(G) Dribbling rear washer

Does the rear washer jet just dribble or is it a fault on my car? When I squirt the water tends to dribble out after the wiper has been across it. My old Seicento was the same and I thought it was just blocked, but this car has done it since new.

It's just the water left in the jet. Once the dribble has come out that's the end of it.

What do you mean? If I hold the stalk forward then the water will keep dribbling out. I'm not low on water either because I filled up at the weekend (and the front ones work as expected).

Operating the lever results ina flow of water/screenwash down the rear screen, not exactly a spray, more like an open ended hose pipe but obviously less low. For up to 5 minutes after i have residues creeping down the rear screen which is annoying as i have to wipe the rear sceen a few times to clear it

Possibly there's a (limited) syphon effect going on. Mine floods the rear screen very efficiently, but yes, there's a few dribbles after. Not an issue, an odd swipe with the rear wipe and it's gone.

It sounds like my one is normal then. Why can't modern cars have washer jets that work as well as the did on older cars?

I think generally they are better on newer cars. Remember learning to drive in a 1.1 Fiesta and having a thing on the floor that you pumped with your foot!

I reckon on more expensive cars the washers can be better. My old 325i coupe had an extra reservoir for neat washer fluid with it's own higher pressure pump. Was called an 'intense wash or something'. So you had the normal washers, then when you got a load of bugs on your screen you could hit the button for the intense wash and it blasted them off. Really good idea I thought.

lol I didn't know that they ever had foot pumps. I learned to drive in a R reg Fiesta and I'm pretty sure that it didn't have a foot pump.

My Seicento was much better IMHO and that was a similar price. It also only had three rather than four jets, but still did a better job.

I remember finger-operated pumps - you pushed a big button into the dashboard and got a feeble squirt.
The foot switches that I remember were for dip/main headlights.

We're going back to mk1 Fiesta teritory of the 70's-80's

Check for any leaks in the hoses going from the washer bottle to the rear jet, could be loss of pressure, also there are small roundlets which join sections of pipes together sometimes you get one that becomes partially blocked and causes poor washer pressure.