Headlight Washers stopped working

[tonyh]

 forgive the daft question, but how do you know if your car has this function ? 

[AlanD]

You should have a litte rectangle thing under your headlights.




Its quite hard to make out but you see the line / gap going though it? Thats where it comes out and sprays the headlights. If you dont have them then you wont have that line / gap.

[tonyh]

ah, ok. pretty sure mine's w/out. thanks 

[clive]

This thread just saved me a trip to the dealers, fuse #36 was blown and after replacing it my headlamp washers are working

A note to anyone looking at the fuse box diagram in the workshop manual (linked in the maintenance section).. The fuse box diagram in page 8 is for LHD cars and is the mirror image of what you will see in a UK car.

[Golfgirl]

A note to anyone looking at the fuse box diagram in the workshop manual (linked in the maintenance section).. The fuse box diagram in page 8 is for LHD cars and is the mirror image of what you will see in a UK car.

LOL, I realised that when I'd been sat there a few mins trying to work out why the wrong fuses were in the wrong holes!

[daviescotland]

This thread just saved me a trip to the dealers, fuse #36 was blown and after replacing it my headlamp washers are working

A note to anyone looking at the fuse box diagram in the workshop manual (linked in the maintenance section).. The fuse box diagram in page 8 is for LHD cars and is the mirror image of what you will see in a UK car.

This happened to mine over the bad weather recently.

Bumped for anyone who is cosidering going to the dealers to get it fixed. I replaced the 20a fuse today in #36 at the fuse box inside the car on the drivers side.

50p for the fuse and now works a treat..... soap all over my bonnet again 

[GolfTi]

Normally I'm OK. What I do is for the first wash I tap it so that none comes out and that tricks that car into thinking that its don the washer, then when I press it again it doesn't do the lights and just the windscreen. Sometime I forget and ruin my bonnet

AlanD

I have a mk 6 but still relevant I hope.

I hate these sooo much. Froze solid in Germany 2 weeks ago with -20C in the bottle. One of the spray arms was actually stuck in the up position!! (OK after it thawed out in the Chunnel)

What's this 'tap' you mention, in the mk 6 the headlight washers seem so come up 1st/ then every 5th time with the lights on regardless, and as you say always after washing/polishing. And as for heated jets, they freeze up if you're on a long journey in the cold (-5 or so).

[Ant]

Normally I'm OK. What I do is for the first wash I tap it so that none comes out and that tricks that car into thinking that its don the washer, then when I press it again it doesn't do the lights and just the windscreen. Sometime I forget and ruin my bonnet

From what I'd read I thought that the only washed every so often after the first squit, but mine seem to do it on every one so I can't use this trick. Any ideas?

[AlanD]

GolfTi - I'll try and explain it better lol

Excuse me if I'm teaching you to suck eggs. The way the headlight washers work is that when the lights are on, the first time you pull the stalk back it will wash the lights and windscreen and then every 5th wash (I think you need to be on a pretty long journey / dirty road to be washing your windscreen 5 times, in which case a bit of soap on the bonnet is irrelevant). So when you are just doing normal driving at night this works well.

If you just pull the stalk back for a split second (i.e not enough time for any spray to actually come out) you will see the windscreen wipers start to wipe as they think you have just squirted washer fluid. That is classed as its first whipe so when you do it again it WONT do the headlight washers and will just do the windscreen saving your bonnet and giving you a clean windscreen

Capice?

[GolfTi]

GolfTi - I'll try and explain it better lol

Excuse me if I'm teaching you to suck eggs. The way the headlight washers work is that when the lights are on, the first time you pull the stalk back it will wash the lights and windscreen and then every 5th wash (I think you need to be on a pretty long journey / dirty road to be washing your windscreen 5 times, in which case a bit of soap on the bonnet is irrelevant). So when you are just doing normal driving at night this works well.

If you just pull the stalk back for a split second (i.e not enough time for any spray to actually come out) you will see the windscreen wipers start to wipe as they think you have just squirted washer fluid. That is classed as its first whipe so when you do it again it WONT do the headlight washers and will just do the windscreen saving your bonnet and giving you a clean windscreen

Capice?

Cheers Alan

Tried it and the headlamp jets pop up instantly even with the tiniest of tiny flicks. (It's a mk6 - just thought I'd post in the mk5 as you guys might know some tricks - which you do but it looks as thought the mk6 has a slightly different system).
Anyway I've now removed fuse 36 as the things are a pain.