Heated windscreen washer nozzles

Burnerman · Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 9:12 pm

None of my vehicles have the luxury of having these things fitted, so would anyone be good enough to comment on how effective they are?
If they are recommended, I would consider retro fitting some - Ford do them for about £8 each.
Frozen nozzles and screen + dry salt spray + low sun = suicide!
John

nickso · Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 2:01 am

only the actual jets/housings are heated though. my transit has had no washers for three weeks now, the bottle and lines are frozen, not the jets.

IMO the biggest problem is the insistence of manufacturers of putting the bottle in wheel arches. older cars had the bottle in the engine bay and the only bit that froze regularly was the jets, hence the heated part. now with the bottle in the arch frozen solid and the lines also frozen as they get no use it's pointless having heated jets.

TicklyT · Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 10:49 am

I bought a plastic can of ready to use 'winter' screenwash t'other day. Took it out of the boot to top up the washer bottle yesterday, and it was frozen in the can

Washer jets do seem to freeze too often for my liking, often from rainwater / meltwater / snow freezing around them rather than the screenwash fluid freezing inside them.

Stopping the screenwash bottle from freezing even when using an appropriate fluid is a problem in this weather. Are the designers of these setups even aware of the existance of old-fashioned ice-cream makers, where a tub of ice cream is frozen by immersion in a mixture of crushed ice and salt - exactly what gets thrown at their washer bottle setup by the wheels in winter.

If there really is nowhere else to put the screenwash bottle, how about putting a heat exchanger in the bottle, fed from a tapping into the engine cooling system?

KingboyD · Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 11:28 am

My VW Golf 4 has heated jets and they seem to work very well!

Burnerman · Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 1:40 pm

I must be around 80% concentrated solution just now, and have still been in bother. I'll see how easy the Ford nozzles will fit on the other cars and van.
Cheers for the replies!
John

Mursal · Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 3:52 pm

What about the windscreen John?

Any good at cutting glass or have you another plan?

Apologies I read the heading wrong, sorry about that.

Burnerman · Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:52 pm

I'm surprised that other manufacturers haven't followed Ford and offered a heated front screen...if they did, I'd be tempted. Heated jets should be standard fitting now, I think.
John

With seasons greetings

Spark123 · Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:31 pm

I have the heated jets on my mondeo and have still had problems with the pipes freezing, the insulation on the underside of the bonnet doesn't help as no heat gets up to the pipes to defrost them (takes 5 mins to rip it off tho).
I believe that ford hold the patent on the electrical heated screens so no-one else can use it (without paying ford lots of money).

nickso · Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:24 pm

yeh, no one else wants to pay ford for the use of heated screens. the wires break in them after time anyway and the price of a new one can be eyewatering i'm told.

Burnerman · Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 9:23 pm

I think if I had a car with a heated screen that had failed I'd be inclined to give it a slight tap with a hammer called pheasant

and head for Autoglass.....
Anyway, when these heated nozzles arrive I'll see if they'll fit into the Jimny bonnet - I've no idea if these things, on 'real' vehicles are on all of the time or wired through the rear screen heater. No matter, a fuse and switch somewhere should sort that.
John

snico · Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:05 pm

quite a few cars have heated windscreens now, usually as an extra. There is a website that supplies heated screens for most cars, they are not as expensive as people think

empip · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 3:33 am

Bought from Lidl £4.99, 1st time I have no frozen wash nozzles (used 50/50 mix) -11°C lowest temperature thus far. German stuff, labelled as Antifreeze, but small print defines as concentrated screenwash - excellent.

Returned for more - none in stock and no idea if there ever would be !!

-0-

ch427 · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 6:28 pm

ive thought about trying to loop the washer tubing around a coolant hose or even modding a coolant hose to make use of the hot water to keep the jets working.

gregers · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:05 pm

i meant to have heated washer jets on my ghia galaxy,never really seen wether they actually work or not,but the heated windscreen isa godsend,operated by a button so can be turned on/off when needed,i even use it when it steams up on the inside aswell,seems to help with demisting.

Burnerman · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:05 pm

Wellllll the new heated nozzles have arrived and as expected the difference in the size, due to the heating element is pretty big - no surprise there then.
So, I have to decide to approach the bonnet Dremel in hand or forget about it for now....
I must say I'm in a class of my own for wasting cash these days

nearly on par with wor lass

John