rear window washer repair, oh what fun....$1.16 and 3 hours
12-18-2004, 08:16 AM
#1
AudiWorld Super User
Thread Starter
rear window washer repair, oh what fun....$1.16 and 3 hours
After a week of driving around our newly acquired 99 A6q Avant, yesterday my wife reported that the only thing that didn't seem to work was the rear window washer. Then she headed out for another round of shopping.
So, I thumbed through the owners manual to see which way the wiper control needed to be moved and then called her cell to report. "Push away & hold", I said.
"I can hear something, but it's not working" she replied.
Hmm...
Later she called back with an update. The rear panel was saturated. Ah ha...no wonder.
Once back home, I consulted AudiWorld on <a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/372975.phtml">how exactly to remove that panel</a>.
An hour later, and using all 4 of my putty knives, the rear screen popped out and the panel was off once the <b>6</b> screws under the retractable screen were removed.
Everything appeared to be in tact with the rear washer. The delivery tubing was connected, and a quick test revealed that it was not punctured. However, it did look like the leak was coming from plastic fitting...
I removed the motor assy to inspect it more closely. The fitting did not look cracked. The leak was somewhere between the squirter outlet and that plastic fitting.
I took the motor cover off and worked the plastic fitting off the main shaft. Surprise! 1/2 of the copper transfer tubing came with the fitting. I can only guess at how it happened, but the copper was clearly ruptured some time ago...
A little disappointment & frustration led to determination and I pulled the squirter nozzle out the top and began trying to coax what was left of the copper tube out of the main shaft. All the while, thinking "I'd rather fix this than buy a new wiper motor."
One thing led to another and I ended up putting the main shaft on the lathe, gears & all, in order to drill through the corroded copper segment inside. Once through the corroded section, the rest of the tube was free.
An obvious repair plan began to formulate the moment the damaged tubing was extracted and I proceeded to my local ACE hardware to buy a piece of 1/8" copper as a replacement.
Once back in the shop, I set the plastic hose fitting with it's damaged section attached up in the lathe and began "reconditioning". I ended up parting off the exposed section, then boring a 1/8" hole down into where the fitting was bonded to the copper. Fortunately, the original tubing was slighly larger (by .009") and a nice thin wall section lined the bore of the plastic fitting. Perfect for bonding in the new $1.16 piece from ACE. I also had to enlarge the business end of the new copper for the squirter nozzle to fit back in.
A little re-assembly and the rear washer system was back in busniess, good as new.
So, I thumbed through the owners manual to see which way the wiper control needed to be moved and then called her cell to report. "Push away & hold", I said.
"I can hear something, but it's not working" she replied.
Hmm...
Later she called back with an update. The rear panel was saturated. Ah ha...no wonder.
Once back home, I consulted AudiWorld on <a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/372975.phtml">how exactly to remove that panel</a>.
An hour later, and using all 4 of my putty knives, the rear screen popped out and the panel was off once the <b>6</b> screws under the retractable screen were removed.
Everything appeared to be in tact with the rear washer. The delivery tubing was connected, and a quick test revealed that it was not punctured. However, it did look like the leak was coming from plastic fitting...
I removed the motor assy to inspect it more closely. The fitting did not look cracked. The leak was somewhere between the squirter outlet and that plastic fitting.
I took the motor cover off and worked the plastic fitting off the main shaft. Surprise! 1/2 of the copper transfer tubing came with the fitting. I can only guess at how it happened, but the copper was clearly ruptured some time ago...
A little disappointment & frustration led to determination and I pulled the squirter nozzle out the top and began trying to coax what was left of the copper tube out of the main shaft. All the while, thinking "I'd rather fix this than buy a new wiper motor."
One thing led to another and I ended up putting the main shaft on the lathe, gears & all, in order to drill through the corroded copper segment inside. Once through the corroded section, the rest of the tube was free.
An obvious repair plan began to formulate the moment the damaged tubing was extracted and I proceeded to my local ACE hardware to buy a piece of 1/8" copper as a replacement.
Once back in the shop, I set the plastic hose fitting with it's damaged section attached up in the lathe and began "reconditioning". I ended up parting off the exposed section, then boring a 1/8" hole down into where the fitting was bonded to the copper. Fortunately, the original tubing was slighly larger (by .009") and a nice thin wall section lined the bore of the plastic fitting. Perfect for bonding in the new $1.16 piece from ACE. I also had to enlarge the business end of the new copper for the squirter nozzle to fit back in.
A little re-assembly and the rear washer system was back in busniess, good as new.
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