1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
This problem is bedeviling my mechanic (after three visits) and me.
I have a 1998 9000CSE, manual transmission. A month or so ago, my windshield washer was not squirting fluid onto my windshield, and I discovered a leak from the reservoir area. I removed the plastic panel below the tank, and when I added fluid, I found it was running from a valve. I swapped the valve with one up at the windshield, and I refitted it. The fluid simply ran out of the headlight washers by gravity or siphon, so I figured I installed the valve incorrectly at the reservoir tank. I was scheduled for routine service, so I let my mechanic finish it with replacement parts. I was billed for only one valve. After service, the windshield nozzles would not work below 10 degrees F, though the headlight nozzles worked fine. I pulled the hose off the connector at the top surface of the dashboard/firewall (bulkhead), thinking the nozzles were clogged, but no fluid would squirt out.
I returned to the mechanic, and he replaced another valve - which one I am not sure. The system worked for a short while, when just to be sure, I pulled the hose off the upper nozzles and let the fluid run free to remove any obstruction. Later, the problem returned. I performed the same confirmation that fluid would not come out of the hose where it emerges from the dashboard/firewall, even with the nozzles and upper dash valves disconnected, but the headlight nozzles spurted plenty of fluid. I am told the headlights and the windshield washer fluid circuits share the same pump.
I returned to the mechanic a third time, where they replaced the upper T-junction and I think, the nozzles themselves (which I feel I have eliminated as irrelevant to the symptoms). And yet the problem continues today. No fluid at the windshield, but plenty from the headlights. By the way, the rear window washer pump motor and fluid lines work okay, too.
Has anyone had to solve a weird problem like this? Is there something to look for in the line between the valve just outside the bottom of the pump and the connector at the top of the dashboard/firewall, such as a hidden valve? How is hose routed behind the firewall? Ideas, please! My car is defying fluid dynamics and the laws of physics (or my logic is seriously suspect!).
Thanks.
Fred
'98 9000CSE
'88 9000T (gone)
'84 900 (long gone)
posted by 216.220.16...
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