Windscreen Washer Bottle issue

[andy_m]

There might not be an issue with my windscreen washer bottle, but I thought I would ask this most noob of noob questions here.

I decided to top up the washer bottle this morning. Not because I was getting a warning light, but because I'm sure the previous owner had only put straight water in there, and I prefer to have a bit of screen wash mixed in.

I didn't bother looking at the manual. I mean, it's just the washer bottle! What could possibly be difficult about filling a washer bottle?

I premixed my screen wash fluid and started to fill her up. I was expecting to be able to fill up right to the top of the filling cap. But, before I could even see the fluid, that had a blue tinge due to the screen wash, in the long filling tube, liquid started to flow onto the floor below the washer bottle.

I looked around the washer bottle, although there is not much to see to be honest, just the top of the bottle, where the filling tube attaches. All looked okay where the filling tube fits to the bottle, so no leak there. I have trouble with my left knee so I couldn't get beneath the car to see where the fluid could be leaking from.


I suppose that the question is, is this normal? I have since checked the single page covering this topic in the manual, and that didn't help at all. Should I be able to fill up right to the top of the blue cap? Or is there an overflow that doesn't allow you to do this?

Every car I have owned to date has always allowed me to fill right to the top, so my guess is that I've got a damaged washer bottle...

[Chungster]

Yes you can fill to the top off the tube (I stop little bit below the first bend from the top due to the overflowing bubbles) but it should never leak onto the floor under the car unless u overfilled or there's a hole in the bottle somewhere!

[RW1]

Hello,

It should fill up to the very top under the filler cap. There are several points to look at. Marked them with red arrows. Given there was only plain water in the tank, it maybe the tank has been cracked by the water freezing in the past.

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BTW, screen wash is VW part number G 052 164 M2 as they are fan jets and ordinary screen wash from a motor factors is not recommended due to deposits that come out of solution. The VW stuff is alcohol based.

Chris

[andy_m]

Thanks Chungster and RW1

I clearly have a problem then, although a relatively simple one to fix I hope. I could probably do it myself, but I may take it into a dealer to look at.

I didn't realise I needed a special fluid though, so I may have to drain that down asap. I had some ASDA screen wash in my shed and put a 25% mix of that in. Thanks for the heads up on that. As you can tell, I've not owned "nice" cars before

[RW1]

If you are going to get at the bottle, you are best getting off the engine under cover/tray (8 torx bolts - 5 min job with the front end raised.) for the back half. You should be able to reach the bottom end of the pipe and look at the two motor pump seals (one may not be fitted if you don't have headlight washer jets in the bumper.) and the state of the washer bottle itself.

By taking off the right hand black foglamp surround and removing the front foglamp unit itself. You can get to the bottle's lower front half.

Me thinks... give it to the dealer seeing as you just bought it, fault on sale to rectified.

Washer bottle liquid - only way thats easy is to syphon out the liquid as much as you can. The plastic gauze grille just under the blue filler cap does remove as a little unit, so a small tube can be treaded into the washer bottle.

C.

[andy_m]

A quick update on the windscreen wash bottle issue...

I had my car serviced on Saturday, and I asked if he could have a look at the windscreen washer bottle. It appears that it was one of the pumps had come adrift of its mount/seal for some reason. He'd not seen that before. He simply pushed it back into place, and all seems well, for the time being. If it happens again in the future, I think I'll be able to look at it myself, as it wasn't a major bumper removal job, and you just need to remove the plastic cover around the fog light to get to that part of the washer bottle.

I've now got some VW fluid in too, but I now need to source some more of the magic stuff for when this runs out

[Nretief]

I have the very same issue where the water leaks from the washer fluid bottle. As soon as I fill it up even half way it leaks out fairly rapidly to a point where it gives a warning that the fluid level is low. It does this continuously. My car is going in for a checkup with VW next week, I'm just hoping it'll be covered by the warranty.

[JakeH]

I have the very same issue where the water leaks from the washer fluid bottle. As soon as I fill it up even half way it leaks out fairly rapidly to a point where it gives a warning that the fluid level is low. It does this continuously. My car is going in for a checkup with VW next week, I'm just hoping it'll be covered by the warranty.

See http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... 33&t=15456.

Mine was fixed under warranty.