Last night I drove home through a mess of snow/rain/dirt/salt/etc. I used my front window washer sprayers occassionally. At least once I held it long enough that my headlight washers popped up, as I noticed the light pattern on the road get blurry and then ultimately clearer, just like when those do their thing.

I parked the car outside last night. It was 16F this morning when I left.

While still in the driveway, I attempted to wash the windows as they had a nice white salt glaze on them. No fluid sprayed at all. Not on the front window and not on the rear door (Avant).

I figured either the fluid was empty or the washer nozzles were not heated yet and frozen from overnight.

The low fluid level light was not on and has not been on for quiet some time (last winter?). I have no reason to believe it's broke. I checked the fluid and could see that it's about half full.

On my 1 hour commute to work (99% highway), the washers never worked. I figured in the hour of driving, surely if anything was frozen in the engine bay, it would be thawed by now.

I wasn't sure if I could hear the washer pump, so when I got to work, with the car on and the door open, I attempted to spray the front and rear. I could indeed hear the pump(s?), as they made a slightly different tone depending on which I tried to wash.

I checked the fuse #24, and it's fine.

I didn't look real close in my driveway to see if perhaps the fluid is pouring out only when I spray. I can check the parking spot I am in now.

Is there 2 washer pumps or 1 in the Avant? If 2, it's unlikely that both pumps failed, or that they are leaking after both pumps.

That might lead me to the thought of the fluid leaving the tank might be jammed/frozen (again, it would have thawed after 1 hour of driving).

Any thoughts? There's no fluid AT ALL comming out of the jets. Maybe the blast that did the headlight washers busted something up there? But I wouldn't think that would starve all fluid from the windshield, etc. Maybe I'll go out and try to do the headlight washers in the parking lot and see what happens.

I'm open to ideas...

 

You had a decent full strength winter washer fluid in there right?

 

I didn't think to run the tank dry and fill it up with deicer since I use only deicing fluid (and have 3 or 4 bottles at home from running out last winter at various times).

FWIW, I don't think the hoses running from the tank to the nozzles are close enough to the engine at any point to actually melt by engine heat alone. I plan on using a friend's garage tonight and attempting to melt the fluid with a hair dryer since I don't have any other ideas.

But if you discover some other problem, keep me posted.

 

not sure what is in there - likely filled 10k miles ago when I had my last dealership oil change

 

I guess I'll have to see if the screen comes out of the fluid resevoir so I can see if it's frozen or not.

I'll park inside tonight.

I'll buy some winter-specific washer fluid.

It's just odd that it didn't freeze all day yesterday when the car was at work, yet it froze over night when it wasn't that much colder. Hmmm, maybe it was now that I think about it.

 

<i>I guess I'll have to see if the screen comes out of the fluid resevoir so I can see if it's frozen or not.</i>
If you're talking about the washer-fluid resevoir...yes, the screen you see when you open the blue lid pulls out easily.

<i>I'll buy some winter-specific washer fluid.</i>
I could be mistaken, but I thought pretty much every bottle of washer fluid (even the $0.99 gallon jugs) had at least some alcohol in it ot help prevent freezing. I've used the generic blue stuff in my old A4 and now in my S4 and never had any issues with it freezing.

 

this is the windshield washer pump on the sedan. the headlight washer pump is situated higher up on the reservoir

<img src="http://www.funkadelic.org/albums/headlight_pump/aal.jpg" border="1">

if you're thinking of taking out the reservoir to check out the pumps, it's a pretty straight foward process &amp; should only take about 45 minutes to take out<ul><li><a href="http://www.funkadelic.org/gallery/headlight_pump">http://www.funkadelic.org/gallery/headlight_pump</a</li></ul>

 

so I guess I wonder if the Avant has 3?