95 Riv sprays rust from washer

I noticed a rusty spray over the greenhouse of my wife's Riviera and started to ask her who she was following - bad move! Actually if you get rusty spray from the windshield washer, remove the bottle and check the lower outlet. There is a STEEL colar inside for reinforcement that begins to rust. Work this out with a screw driver, clean and flush the system and the problem goes away. Who designed that thing? Greg

good find!

Graymodeler wrote:

There is a STEEL colar inside for reinforcement that begins to rust.  Work this out with a screw driver, clean and flush the system and the problem goes away.  Who designed that thing?   Greg

Removed my wash reservoir tank and this is what I found:  


Total rust obstruction, Yuck. Hadn't ever used the spray and wipers. Kept the tank full and only discovered it plugged when dismounting reservoir for engine bay detailing.Scraped out, wire brushed out, flushed out. With the tank full of wash fluid, you do not notice this rust issue. Yikes, awful design. I left what was left of the pipe for fear of breaking the plastic fitting if I tried to pry it out. Will be keeping an eye on this.

Shit.....

Yeahah!!! Doing this week to mine haha Lookin forward to that plugged artery

Using the spay feature on a regular basis is good for the system. I've never noticed any problem with mine. It gets used at least once a month.

I use mine all the time but I do know that little metal ring needs to come out for a new one as the whole reservoir is stained orange at this point.

AA and Evan are right!    Use it or loose it. Here's a "as clean as it got" pic. Wire brush cleaning shows metal sleeve insert. Further note, there's a second tank containing the actual pump, inside/below the front passenger wheel well. I cleaned it via a jury rigged wet vac attachment and then swabbed it out with a flex wire gun bore rod, without having to remove the wheel and plastic wheel well. Lower tank and connection hose didn't seem affected by the sleeve decay. whew. Sprays normal (up over the roof top) now.   

Rivit wrote:

whew. Sprays normal (up over the roof top) now.   
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Now ain't that the truth   

llamalor2112 wrote:

Rivit wrote:

whew. Sprays normal (up over the roof top) now.   
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Now ain't that the truth   

Yeah it's like they only ever intended the washers to be used at highway speed. Never around town.

I always liked the "on the wiper arm" design that GM was using for many years. Never had a problem with them except occasionally ice buildup would pop the hose off. Then you'd get the 'straight away' spray out over the hood from one of your washers. But the coverage was always good.

Alright, a bit delayed on my end here but finally got around to this today aaaaaaand no blockage, well...maybe a little rust clumpage, BUT get this. The little metal sleeve I was prepared to clean up is was so rusted and deteriorated that...well, there's actually no metal ring in there at all   So I figure I should find a replacement ring...now for the hard part in trying to find a parts number or suitable replacement. sigh...

Can you just live without it?

I'm wondering but I gotta figure the reason its there to begin with is to help seal the fluid exit and keep the clamp from crunching the plastic wall

I wonder if you could find a piece of thick rigid plastic pipe that could do the job instead of the metal ring.

^most likely what I'll be lookin for. Res isn't goin back on the car yet anyhow. Could NOT get it to clean up from the rusty orange color it has adopted. Gonna give it another wack tomorrow.... coming close to bleaching the dang thing.


And here's how little is left of that ring..

Evan, I think you can just get rid of what's left, clean up the tank and reinstall. A glued replacement 3/4" outside diameter plastic sleeve could be substituted but in my opinion not necessary.  After finding mine as clogged as it was (photo 1) I cleaned as best I could and reinstalled (photo 2). A couple of weeks later I re-inspected and didn't like what was happening (photo 3) so yanked that darn metal sleeve out like a a bad tooth (picture 4) and reinstalled without any substitute support sleeve.    
 

I suspect everyone's sleeve is rusting or has totally rusted out without resultant collapse at the hose fitting. OH, and I did the kitty litter cleaning thing along with a bunch of Ajax, shake rattle and roll with great results. 

I wonder if people just using straight water (or a mix) versus washer fluid see this rust out more/faster?

In other words, I wonder if the sleeve was designed to not rust when submerged in washer fluid? I find it hard to believe they would have used a plain steel ring if was planned to be exposed 100% of its life to a liquid that will rust it out   

I don't put water in washer reservoirs.

[quote="al_roethlisberger"]
... I wonder if the sleeve was designed to not rust when submerged in washer fluid?  I find it hard to believe they would have used a plain steel ring if was planned to be exposed 100% of its life to a liquid that will rust it out    

Al, I wondered the same thing so conducted a kitchen experiment with my now removed metal sleeve:


Two weeks later:





I have no idea if the pink washer fluid corrodes at the same rate as the cheaper blue stuff, or even at all? I'd figure they all rust and most metal support sleeves have likely already rusted virtually away, un-noticed and with no harm done aside from a dirty reservoir tank. Use it or lose it as stated and if it don't work, here's a possible cause and simple fix. Get rid of it!