Windshield Washer Problem

I ran across this post in another Hyundai forum and so far no one has been
able to help this person. There was one recommendation to check for residue
in the reservoir. Following this newsgroup for a few years now, you folks
seem to be able to figure out just about anything. Any ideas for this
person? Thanks in advance for the help


"I have an 03 Santa Fe and the washers shoot only about an inch jet of
fluid. The rear washer is the same. The washer motor sounds like it is
working. On the front hood you can see fluid come out of the jet holes so it
would not appear to be blocked. Any ideas or is it the washer motor?"

 

Since the problem is the same with both the front and the rear washer, it
appears to be a pressure problem. I would look at the pump in the washer
fluid reservoir first. Make sure it is getting 12V and there is no voltage
drop at the pump. I would find a T somewhere in the washer fluid line,
close to the pump and pull it so I could check for obstructions early in the
line.

This one really should not be all that difficult to figure out. Perhaps the
original poster in the other forum simply never updated everyone, and has
really found the problem and repaired it(?).

 

Unless you leave the fluid in for so long it evaporates, I don't see how
you could get residue in the tank. I would suggest running a tank or two
of distilled water through it (if your weather is warm enough that it
won't freeze) or distilled water mixed with 10-20% denatured alcohol.
Fill the tank, run the washers until you're sure that you've pumped all
the old fluid through the lines, then repeat that every day for a
couple of tankfuls. That should dissolve anything in the lines, pump,
tank and nozzles.

 

I'm thinking your pickup is clogged in the reservior, since both jets don't
work. I agree with a good cleaning of the pickup, tank and lines.

 

Some windshield washer jets are aimable...if this is so on the Santa
Fe then it is possible that the jets are just not aimed high enough up
on the windows. Probably not this simple, but sometimes the obvious is
not so obvious at all. With the aimable type of washer jet I think you
can just stick a straight pin in the orifice of the jet (it rotates)
and move it to spray where you want on the window.

 

LHS wrote:
: I ran across this post in another Hyundai forum and so far no one has
: been able to help this person. There was one recommendation to check
: for residue in the reservoir. Following this newsgroup for a few
: years now, you folks seem to be able to figure out just about
: anything. Any ideas for this person? Thanks in advance for the help
:
:
: "I have an 03 Santa Fe and the washers shoot only about an inch jet of
: fluid. The rear washer is the same. The washer motor sounds like it is
: working. On the front hood you can see fluid come out of the jet
: holes so it would not appear to be blocked. Any ideas or is it the
: washer motor?"

I had the same thing here with my Accent. A fairly thick scum had built
up on the inside walls of the reservoir even though we were using a
quality washer detergent properly diluted. Some of this stuff came
loose and repeatedly clogged the pickup screen. I could clear it
temporarily by blowing backwards down the hose to the jets but it
plugged up again in a day or two.

The only way I could get rid of this was to alternately blow backwards
through the hose and flush hose water into the container and siphon it
out multiple times. From memory, it took about 20 attempts before the
water siphoned out clear of chunks of the scum and the plugging of the
screen stopped.