I put oil in windscreen washer bottle...idiot

[Captain Jack]

As subject really. Was too dark to read the bottles and I managed to put in 0.5L of Magnatec's best into the windscreen washer. What can I do? Stick a load of Fairy liquid in to dissolve it?

[Welly]

Syphon it out, then lots of cleaning/flushing with detergent. You don't want to be squirting oil on yer windscreen

[DiscoPol]

Im afraid i have nothing constructive for you on this but as your other half is also Polish................Ale z ciebie dupa

hot water and a good degreaser should shift most of it, remember hot water will work better on the tank but in this weather for gods sake dont squirt it on your screen, hot water onto a cold screen could well spell disaster.

good luck.

[mjb]

Haha dumbass

Front of the wheelarch liner off, yank the pump and let it spill out, put the pump back, fill with fairy liquid in boiling water (try to fill it as fast as possible for maximum splashage), remove the pump without scalding yourself, repeat

Might also be worth unplugging the pump outlet to the jets and flushing the pump through with the boiling fairy after a couple of tank flushes

If you've used the washer after putting the oil in, pull the jets and pipework out of the bonnet and flush them through off the car


Don't use too strong a concentration of fairy if passing it through the pump either - it'll foam up and potentially damage the pump

[Welly]

hot water onto a cold screen could well spell disaster

You know, every morning I fill a 7ltr gardening can with hot water at 58deg C and pour it straight over the Astra and the Volvo's glass with no probs at all even at -7deg C. Been doing this for years now and it's the quikest and most effecting de-icer (as long as you activate the wipers straight away).

carry on.....

[DiscoPol]

I lost a screen on a works van a few years back and have been very wary ever since, each to their own and all that, but i will wait for the day i can say told you so

And out of interest how do you know the exact temp of 58?? do i detect somebody involved in the HVAC business, they are all about the temps, lol

must admit my muppet mistake was on a colder day than we usually get here and it wasnt far off a boiling kettle

[Welly]

Yup I'm a HVAC engineer so I do weird things like taking the temp of the stored hot water in the house

Interestingly (or not) the incoming Mains Cold Water was 6.8 deg C yesterday - chilly! anyone with an electric shower will know what that means

I find that as soon as the hot water touches the large area of glass it instantly cools to around 15 deg's. I'd never use a kettle though.

[Doggy]

Knew someone who swore by using the garden hose to defrost the winders without risk of cracking.
One particularly cold morning his house phone rang, keeping him occupied long enough for his motah to turn into an iceberg on wheels....

[mjb]

Interestingly (or not) the incoming Mains Cold Water was 6.8 deg C yesterday - chilly! anyone with an electric shower will know what that means

The shower in my new house is a mixer tap coming from an on-demand boiler. Currently I'm having to turn it to 100% hot and use just a trickle, presumably because the boiler can't heat the icy cold water quickly enough



As for de-icing windows, I use a 5 litre bottle of water, roughly room temperature (15~20c). Only problem is the area where your car was turns into an ice rink

[Welly]

Well actually the only drawback of my water-can antics is the following skating rink of a driveway

Just seen mjb's post but hey ho....

[Captain Jack]

Welp, I put in loads of hot water in and some highly concentrated mix thing but nothing is coming out either at the windscreen or the headlamp washer end. In fact, I can't even hear the pump working so it's probably seized in oil. Will have to do mjb's method of flushing the tank and checking the pump when I get a chance (not before Friday )

[Welly]

Maybe the pump's seized in Ice since you (presumably) ran it low of fluid recently? the oil should float on top.

[Captain Jack]

Maybe the pump's seized in Ice since you (presumably) ran it low of fluid recently? the oil should float on top.

Ah, good point. It's snowing here right now, so I guess I won't get a working pump until it warms up at some point...

[mjb]

the oil should float on top.

Good point! Just shove a petrol-soaked rag and a match in to burn it off

[Captain Jack]

Or get a spoon and skim it off the top!