Are my heated screen wash nozzles working?

[Rob_benton]

Hi. Surprised my screen wash was still frozen after 10 minutes of driving this morning. Felt the nozzles from Under the bonnet and they were cold.
Shouldn’t they heat automatically?

The only thing I can think of is is I’ve turned off my headlight washers. Could that affects the system?

Could anyone please check if theirs are  warm to the touch? It will be much appreciated. Thanks

[mcmaddy]

If it's been really cold then the washer bottle could have frozen. Doesn't matter if the jets are heated or not if the main bottle is still frozen. Could try some warm water in the reservoir and see if that helps.

[monkeyhanger]

How strong is your screenwash? I always use neat but my A4 (bought in the Summer and never needed to top up the washer fluid) wouldn't pump either a week or so ago. Confirmed that the washer fluid was a really weak dilution that'll freeze up easy enough. When I drove 31 miles down to Billingham on Thursday morning, I was using my washers almost all the way down to get rid of the weak stuff. Ran it dry and filled up with neat Prestone windscreen wash - no chance of that freezing up. Heated washer jets are useless if the washer fluid has frozen in the pipework.

[dfm]

Sorry to chime in but as new owner should I be buying the official VW screen wash? I used any old stuff in my MK 6. Reason for asking is I have read reports of cheap screen wash clogging the system.

[monkeyhanger]

^ Any reputable brand should do. Decent stuff won't have any undissolved sediment in it that would block the nozzles. You have your fine screen in the filler neck to prevent sediment getting in the reservoir too.

[Guzzle]

Sorry to chime in but as new owner should I be buying the official VW screen wash? I used any old stuff in my MK 6. Reason for asking is I have read reports of cheap screen wash clogging the system.

Depends on whether or not you have fan jets or the pistol type.

It doesn't need to be the official VW stuff, but it is recommended to use screen wash that's compatible with fan jets. I bought a small bottle of highly concentrated Wurth screen wash off eBay and that did me fine for a few years. Cost me about £5 IIRC.

Some will tell you it doesn't matter if you use fan screen wash or not, but I decided to err on the side of caution. 

[Rob_benton]

Thanks for the replies. Reading the manual it does state that obviously the heating only heats the jets and not the pipes. But I was expecting to feel warmth in the actual jet units on the underside of the bonnet.

I’d still be interested to see if other owners jet units get warm? Thanks

[mcmaddy]

Have you got access to OBD11 or vcds? Could try checking for errors just in case something is wrong with them.

[Adam T7]

I had 2 Discoverys prior to my GTI - both with full Winter Packs (heated washer jets for both screen and lights) - when it got really cold, didn’t  work - its the pipes that are the issue - same in the GTI. I don't like using neat washer fluid as Im sure it’s  not good for rubber seals or paintwork? (It certainly wasn%u2019t years ago)

[baka]

Mine are frozen up too, pretty sure the pipes and/or res are solid.

I'd been trying some of that super concentrate stuff over the summer and forgot to change it out.

Think I'll just stick with Autoglym all year from now on.