Frozen Windshield Washer Lines

M

mobiledynamics

New member
:bonk::redface::o:o:o

Hopefully the third times the charm.
Wifes car windshield fluid lines were frozen.
Turns out I did not make the proper dilution ratio on my go to WW mix....it wasn`t frozen, just slushy. I suppose driving speeds and the below freezing temps alleviated the cold/freeze temp rating of my WW mix

No Biggie, I just topped off the container with some more of the concentrate and NO extra water. Purged the front/rear jets and assumed all was well. >>>>>>and again, lines were frozen. When she parked and came back, all lines working. I`m guessing the sub-below temps/driving windriven speed is just beyond the freeze rating of the fluid I still had

UGGGH. Just poured about 30oz or so of premade winter WW fluid I had sitting in the garage. :angry: I`m going to presume the 3rd time is the trick

LOL. 1st time in X years. I must be way off on my math to get it so wrong this year.
 
mobiledynamics said:
:bonk::redface::o:o:o

Hopefully the third times the charm.
Wifes car windshield fluid lines were frozen.
Turns out I did not make the proper dilution ratio on my go to WW mix....it wasn`t frozen, just slushy. I suppose driving speeds and the below freezing temps alleviated the cold/freeze temp rating of my WW mix

No Biggie, I just topped off the container with some more of the concentrate and NO extra water. Purged the front/rear jets and assumed all was well. >>>>>>and again, lines were frozen. When she parked and came back, all lines working. I`m guessing the sub-below temps is just beyond the freeze rating of the fluid I still had

UGGGH. Just poured about 30oz or so of premade winter WW fluid I had sitting in the garage. :angry: I`m going to presume the 3rd time is the trick

LOL. 1st time in X years. I must be way off on my math to get it so wrong this year.
Click to expand...


Give it a splash of Vodka or ISP, fluid wont free anymore. But I am not sure how it will effect visibility.
 
HEH. Could have been worse like ripping out the interior just to repair the rear line
When I was checking the lines out the 1st time, I was glad to find the fluid in the container was not a block of ice...but it was slushy.
 
How long was the car parked before the lines started working again? The underhood heat from the engine might have thawed the lines while parked with no cold air rushing into the engine bay.

My VW heats the windshield washer reservoir with waste heat from the radiator. That wouldn`t necessarily help with keeping the lines and nozzles from freezing (in Europe heated wipers and nozzles are available as options), but it does help melt the ice and snow off the windshield, and it even helps clean the windshield when it isn`t below freezing -- hot soapy water works better than cold soapy water.
 
Correct on the latent heat - the dethawed the slushy lines....
On the 1st issue, it was dethawed pretty quick, but I suspect it was just due to just local errands running around.

2nd go-around with extra concentrate+freeway speeds, caused the issue again.

Eh, we`ll see tomorrow. This better not be a homer moment . when I topped off the tank in fall, I diluted for a winter mix in mind already, so technically it was prepped for winter. Ehh, or so I thought
 
This wide-spread Artic Cold snap has a lot of vehicle owners in the same situation as yourself.

It`s one on the reasons I use winter-rated windshield wash year-round. But even though the better, more extreme solutions are rated for -25°F. if it is extremely cold with a wind-chill close to that temperature, they will get slushly. While the winter-rated solution is not the greatest for cleaning bugs off a windshield in the summer, at least it`s one thing I do not worry about come the first December cold snapand snowfall and remember I have to bleed the windshield lines of summer-rated fluid and install the winter-rated windshield wash fluid.

I am sure that even finding winter-rated windshield wash fluid can be difficult in the deep south, as there is no need for it, until this area experiences a rare Artic Outbreak.
 
mobiledynamics- Glad you got it cleared up.

`PRND[S said:
;2126886`]My VW heats the windshield washer reservoir with waste heat from the radiator. That wouldn`t necessarily help with keeping the lines and nozzles from freezing (in Europe heated wipers and nozzles are available as options)...
Click to expand...

I was trying to remember which of my vehicles have had that...I know some of `em did, but sigh...not the current Audis.
 
How cold is your area right now? Around here you can get -25 or -40 fluid. I`ve never had that fluid freeze with below zero ambient temps. Lesser fluid has frozen on me, but quickly thawed from engine heat for the windshield, but I`ve had times when the rear-window fluid stayed frozen hard for weeks.

Like Lonnie, I use the winter fluid year round so been fortunate not to go through the pain of mixtures or being caught with the wrong fluid in the reservoir.

Accumulator: Not sure if this is still the case, but my E46 BMW 3 Series came with heated washers. They wouldn`t freeze, but the lines below them would! WHen the ice and snow built up it was always funny to see the washer heads melting small holes at the base of the windshield.
 
I`ve stopped using premix for years now.....not sure if it cost me more or less as the concentrate on the bottles is not exactly cheaper when you factor in a distilled water. etc. I use the concentrate moreso just because I find it cleans the glass amazingly clean, and flashes off nice, etc.....well, albeit my HOMER moment this year, in which it literally took technically 4 times to get it dialed in right.

I`m blaming it all on the bombgenesis of late 2017 that has rolled into 2018
 
Desertnate- Heh heh, that *would* be kinda cool to watch `em melt like that! I don`t recall any of my M3s (all pre-e46) having that feature, but the last e36 I had might`ve...it had some weird Euro-spec features that none of my others did. Never drove any of `em in the winter though.

What some of my good cars *have* had is a separate High-Intensity washer system, though the only current vehicle with that is the `93 Audi.

Which reminds me...I *[freakin`] HATE* headlight washers!!! Make an awful mess and I`ve never needed them (in truly awful conditions my wife and I both pull off and clean things manually even if that`s a huge hassle) although I`ll allow that others might find them useful. Bit of a hassle to deactivate on some cars too, but I won`t have that [stuff] spraying all over my vehicles, making a mess and potentially compromising my LSPs, and even the paint. The hood of that `93 has severe paint damage from washer fluid, and the PO always used Audi-label stuff...[messed] up the paint but good :(
 
My Golf R used to squirt fluid onto the headlights (as well as the hood :angry:) on every fourth wiper actuation. However, I have a diagnostic cable and software called VCDS which allowed me to disable that. I`m sure it is a useful feature in some geographic areas, but in mostly dry Southern California it was rather annoying.
 
Headscratcher slightly.
So no dice again until drive/thermal park dethaw.
Her car is parked in the driveway so its not the drive-by cold inrush freezing it. It`s getting frozen in ambient temp YET....the tank is pure liquid. No slush at all. I really got to hit the DMV Driving 101 books. No hint of slush.
Nozzles are heated.

Put more pre-mixed in there. If this does not do out, I`m draining out the tank.
 
We swapped cars today and since I was busy futzing with the glass literally, I`ve never noticed until now until I observed all the following today...

SO many people either have bad washer pumps or are in the same camp as me with frozen lines. I noticed many at stop signs, etc, open the window and pour bottled water on their glass. The winner-winner-chicken dinner was one driver who was driving slow as molasses in the left lane on the freeway. After I went right and then back left, I realized why he was driving like molasses. The windshield was caked in salt/winter debris and he could not f`en see through the glass..

Personally these are huge safety concerns like alot of the crap we see on the roads these days. It was just a reminder that you just can`t control what`s around you when you are on the road.
 
A splash of ISP or Vodka should keep the solution from freezing, run the fluid through the system for 30 seconds. The existing solution must be getting enough surface area to freeze, think of the solution in the thin long tubes. In the tank, the fluid is fine because there is simply more of it, thus allowing more *heat* to be retained (heat is relative in this case). When this existing fluid is spread thin for a long distance, as in the washer lines, it will be prone to freezing because there is simply not enough of the fluid to retain the heat required to keep the solution in a liquid state. Therefore, in order to keep the fluid in the lines from freezing, its freezing point must be lowered significantly in relation to the fluid tank. What do Antarctic and Arctic explorer`s put in their fresh water supply to keep it from freezing? Vodka, because it is an alcohol that is metabolized by the body, for grey water, it is some sort of other alcohol. In this case, I`d try ISP because we all know that it is readily available.
 
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