Windscreen Washer Drips

[Ian Anderson]

Well sort of

Ir works fine when I need to wash the windscreen and remove bugs etc - good squirt of fluid.

But if I go around a left hand bend at a reasonable pace the centrifugal force pushes the fluid up and out the nozzles.

Is there some in line device that I can fit in the pipes that will stop such "drippping" but still allow the full pressure "squirt" to get through

Cheers
Ian

 

[Dimi Terleckyj]

The reason this happens is that the outlet from the washer bottle is on either the left or the right of the bottle and not in the middle.

By having the outlet in the middle of the bottle it reduces this effect.

If this is not enough, the only way to stop it completely is to fit the washer motor away from and above the top level of the bottle and use a tube to siphon the feed to the motor from the bottom of the bottle.

Also another way is to fit the bottle with the motor much lower in the car than the outlet nozzles which also stops this from happening.

Dimi

 

[Ian Anderson]

Hi Dimi

Thanks for that and yes my water reservoir is to the left of the outlet nozzle.
Hence when I go around a left sweep the water exits the nozzle.

Unit is a bottle with a motor fixed in the bottom like
WINDSCREEN WASHER BOTTLE KIT WBOT

I accept your logic keep it low and in line with the outlet but in my daily driver the bottle is mounted on the wing inside the engine bay only slightly below screen height and that does not "drip" - even around the same motorway exits at the same speed so something I presume makes it a one way valve / solenoid untill the button is pressed wanting it to flow

I must say this is an annoyance to have a few drips of windscreen clean fluid run up the window - not life threatening or anything - just I cannot figure out how to stop it happening

Ian

 

[Tony Hunt]

I accept your logic keep it low and in line with the outlet but in my daily driver the bottle is mounted on the wing inside the engine bay only slightly below screen height and that does not "drip" - even around the same motorway exits at the same speed so something I presume makes it a one way valve / solenoid until the button is pressed wanting it to flow

Ian

Ian,
The difference is that your GT40 system doesn't drain back down the line at all, while the daily driver's does, slightly.
The answer is to make it harder for differences in pressure in the line to manifest themselves as dribbles (to coin a phrase). Can you mount the washer bottle/pump lower down so there's more tendency for the line to drain down a bit? You want the opposite of a one-way valve; you positively want the fluid to creep back through the pump a little.
Tony

 

[Frank Catt]

Ian, there are one way valves available for the washer line, but also remember that the washer nozzle /outlet is in a low pressure area in front of the screen, and quite often the fluid is "sucked" out of the line simply because of pressure differences, Frank

 

[Phil]

Ian:
Frank has a good solution. The small check valves go in the line and need a slight bit of pressure to operate, works really well, and also when you hit the switch/button for the washer, the fluid is right there, avoiding a full sweep of the wiper on a dry windscreen.
They are available here in the parts stores as a generic part, pretty cheap.
Cheers
Phil