Freezing washer fluid

[j.a.kelly]

I was driving down the A1 last night and needed to wash my windows coz of all of the salt.

The washers wouldnt work - simply because it must have frozen. Worked fine this morning. Now normally (i'd have thought) the temperature of the engine would keep the bottle nice and warm - and stop it from freezing?

In the past the temp of the engine has thawed out the washer bottle?!!! anyone had this issue? Are there heated washers available for the Leon? I thought it was pretty dangerous - visabillity can get pretty poor!!

anyone any thoughts?
Cheers
JK

 

[chrisboyle999]

more highly concentrated screen wash.

i beleive the washer bottle is in the offside wing (waits to be corrected!) so the engine wont have a prayer of keeping it warm.

and i'm no michael fish, but the windchill factor at motorway speeds must be considerable.

 

[Craig Senior]

It's the fluid in the pipes that freezes especially at the nozzles where they are more exposed.

You can buy the kits in Halfords that reroute the pipes and clips them to the radiator pipes to heat them up. Don't know how well they work though when it gets below freezing.

 

[Tam]

yeah, will be nozzles rather than the bottle that froze at a guess..

As others have said, stronger anti-freeze screenwash stuff should take care of that (just make sure it has water softeners in it if you live in a hard water area)

Heated jets IIRC are available only with the winter pack.

 

[phil3012]

Did the washers work to start with and then freeze part way through the journey?

I've heard that even pure screenwash can freeze in extreme cold.

Last night I was out and about over the M62 and it hit minus 3 at one point, but the washers still worked fine.

I had heated washers on the Focus but they were nothing special really, still took a while to deforst.

Not sure if the Winter Pack includes heated washer jets or not,

 

[Richie D]

I use the Halfords pre-mixed pink stuff. It will go to -8 degrees before freezing apparently. I've had no more pipes popping off the rear washer jet since using this stuff.

Rich

 

[j.a.kelly]

Phil...funny i saw a black mk2 cupra on the m62 last night - maybe was u?! i tried to have a little play - but i lost haha!

i'll try higher concentration on fluid then, it did work to begin with - but then froze

cheers
JK

 

[phil3012]

Phil...funny i saw a black mk2 cupra on the m62 last night - maybe was u?! i tried to have a little play - but i lost haha!

i'll try higher concentration on fluid then, it did work to begin with - but then froze

cheers
JK

Don't think it was me, as I had the Mrs in the car and was driving steady as it was below freezing.

Would have been about 20:00 to 21:00 time from M60 to Leeds.

 

[j.a.kelly]

wasnt you then...

was much earlier than that

 

[pr0ton]

Heated washer jets here. I also use methanol based screen wash. It's dirt cheap (3,5 euros/5 liters), doesn't smell and it doesn't freeze until -50°C

 

[Marsden1002]

i use holts screen wash, when used neat it can go down to -36!!