Windshield Washer Pump frozen>>>>no longer works

[RJXplorer]

Ok, my windshield washer pump on my '98 Sport has been working fine, and in our recent cold spell here in missouri, i have been using a ton of fluid. I ran out last week and my roomate said he had some in the garage to save me a trip to the store. Unfortuanately it was the Super Tech Wal-Mart stuff but i put it in anyway. Now i believe that night or during the next day it froze in the reservoir, and ever since then, even the one day it has been above freezing i CANNOT get any fluid out of the nozzles. I thought it would be clogged lines, so i checked that, but i am also getting any pump noise, so is there any way that when the fluid froze in there that it somehow burned the pump out when i tried to use it? I never laid on it when fluid didnt come out, so i dont think it would be from abuse, but i cant figure it out, and it sucks not having any fluid, as my windshield is one big salt cake and i have to stop at a gas station at least once a day to wipe it off.....any suggestions? I did a search and i dont think it is the switch, because the stoppage in function occured when i switched from good fluid(prestone) to the walmart ****.....

 

[Doug]

Well assuming the pump is functioning it's possible when it froze it damaged the pump, or caused a hose to rupture.

 

[Brian97V8]

Look at the bottle the windshield washer fluid came in. It should be rated for a temp range. As long as there was no water in the fluid then I would say it is probably the pump.

 

[Billy177]

when it froze up it may have blown a fuse

 

[A Wise Guy]

A bottle of rubbing alcohol should also help unfreeze the system if you get the pump functioning again.

 

[twomedicine]

I bought some of that crap this past fall by mistake. Good thing I checked the label, but it was after I had filled my reservoir, that the stuff was simply windshield cleaning fluid (blue colored water). It had no methanol in it. And yes I picked it up at Wal-mart while going cross country.

The fluids that are good to usually -20F are labeled as such and use methanol (wood alcohol) as an antifreeze. Non Isopropanol dry gas additives are pure methanol and you can certainly add some to further bring down the freezing point of the windshield fluid (I use it too for cleaning tape heads, methanol that is)

I have frozen my pump too, and if you let it thaw out you should be OK, unless the expansion damaged something. And you shouldn't try operating it until it's thawed out. If you are anxious to fix it, pull the reservoir out and take it inside and run warm water into it until it's thawed out.

 

[RJXplorer]

cool thanks guys, I checked the bottle and my roomate definintely bought the warm weather formula so in goes the rubbing alcohol, as it isnt supposed to get above freezing here til the very end of the 10 day forecast. Is it just me or is it stupid that you have to bust out the magnifying glass to determine that its the warm weather formula?

 

[Brian97V8]

If you take the truck on a trip and let the engine compartment warm up in might just be enough to thaw out the washer fluid.