Windscreen washer

[stag36587]

So this is irritating. After having had only very limited success with the manual pump, today I fitted an electric kit from one of the main suppliers. Electrically, it works beautifully: when I press the button the pump whirrs away eagerly. Just no water being picked up from the water bottle though. I also tried without the bottle non-return valve too but no better. Am I doing something obviously wrong? The plumbing connections to the pump are 'in' to the bottle and 'out' towards the windscreen.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

[firedrake1942]

You may have to prime the pump, Try sucking through the outlet pipe whilst it is running and before that suck up from the bottle and connect the full pipe to the pump.

[stag36587]

Good plan thanks I'll give that a try

[Trickydicky]

Rinse and fill the bottle with water to prime it, you don't want to poison yourself!

[firedrake1942]

Spoilsport, !

[amgrave]

Reverse the electrical connections and try again, might be the wrong way round so blowing instead of sucking

[stag36587]

[stag36587]

I've found some answers - without blowing or sucking.

Putting electrical connections the other way made no difference but changing the pipes round did - the bottle is now connected to the pump's 'out' inlet and the windscreen pipe to the pump's 'in' outlet It only works if power feed from the fuse box is connected to the pump's '-' terminal and the earth wire to the pump's '+'. terminal though changing wires round at the switch seemed to make no difference. Go figure! Unless I've gone completely mad, I reckon someone was tired at the pump factory and labelled everything the wrong way round? Anyway everything connected back to front and it pump's water beautifully.

Next problem though was that the inline filter (not the bottle one) was not letting any water past (though it used to), oh and the t-piece in the pipe under the windscreen had also come apart. Will get there in the end!

[stag36587]

Success! Managed to get a new inline valve from Halfords and it all now works perfectly. Time for MOT

[firedrake1942]

You should no longer have a problem with the in line valve with an electric pump. I found that infrequent use and low pressure with the push pump suffered from algal growth which blocked the in line filter.