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Hi,
My Mrs Polo is leaking water out by the rear of the front arch (it maybe further forward though) when the rear wash is applied How the flip do I get access to where the pipe goes??? It looks like you need to take bits of trim off in the cabin?? Can anyone shed any light?? I cannot see anything on elsawin that jumps out at all.
thanks in advance.
Edited as it made no sense (I was rushing)
Last edited by monkeychild on Tue Dec 02, 2008 10:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Problem sorted Water was peeing out underneath the car when the rear washer was pressed. Water would come out the rear wash but loads would escape underneath near the front of the car. It was down to a hose coming off that was lurking under a loom, that was situated wayy beneath the air box. It was a right faff finding it but in the end all is well again Saved me paying out for someone else to fix it!!!!
We've had the rear washer die twice since getting the car in September - both times, a different join in the hose had popped apart. One was hidden in the boot behind the left hand (passenger side) carpet and pumping fluid inside the car (the spare wheel was in a puddle of it). The second was deep in the engine bay next to various important looking parts I couldn't name, completely saturating the insulation material at the back of the bay. Neither leak was doing the car any good, that's for sure!
The hose connections are easy enough to pop back together, and well worth hunting down before you get any more serious damage. The one in the back I was able to tape up so it hopefully won't come apart again, but I didn't have the same ease of access in the engine bay, so probably only a matter of time before that goes again.
There is a lot of this about right now - across this platform range - I'd think that you need to be sure that the washer fluid freezing point is low enough to avoid this as I'm sure that it is localised freezing that is expanding the mush and forcing these pipe joints apart. At least when they seperate the rest of the pipework is saved from permanent damage.
It's possible, but I didn't notice the weather being particularly cold on either occasion - they seem to be just really weak joints. I read somewhere that they should have some clips on them to hold them together, which later models did get, but the earlier cars (like our O2) didn't.
The one in the back was going when we bought the car, as we actually noticed a damp patch in the back and used it as a bargaining chip to get the price down. At that point the washer was still working, just, but it failed completely a few days later, prompting the under-carpet investigation. Everything's been dry back there since, which is good news (my other fear was some ingress around the brake light, also reported here, but not evident on ours).
The front join I guess was more exposed, and could have frozen later on. We had about half and half screenwash and water in the tank though.
Yes well water will not try to lubricate these joints as much as strong "winter wash" mix will, so you could be right there. But it does seem to be a real problem, as I said, right now. Maybe I'm lucky as my wife's car was built in early September 2002 - I should really have a look at some of these joints I suppose - I've seen this in the past on my daughter's older style Ibiza - ie wet fresh smelling stuff in the spare wheel tray!
RUM4MO wrote:Yes well water will not try to lubricate these joints as much as strong "winter wash" mix will, so you could be right there. But it does seem to be a real problem, as I said, right now. Maybe I'm lucky as my wife's car was built in early September 2002 - I should really have a look at some of these joints I suppose - I've seen this in the past on my daughter's older style Ibiza - ie wet fresh smelling stuff in the spare wheel tray!
I suppose, thinking about it, it's this time of year that you tend to use the washers more - including the rear washer to help clear frost etc. It's only when you actually use the washer that the water pump puts the hose under pressure, and the joints tend to pop apart - the rest of the time there's no problem...?
How the flip do I get access to where the pipe goes??? It looks like you need to take bits of trim off in the cabin?? Can anyone shed any light?? I cannot see anything on elsawin that jumps out at all.
Water was peeing out underneath the car when the rear washer was pressed. Water would come out the rear wash but loads would escape underneath near the front of the car. It was down to a hose coming off that was lurking under a loom, that was situated wayy beneath the air box. It was a right faff finding it but in the end all is well again 
Saved me paying out for someone else to fix it!!!!
