A few days ago, when the daily high temperature was around 0 F, I found my washer fluid was frozen in my '19 Ford Transit, either in the lines or in the tank.
I thought it could be possible the tank was empty, so I bought a gallon of the stuff and poured it in. About 2/3 of the jug went in. I tried to squirt the washer fluid again for about 10 seconds, still nothing. So it was not empty, it was frozen.
The only cure was to hope I didn’t need it during the day and also hope that my unheated but insulated garage will get above freezing long enough to thaw out the ice.
It did; the following day I could squirt washer fluid again. I did it a few times that day to get the new stuff in the lines.
What was the source of this problem? Those shops that do you a supposed courtesy of filling up the washer fluid tank with what is little more than blue water. It's a company-owned van so they pay for the maintenance; I don't do it myself.
I’ve had enough of that. (It’s happened many times.) Over the years I’ve wanted to have something that goes over the washer bottle’s fill cap to prevent shops from filling it up, but I don’t have a 3D printer so that won’t work.
That day I realized a much simpler and just as effective fix: drill a hole in the filler neck just below the cap, and drill a hole in the cap just above that hole in the neck. Connect the two with a zip-tie. (Think of the zip-tie as a tamper-indicating seal, like safety wire on industrial equipment.)
Add a note to get the idea across:
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I thought it could be possible the tank was empty, so I bought a gallon of the stuff and poured it in. About 2/3 of the jug went in. I tried to squirt the washer fluid again for about 10 seconds, still nothing. So it was not empty, it was frozen.
The only cure was to hope I didn’t need it during the day and also hope that my unheated but insulated garage will get above freezing long enough to thaw out the ice.
It did; the following day I could squirt washer fluid again. I did it a few times that day to get the new stuff in the lines.
What was the source of this problem? Those shops that do you a supposed courtesy of filling up the washer fluid tank with what is little more than blue water. It's a company-owned van so they pay for the maintenance; I don't do it myself.
I’ve had enough of that. (It’s happened many times.) Over the years I’ve wanted to have something that goes over the washer bottle’s fill cap to prevent shops from filling it up, but I don’t have a 3D printer so that won’t work.
That day I realized a much simpler and just as effective fix: drill a hole in the filler neck just below the cap, and drill a hole in the cap just above that hole in the neck. Connect the two with a zip-tie. (Think of the zip-tie as a tamper-indicating seal, like safety wire on industrial equipment.)
Add a note to get the idea across:
