windshield wiper fluid will not pray.frozen.what is the best way to fix this problem.and it is going to get even colder tonight thru saturday. dominic
Only way to fix it is to warm it up (heated garage), replace with cold weather fluid.
no room in my garage/no heat.have the all seasonal fluid??it seems like it is frozen in the line. you are correct i will need to put it in a garage. thanks for the advice
I guess living here in the North East most of my life has my view skewed. I’ve NEVER seen any other kind of washer fluid.
going to go over to the auto parts store and get cold weather fluid . good untill -40.i bought the winter booted wipers.but that does not help with the cold weather that we are having in the north east
Yup, we have +32-rated stuff here. Maybe they are selling us just colored water.
They carry winter and summer blends in MA. Sometimes, it’s not super obvious. Last time I bought, I had to read the smaller print on the label to make sure it was good to “h@!! froze over”
going to go over to the auto parts store and get cold weather fluid . good untill -40.
Not too many places in Continental US have seen temps below -40.
They carry winter and summer blends in MA. Sometimes
I’ve NEVER seen it. Then again, I don’t buy too much of that stuff during the summer. Usually one bottle will last me whole summer…I go through about 10 during the winter.
went over and bought a botlle of winter blend windshield fluid.first i got most of the old fluid out and replaced with winter blend.30 minutes later they were working.wanted to thank everyone for their advice.live in pittsburgh and the weather this week is calling for -8 with the wind chill 2.4 inches of snow.stay safe everyone take it slow.dominic
Just bear in mind that your car–like other non-living objects–is not aware of wind-chill.
The ambient temperature will affect your car, and both the ambient temperature and the wind-chill factor will affect you (and your pets), but your car is unaware of and is unaffected by wind-chill.
Get the bottle or can of concentrated fluid. The regular fluid has always frozen in Northern Maine where you can get to -40F.
I’ll testify that they do carry summer mix in the summer in NH. I’ve almost accidentally bought some. I try to be diligent in always reading the label now.
To the OP: the only way is to thaw the system. Find a friend with a warm garage and leave it there overnight. Check the tank…if it’s thawed, the lines should also be thawed. Then purge the old fluid and refill with winter mix.
Let your engine heat up for about a half an hour than hit the jets and if you have hoses on the wiper those too for a while with a hair dryer. Had to do that last night for the wifes car. I added the extra low temp mix and stirred vigerously, the ice chunks in the washer container melted, did multiple blasts of wash to get the new mix in the system and has been good since. One of the hazards of goofy lube (hey I’m just glad she changes the oil) is not knowing what temp rating the washer fluid has.
Depending on how the lines are routed, you may also have to factor in the wind chill caused by the air rushing by your car. On my old '69 Beetle, with the washer reservoir and lines right in the nose of the car and no ambient heat coming from the engine, the -32 degree stuff would freeze all the time when I took trips on the highway in cold (but not -32 cold) weather. On my '86 Accord hatchback, the rear washer uses the front reservoir so there’s a long line that runs right below the sheet metal on the roof and it gets the same problem in similar conditions.
I’ve sworn off the blue stuff for winters. I’ve had good luck with the purple or orange windshield wash/deicer you can mostly buy at truck stops.
Actually, wind chill is a measure of how fast heat is dissipated as measure by how fast water is reduced to freezing temperature. More wind means faster disspation. An ambient temperature of 0 degrees with a -15 degree chill factor means that water will freeze as fast as it would in -15 degrees without wind.
It’s relevent. A warm engine parked facing the wind will reach ambient faster than if the car were parked protected from the wind.
anthoer thing i did. was parked in front of the neighbors 5 ton dump truck.maybe that will help shield some of that could blowing air.i will try anything as long as i dont have to keep jumping in and out of the car to clean the windshield.and the salt crews are using a mix of sinders/sand.with salt and then some type chemical.and that will blacken your winshield in minutes.the salt will not work alone in these temperature.across the us.thank you for all the advice dominic
To clarify the issue, the following is from the Digital Library of the National Science Foundation:
“The only effect of wind on cars is to cool down the engine to the ambient air temperature more quickly than would be expected without wind. The temperature of a car engine can never be lower than the actual temperature. If the air temperature is 40 degrees F and the Wind Chill Factor is 10 F degrees, water will not freeze.”
For many years in Ontario (dam cold in winter) I have used -40F windshield washer fluid ALL year and thus have NO freeze up problems.
Changing from winter to a summer mix then back again is asking for trouble (unless you live in Florida I guess).
Go to a hardware store and buy a gallon of “Denatured Alcohol” and dump it in the tank. Thaw the lines with a blow-drier…