So I was in Miwuk Village this past weekend, just East of Sonora on 108. Was there from Wednesday through Sunday morning. I went skiing at Dodge Ridge Thursday through Saturday. It snowed on and off from Thursday through Saturday morning.

On Friday through Sunday, the temps were in the low 20's, and into the single digits, never above 30 degrees. First off, the wipers were frozen the whole time I was there. Second, like everyone complains about, the stupid ridge on the side of the windshield does not allow snow to be pushed off the side by the wipers (when they work). The nozzles for the windhield spray were frozen solid and at one point, the headlight sprayer poped up and sprayed, and then stayed open, as it was frozen. The doors froze shut every morning and every evening, and last, the entire front windshield was a block of frozen snow/dirt/ice.

Given the nomenclature "allroad", you would think that Audi would have given us heated wipers, heated sprayers, heated door locks/seals, and a smooth edge on the sides of the windshield.

A few good things. I was pleasantly surprised with the performance in the snow. I still use the stock Pirelli allroad tires, and they performed well IMO. They gripped the snow at a decent rate, and only slipped if I pushed the car. ESP only came on when I was trying to spin the car in a big lot and when I tried climbing a steep driveway (with a foot of fresh stuff). Yes, I was succesful at both, and thoroughly impressed at the allroads abilities in those situations.

Audi really needs to address the above problems. I mean I would imagine it gets cold in Germany, wouldn't these problems be a common problem/fix?

 

Aren't the windshield sprayer nozzles heated?

 

appearantly ineffective below 20 degrees.

 

Though I didn't use them too heavily. I want to replace the lousy stream nozzles with a sprayer like is on my Passat - those give much better spray coverage and waste less fluid.

 

Maybe water from outside the housing crept into the housing itself, freezing the nozzle, an dmaking it stick in the up position.

 

on some vehicles the spray nozzles are only heated when the rear defroster is on. That's how Porsche did it on mine.

 

... My E320 Benz had heated nozzles and a heating coil in the washer reservoir. Squirt the windshield below freezing and it looked like you were spraying steam on the windshield. I see some new BMWs have heated door locks.

 

How is that sprayer install done?

 

What fluid do you have in the washers?

 

allroad's don't have heated doorlocks? my 96 a4 did...