Headlight wipers: given up on them yet? POLL

[KlubMarcus]

Here in Arizona the headlight wipers are just not needed, the heat kills them and they sick to the glass lens.They were working when I purchased the car a year ago (114000miles) on the odometer but were in poor condition so I removed the arms and left the motors in so when I sell I will just replace the arms, in snow country they would be needed.

How do you remove the headlight wiper arms and seal off the nozzles? They just aren't useful enough to bother fixing unless a bag of money falls of the back of a truck and lands on my hood.

[zhenya]

Ha. One of mine just quit recently. I plan on fixing it because I'm like that and used ones with lifetime replacement guarantees aren't that expensive. How hard is the replacement on an 850?

[matthew1]

How do you remove the headlight wiper arms and seal off the nozzles?

There's a nut on the arms, easy. I pulled out all the washer fluid line from where it T's off near the ECU box under the hood. Screwed a small, short general purpose screw in the vacant hole. Out front, the motors and masts are still there, the masts poking through without arms. Hardly noticeable. I saw some "blanks" sold somewhere for when you take the motors out and don't want the holes showing.

[dosbricks]

My wagon has them and they still work here in Texas (always garaged). I've cut and recycled other blades into the arms. I agree that the necessity/functionality of them is questionable in the first place--other than to announce that here is a premimum European sport sedan/wagon.

[jimmy57]

Go to Denver in the winter they don't salt, they sandy dirt the roads as traction help. three days later when the temp warms and the snow melts the mud spray covers your headlights and you can't see to drive. Voila' , wash windshield and miraculously you can see again. The new plastic headlamps have squirters, WAY less effective.

[jblackburn]

Collin fixed mine after I gave him the car and they hadn't worked for 5 years.

[KlubMarcus]

How do you remove the headlight wiper arms and seal off the nozzles?

There's a nut on the arms, easy. I pulled out all the washer fluid line from where it T's off near the ECU box under the hood. Screwed a small, short general purpose screw in the vacant hole. Out front, the motors and masts are still there, the masts poking through without arms. Hardly noticeable. I saw some "blanks" sold somewhere for when you take the motors out and don't want the holes showing.

Found the nut, but where/which washer fluid line supplies the headlights? It's a forest of fluid lines and wiring down there.

[jblackburn]

Found the nut, but where/which washer fluid line supplies the headlights? It's a forest of fluid lines and wiring down there.

Right under the passenger side headlight. They come to a 3-way valve. Pinch off the smaller 2 or just the big line itself.

[KlubMarcus]

Found the nut, but where/which washer fluid line supplies the headlights? It's a forest of fluid lines and wiring down there.

Right under the passenger side headlight. They come to a 3-way valve. Pinch off the smaller 2 or just the big line itself.

I just found a solution for my 1998 V70 XC that doesn't involve blocking with a screw or pinching the washer fluid line. I followed the headlight washer lines back down to the bottom of the washer fluid tank, in front of the passenger wheel well, and behind the foglight. It looks like the pump outputs to a short fluid line with a T-connection. One branch of the T goes to the windshield and the other branch goes to the headlights.

T-connection from bottom of washer fluid tank, one to windshield and the other to headlights.

CIMG1820 (800x448).jpg (203.3 KiB) Viewed 2498 times

So I disconnected everything for the headlights and connected the windshield line directly to the bottom washer fluid pump. The windshield gets a really good spray now. The rear window pump and washer line wasn't touched and as before. Yes, a lot of washer fluid ended up on the garage floor as I disconnected and reconnected the pump.

Connect windshield nozzle line directly to the washer fluid tank. Remove the lines for the headlights.

CIMG1821 (800x448).jpg (216.17 KiB) Viewed 2498 times

Here are the headlight washer parts that I removed excluding the motors.

Headlight washer parts removed from 1998 V70 XC, left motors. For sale, cheap, slightly used!

CIMG1822 (448x800).jpg (185.12 KiB) Viewed 2475 times

[fazool]

I'm in the snowbelt of Western New York.

My 2001 S60 with 154K miles has seen a dozen brutal Buffalo winters and these still work terrific. I replaced the arm on one because I broke it cleaning it. I lube them and change the blades and keep an eye on them. I'm very happy with them and wish my 2007 had these instead of the pop-up sprayer (which admittedly looks more high tech).