UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

My daughter tells me her screenwash reservoir has emptied after only filling it yesterday. Could be a pipe popped off due to freezing weather or reservoir split perhaps. Any clues on what sort of job it is to get at the reservoir please and check the pipework? Unusually I can't find much info on here or on YouTube.

It’s quite easily accessed from the front. Fill it up and see if the water is rushing out. It’s quite possible one of the hoses has split of the unions ha popped apart

Thanks for that Alex. The car will be here shortly so I'll be getting a good look at it then. It's a balmy 3C here this morning so a bit nippy for working outside.

Sent from my Vodafone Smart ultra 6 using Tapatalk

Well that wasn't too bad. The worst bit was loosening the wheel bolts. Ridiculously overtightened by some gorilla.
With the wheel off it was a case of removing a handful of Torx screws that secure the front section of the wing liner. It was then possible to pull the wing liner toward the rear of the car and tie it back to the suspension with a length of baler twine through a screw hole in the liner.
This gives you a good view of the reservoir, pump, pipework, and a selection of dead leaves and cobwebs. Looking at the pump it was obvious that the part of the pump that has two pipes attached was out of alignment - presumably pushed out of place by freezing.
The pump just pulls out vertically to give better access to things. I was then able to gently use a pair of slip-joint pliers to squeeze the component back into alignment and test for leaks - all OK! I took a couple of pics but since Photobucket is no longer free I haven't sorted a hosting site.

Good stuff, maybe now check/correct all the other wheel bolts on that car!

Baler twine, ah, I know someone that claims that if you use enough of that, you can compress road springs and tie the springs up tightly and remove them "sort of safely" - I'd always give that use of baler twine a miss!

I've always found that when you take these small Torx headed screws out that the plastic captive nut part breaks possibly ripped to bits by the build up of rust on the exposed end of these screws - for that reason, I tend to keep a stock of these plastic push in nuts available just in case I need to remove a wheel arch liner.

Edit:- I'll also congratulate you on your description of these pliers, I have a few different types of them but probably wrongly just group them together as "water pump" pliers.

RUM4MO wrote:Good stuff, maybe now check/correct all the other wheel bolts on that car!

Baler twine, ah, I know someone that claims that if you use enough of that, you can compress road springs and tie the springs up tightly and remove them "sort of safely" - I'd always give that use of baler twine a miss!

I've always found that when you take these small Torx headed screws out that the plastic captive nut part breaks possibly ripped to bits by the build up of rust on the exposed end of these screws - for that reason, I tend to keep a stock of these plastic push in nuts available just in case I need to remove a wheel arch liner.

Edit:- I'll also congratulate you on your description of these pliers, I have a few different types of them but probably wrongly just group them together as "water pump" pliers.

Good point about the wheel bolts. I think I might borrow a breaker bar to do this as I don't think I've ever found anything tighter.
I genuinely thought something was going to break.

Yes, I normally keep baler twine for tying runner bean sticks - wouldn't want to try it on suspension springs!

I must've been lucky with the fastenings because although they were rusty nothing fell off or disintegrated - and all the holes lined up when things went back together too!

I've often wondered what the proper name was for these pliers/grips. My Dad always called them water pump pliers but when I saw them described as slip-joint pliers it seemed a reasonable description.



Sent from my Vodafone Smart ultra 6 using Tapatalk