It takes one to know one, lol. I guess we'll need adjoining balconies at the Sandringham this year so we can compare notes.
I'm glad you said notes!!!!!!
Technical What I think of the windscreen washers on the 500
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Technical What I think of the windscreen washers on the 500
I'm glad you said notes!!!!!!
My passenger side one popped out last night on the way home from seeing Avatar. Great film tho!
Just had my first set replaced. Hopefully these will last longer. The guy was really good saying that they get them in all the time and they have been complaining to Fiat. But other than keep replacing them there is nothing they can do.
He also said their commercial customers who do loads of miles are glueing them in but he cant recommend that as it would invalidate the warranty.
Hopefully FIAT will fix the problem soon.
He also said their commercial customers who do loads of miles are glueing them in but he cant recommend that as it would invalidate the warranty.
Hopefully FIAT will fix the problem soon.
If they're glued in though, they shouldn't pop out, so the warranty work wouldn't need to be done. Maybe.
jakedeano
New member
Mine did the same when I got the car which was September and no frost I had it replaced on the drivers side and it's been fine but the passenger side has done the same during the icy weather despite having screen wash solution to prevent freezing. I found the little barrel in the plastic near the wiper and refitted but this still keeps popping out. Also my back jet sounds like uts working but no water comes out on the back window. I know it's small thing but very simple and shouldn't happen on a new car and why dint they replace both on the front when doing the other if they know it's common fault as the dealer explained. This is the niggling type of faults fiat get called for and is so simple to rectify in the design process after all this raised it's head clearly on the Panda.
That's not quite true. They would only void the warranty on the modified part.
Westover are well aware of this problem, both mine have been done now, so 2 visits to the service area and waiting over an hour each time for work to be done. DON'T accept any nonsense about not being covered under warranty. It is an inherent design fault, well known and documented as shown by us all on the forum. Trouble is one can get quite concerned if on the motorway and need to use spray as you end up worrying that they may pop out again, it's a distraction you don't need!
Regards
Regards
not had any problems since filling the washer reservoir with proper ready mixed winter grade screenwash
tc500
New member
Had car since June '09, but didn't have the problem 'til just before Christmas, the day after I read about it on the forum! Was using ready-mixed winter wash and the nozzles have never actually frozen, but when pushing them back in (really cold weather) the inner cylinders felt a really sloppy fit. I read all the suggested fixes, as I can't be bothered to drive an hour to dealer and wait for the same bad design to be refitted. Rather than glue or melt the plastic or actually "mash" it, as some suggest, I just made the cylinders slightly oval on their inner edge by squeezing progressively but hard, with a pipe-grip type wrench (only a smallish one - max jaw opening about 15cm). They haven't come out again since (fingers still crossed!) and they adjust as they always did.
FireballXL5man
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Or blue tack coloured with black marker pen ink.
My passenger side cylinder has just popped out. That's exactly the fix that I was thinking of trying, does it work?
FireballXL5man
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I thought about this for a while (about two minutes!) and felt that Bluetac might only be a temporary fix. I decided to wrap a piece of Sellotape about 3mm wide around the end of the cylinder. I wrapped it once only, thereby increasing the diameter by the thickness of a piece of Sellotape (a minute increase in diameter). It made the cylinder a much tighter fit in the bore. I can still turn it to aim the nozzles, but I'd be surprised if it comes out again.
We'll see if it works, it may not, but it looks promising.
We'll see if it works, it may not, but it looks promising.
I think once the thing has come out and there's soapy wash on the barrel, just the pressure of the water pops it out regardless of the temperature. This is what has happened recently to my passenger side one. I did the hot knife thing and put a little groove in it, this was enough to tighten the fit and it is still adjustable (I know this as I got it wrong when I first put it back in and water shot over the top and scared the neighbours cat).
FireballXL5man
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I went out in the 500 last night and the passenger side spray cylinder with the Sellotape "collar" behaved perfectly with repeated use. However, the driver side spray cylinder decided that it should work its way out, so I repeated the process, being careful not to overlap the Sellotape (just once around the cylinder. It made a near perfect fit, but still with enough movement to aim the jets at the correct place on the screen. We'll see if it stays that way.
Has anyone else noticed how quickly that use of the windscreen washers empties the screen wash reservoir?
Has anyone else noticed how quickly that use of the windscreen washers empties the screen wash reservoir?
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It's because you have to hold the stalk down for a second or two for the wipers to activate, otherwise you are left with water on your screen.
Coupled with the fact that in this weather, you can go through the reservoir pretty quickly
OP
OP
and the resevoir is pretty small. My 406 held something silly like 8 litres.
I was thinking the one in the 500 was pretty capacious. IIRC the one in my Cinquecento was tiny... and now I think about it, I think it was a plastic bag fastened to the side of the engine compartment! Could be mistaking this for one of my many other long dead Fiats tho...
OP
OP
I had a 131 which didn't even have working washers
You try getting parts for a 20 year old Fiat in Australia!
