Car windscreen washer woes.

Thanks for the Steradent tip.

My woes were cured at rather more expense than yours - they took the tank out to drain it completely and replaced the tube from motor up to the front washer nozzle splitter. Well worth the expense IMO!
 
I can only surmise that though the pump motor runs the pumping action has now 100% failed. NB AFAIK the rear screen is a separate circuit and pump unit.....but that has also failed.
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Do you have two separate tanks for the front and rear washers??, If not it's likely you have one pump that spins one way to pump to the front screen and the other way to pump to the rear, Ford not being know for over complication :)
 
Nod said:
Thanks for the Steradent tip.

My woes were cured at rather more expense than yours - they took the tank out to drain it completely and replaced the tube from motor up to the front washer nozzle splitter. Well worth the expense IMO!
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Yes, there are all sorts of different instructions for doing it properly, commonly using an air hose to blow back to the reservoir and so on. None of them were easy for me to do.
 
Willid1 said:
Do you have two separate tanks for the front and rear washers??, If not it's likely you have one pump that spins one way to pump to the front screen and the other way to pump to the rear, Ford not being know for over complication :)
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Interesting, hadn’t thought about that. I’ve definitely only one tank but I think I have operated both front and rear simultaneously (not while driving!!! ), have check.
 
Since it was time for both main belts to be done, the cost for the washer bottle rinse and tube replacement went almost unnoticed! MUCH easier for them to do it while it was up on a lift than for me to try to do it on the drive, probably rebu99ering my back in the process...
 
I really dislike UK spec toxic screenwash mix, which are essentially mega toxic methanol aqueous blend with perfumes and some industrial detergent. You won't find that in many other countries. Isopropanol is what many will use. Nothing wrong with ethanol too, but there are different mainly tax reasons why it is not used commercially.

I mix my own, which is as simple as a few drops of Surecare washing up liquid in a liter of water, and where necessary 50-200ml isopropanol (that's essential for cold winter days, but will improve washing action). Distilled water would be best but I don't expect many would have the facilities; tap rubbish works OK so far. Do not under any circumstances use Fairy. This foams far too much as well as really stinks. Btw. I use Surecare for all my dishwashing - powerful enough but no nasty toxic artificial perfumes.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
I really dislike UK spec toxic screenwash mix, which are essentially mega toxic methanol aqueous blend with perfumes and some industrial detergent. You won't find that in many other countries. Isopropanol is what many will use. Nothing wrong with ethanol too, but there are different mainly tax reasons why it is not used commercially.

I mix my own, which is as simple as a few drops of Surecare washing up liquid in a liter of water, and where necessary 50-200ml isopropanol (that's essential for cold winter days, but will improve washing action). Distilled water would be best but I don't expect many would have the facilities; tap rubbish works OK so far. Do not under any circumstances use Fairy. This foams far too much as well as really stinks. Btw. I use Surecare for all my dishwashing - powerful enough but no nasty toxic artificial perfumes.
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I’m not sure they are still using methanol.
 
sphexx said:
Not on mine! But I agree it should (and isn’t) on all these household chemical products.
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If it's in there, it will have to be listed somewhere - you can't just stick something as nasty as methanol into household materials without a warning.
 
ancient_mariner said:
If it's in there, it will have to be listed somewhere - you can't just stick something as nasty as methanol into household materials without a warning.
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Which means it isn’t there I think — it’s unopened so I haven’t smelled it. I think when I was looking for information on washers recently that I read methanol was no longer used.
 
ancient_mariner said:
If it's in there, it will have to be listed somewhere - you can't just stick something as nasty as methanol into household materials without a warning.
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We are both (and @LongLensPhotography ) almost certainly both wrong! There’s defintitely no ingredient on the back other than warning of flammability.

It’s “Daytona” screenwash made by Tetrosyl Ltd likely for supermarkets since it’s not listed on their website. Their main brand is Bluecol and the ingredients of that are ALCOHOL ETHOXYLATE WITH 7 MEO, ETHANEDIOL, ETHANOL, IPA, METHANOL. I guess IPA is isopropanol rather than India Pale Ale (though that would work but a bit sticky!).

The amount of ethanol is variable up to 30% so is the main antifreeze element.
 
Oh wow labelling rules must have moved backwards so quickly! I firmly believe customers deserve to know what they are buying whatever it may be...

You can still find some of it by looking for MSDS, SDS, or safety data sheets. Like here https://ulmysds.com/Admin/Search or here https://automotivesafetydatasheets.com/prestone-all-season-screenwash-Safety-Data-Sheet-SDS
I see methanol listed in most of them, typically as a very strange mix - presumably that's some industrial distillate waste stream that they resell as screenwash - or even on its own
Typically you would get away lowering freezing point by going for a single water soluble solvent like isopropanol (also IPA, 2-propanol), ethylene glycol, etc. I guess proper pure supply costs a bit more hence you get sold the cheaper poorly specified mix. On amazon you would pay £21/5L as a consumer. This typically gets much lower at larger quantities if you were to set up your own screen and glass wash, or desinfectant company.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Oh wow labelling rules must have moved backwards so quickly! I firmly believe customers deserve to know what they are buying whatever it may be...

You can still find some of it by looking for MSDS, SDS, or safety data sheets. Like here https://ulmysds.com/Admin/Search or here https://automotivesafetydatasheets.com/prestone-all-season-screenwash-Safety-Data-Sheet-SDS
I see methanol listed in most of them, typically as a very strange mix - presumably that's some industrial distillate waste stream that they resell as screenwash - or even on its own
Typically you would get away lowering freezing point by going for a single water soluble solvent like isopropanol (also IPA, 2-propanol), ethylene glycol, etc. I guess proper pure supply costs a bit more hence you get sold the cheaper poorly specified mix. On amazon you would pay £21/5L as a consumer. This typically gets much lower at larger quantities if you were to set up your own screen and glass wash, or desinfectant company.
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I’ve seen a number of d-I-y recipes that advocate “spirit vinegar” for screenwash which guess would be very effective but I’m dubious about its effect on the rest of the vehicle.
 
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