Re: retrofitting headlight washers

["Ian J Haseltine" <jim_haseltine@email.msn.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Huw Powell <human@nh.ultranet.com>


>I have long contempletd this project for my coupe.  Seems to me to be
>fairly simple, sort of.  1.  Mount a pair of normal windsheild squirters
>(about $8 new?) in the bumper in front of the low beam or between the
>two lenses.  2.  Try to run it in parallel off the existing windsheild
>washer tank and pump.  3.  If not enough pressure, take a spare tank and
>pump from the junk parts bin and find a place to mount it, run it
>electrically in parallel off the existing windsheild pump.  Might use a
>relay to avoid melting wires depending on measured load of the pump(s)
>and wiring diagram indicated wire gauges.


BTDT about 10 years ago on a Rover. Absolute waste of time, money and
effort.
I used a pump and two jets for each headlight (clarification - thats 2 pumps
and 4 jets in total) and wired the pumps via a low beam energised relay.
Honestly, it would have been more effective to stop the car, get out and
p*ss on the lights every time that I wanted to clean them. The volume and
force of the water delivered by windscreen jets and pumps is only any good
if there are wipers too. Jets alone require really high pressures and
volumes, the supply pipe has to be in the region of 10mm id, maybe more and
the pump has to have real power, the jets too have to be able to deliver the
water, little pin-prick ones are useless, they need to be something like
4mm.

Jim Haseltine
88 Ur quattro