, as they were not great, only squirted about 3 or 4 inches up the screen, and used to take about 5 - 10 seconds of holding the washer stalk in before it seemed that the pressure built up.

Tried cleaning the jets but that made no difference, so as per my trusty Bentley manual, I pulled the wiper/washer control module, gave it a quick clean.

Couple of days later, washers stopped working altogether. Wipers still work fine. So, pulled control module again, and tried all the diagnotics (jumping the connections with fuse wire etc). No difference, so drained the washer bottle, and removed it to get access to the washer pumps. It seems there are two (1 for the screen and 1 for the headlamps???). Pulled the power connectors to them and connected up the multimeter - they were getting power to them when the washer was activated, and there was a fairly feeble occasional clicking coming from "something" (could n't tell what).

So, now I'm a bit stumped - it would seem that maybe I need new pumps but I can't work out why they would have suddenly stopped working as soon as I cleaned the control module.

This is further complicated as it seems that some amateur plumber has had a go at the setup in the past - it looks like both pumps have been connected up to the screen washers and that the headlamps have been disconnected.

Anyone got any suggestions or had similar problems?

The tubing that's there now is clear flexible plastic stuff that doesn't look more than 3 or 4 years old (hasn't discoloured or cracked) so I'm pretty sure it's not original.

I was scratching my head a bit when I pulled the resevoir out - the pumps are attached via the tubing to the washer resevoir but (on my car) aren't fixed to the bodywork, so fitting everything back was a royal pain in the ar*e - I don't know if this is standard six or previous cowboy owner.