frozen wipers and squirter jet heating

[dieselnutjob]

I forgot about a problem with the 607 until this morning

 

if water gets into the wipers the wipers freeze up so that they can't flex and the wiper only touches the glass at each end of the wiper (i.e same as not at all).

It's not the rubber blade that freezes but all the little hinges that allow the blade to flex, and also there is a U section in the arm that the blade runs through and I think it freezes there.

 

For some reason the 607 is worse than any other car I ever owned for this. This morning I tipped some warm water on the screen to defrost it and everything was fine until 1/2 hr later on the M25 I try to squirt the windows and the water from before has now frozen inside the wipers. Maybe the wind blows the wipers dry on my other cars but on the 607 they park below the rear edge of the bonnet.

 

So what to do? I was thinking that I could get some extra squirter jet hose and wrap it around the coolant hose that goes to the heater matrix. The water would get pretty hot (maybe 80-90 degrees) which would be useful in the cold and might even get into the wiper and unfreeze it. Could it crack the screen or cause other issues?

 

Another possibility is try to duct some hot air from the back of the engine onto the wiper arms in the parked position but that's not so easy.

[Station]

Omega had heated jets - little elements inside the washer jets.

Try using 100% screen wash, or using none at all until you use the car.

[dieselnutjob]

I think that those heated jets are only to stop the water freezing in the jet and blocking it. They don't actually make the water hot.

[Station]

The element only did stop them freezing yes, nothing more.

[ashmicro]

Hammer a smaller...My mark 4 FishFace Fiesta had issues with the washer fluid freezing, Rover specced 50.50 mix and it worked for me. CarPlan 5 litres is about 4 quid, mix it half and half and job jobbed. Best stuff for de-icing I ever got was Mercedes non-aerosol. I still have some from years ago, and will be getting more as I just bought a new Merc.

[M'coli]

Once you've defrosted the car with the hot water, give the wipers a thorough soaking in de-icer to displace the water.

[dieselnutjob]

that's actually a really good idea, though the 607 manages to even be pain in the arse there.

 

because the wipers are under the edge of the bonnet the only way to get to them is to turn the engine off and then pull the wiper lever, which parks the wipers in the up position so that you can change / clean the blades. There is no way to do it with the engine running

[pompei]

When I had my BX driving in freezing weather was a right PITA because instead of a nozzle or jet, the washer pipe is secured to the wiper and squirts direct onto the screen. Brilliant until it froze as there was no heat rising from the bonnet to defrost the nozzle... Fiat Coupe has the same arrangement but I've not used it yet in the cold.

 

I did consider fitting nozzles on the BX bonnet and wonder if anyone went down this route?

[scooters]

years of using BX's in the highlands taught me to use a very concentrated wash/water mix - 80 to 20 or at least 60/40. Anything less would freeze solid below -5 - the read mixed ones are usually too dilute for the very cold conditions.

 

Although it gets expensive filling up the washer bottle the plus side is that the BX's system of squirting the fluid from the wiper means efficiant use of the fluid - you should try an Insignia - 4 super powered jets - get through a huge washer tank in a few hours - the BX I drove from Edinburgh to London and back in mid December and didn't even use a tank full of fluid

[Taff]

i got given a bottle of shite polish spirit for christmas, and this has now found it's way into the washers of my polo.

tasted like horse piss and i doubt it will freeze

[red5]

Are the hinges on the wiper blade itself exposed? I remember 'curing' this on some Foreignâ„¢ shite by careful application of moly grease on the hinge pivots.

 

Very careful.

 

Also had a mk1 Cortina fitted with a small sleeve on the top hose with an inlet/outlet that you routed washer pipe too and from. Obviously designed to give you warm water on the screen at cruising speeds but had the knock-on effect of defrosting frozen pipe much quicker. Hose long enough to ensure water had cooled before hitting screen though ....kit was very specific on length and routing of hose. I guess the 'reservoir' also regulated temperature somewhat.

[Pillock]

It was pretty cold this morning with windchill by all accounts - my car defrosted OK but after 40-odd miles @ "70mph" there was a massive titanic-threatening iceberg at the bottom of the screen which was all the screenwash I'd used on the journey. Due to daft design, even with heated jets this lump of ice stopped anything hitting the screen after a while.

[Father Ted]

Change the wiper blades to those single piece of rubber type. I first encountered them on the Zafira, the Micra and the C8 have them now - no flexing, no little joints. Just a nice clear screen. IIRC about £15/blade for the C8 for decent Bosch ones and £4 blade from Tesco for El-Cheapo ones on the Micra (which 2 years on have just started to judder a bit).

[dieselnutjob]

I looked on www.wiperblades.co.uk but they don't do flat ones for a 607. On ebay they have only mega cheap ones which I suspect will be rubbish

[dieselnutjob]

Bosch web site conventional only

arse

[Father Ted]

Does the 806 have clap hands wipers or "normal" ones

http://www.wiperblades.co.uk/citroen-c8 ... er-blades/

Are the ones for the C8 - I cant see the 806 being too different really?

 

EDIT:-

Whoops, wrong link - these are the Bosch ones

http://www.wiperblades.co.uk/citroen-c8 ... er-blades/

 

EDIT AGAIN:

http://www.wiperblades.co.uk/peugeot-80 ... er-blades/

Generic ones for £15 pair, recommended by the Caravan club, so probably not all that crap.

 

ANOTHER BLOODY EDIT:-

Just ordered a pair for the Micra - £14 delivered. Cant moan really if they do another couple of years like the last pair

[Pete-M]

Neat Skoda screenwash, heated nozzles. That's ok to about -12°C

[dieselnutjob]

Peugeot 607 wipers are very low profile so that they go under the bonnet. Not sure that they have the normal hook arrangement.

Peugeot 607 wiper by dieselnutjob, on Flickr

[RENOMAD]

We sell these at work--good job

 

http://www.heatshot.com/UK/

[dieselnutjob]

here is the wierd clip on the end of the arm

IMAG0222 by dieselnutjob, on Flickr

the blade clips into the U channel inside the pivot points

 

and here is arm with the wing and clip removed

IMAG0224 by dieselnutjob, on Flickr

it's not really supposed to come off but with a but of levering it comes off

 

I went to Halfords to have a look see and the new Bosch "Aerotwin Multi-Clip" have a blade with a hole that line up pretty well with those two holes. They didn't have the right lengths but it gave me the confidence to order some on the Internet.

[Cavcraft]

I wouldn't pour warm or hot water on the screen, that's for sure. Lesson learnt after I cracked the screen on a Mk3 Transit a few years back.

[scooters]

the device that rennermads company sell heats the water to 56 degrees exactly which is not enough to break the glass even at -30 apparantly! but it's £175 sheets

 

so that's my 'route the extra long washer hose along the upper cooling pipe with cable tie on the cheap washer heater system' out the windae then!

[dollywobbler]

HOT water is certainly an issue Billy, but I've used a kettle of WARM water to defrost my cars for years. This week, I've been using the kettle to defrost the door locks and handles as well...

[dieselnutjob]

I wouldn't poor hot water on a windscreen either, but a couple of litres of lukewarm water does nicely. Down here in London it's only just below freezing anyway and by the time I've gotten out of Ruislip the engine is warm.

[Barry Cade]

Find one of these in the scrappys' off an old classic 900- I fitted this one to my 190D, along with a flat blade wiper and with the standard fit heated jets and some screenwash - no worries.

 

 

 

 

Or the real autoshite way...

 

One of these in your washer bottle

 

[gtd2000]

HOT water is certainly an issue Billy, but I've used a kettle of WARM water to defrost my cars for years. This week, I've been using the kettle to defrost the door locks and handles as well...

 

That's potentially going to end up in a worse situation than you started - once you get water ingress into the locks it will be more likely to freeze up next time...so you pour more hot water on the locks and they freeze up next time - repeat as often as you like

 

It's better to heat them with warm air if at all possible - I've had my gob round the door lock in the past to do this..lol

 

Probably better if nobody can see you doing this

 

I've used the kettle on the windscreen a few times and been lucky enough to get away with it - I think it's more of an issue if you have a small crack that may not be visible in the screen....which will become a large crack...

[Lufthansa-Terminal]

i got given a bottle of shite polish spirit for christmas tasted like horse piss

 

Tell us the story of when you drank horse piss to base that comparison on.

[dieselnutjob]

I've had my gob round the door lock in the past to do this..lol

 

Probably better if nobody can see you doing this

 

If you put you gob on on a cold door lock won't it be pretty wet from your warm breath condensing on it?

[dollywobbler]

HOT water is certainly an issue Billy, but I've used a kettle of WARM water to defrost my cars for years. This week, I've been using the kettle to defrost the door locks and handles as well...

 

That's potentially going to end up in a worse situation than you started - once you get water ingress into the locks it will be more likely to freeze up next time...so you pour more hot water on the locks and they freeze up next time - repeat as often as you like

 

I know. But I had a kettle of warm water in my hand ready to tackle the windscreen and an urgent appointment!

[gtd2000]

I've had my gob round the door lock in the past to do this..lol

 

Probably better if nobody can see you doing this

 

If you put you gob on on a cold door lock won't it be pretty wet from your warm breath condensing on it?

 

Not nearly as wet as a hot kettle/water though