Rear screenwash help

[whisp]

Hi I hope you can help,

I have just recently bought a 1998 AUDI A3 1.8T and I am bery pleased with it, however there are this niggly things that don't work when you buy it. One of the main things is the rear screen wash doesn't work. You you try to activate it you can hear the motor work but no fluid. I'm hoping that theres just a blockage in the tube. I can see that the tube is connected to the bottom of the reservoir bottle but how do I get to the tube in the boot?

Any other ideas? Thankyou for your time!

 

[AwesomeSarah]

Hi Mate
I do know that the pipe can pop off
I do believe that the boot trim has to come off
but maybe get a few other opinions on this , but hey could be worth a try
Sarah

 

[rodenal]

It can pop out i na couple of places

on my car the tube had come out on the passengers side of the engine bay, near the suspension turret and it had popped off at the connection to the washer jet right at the back, underneath the boot panel.

Its a case of try it, and follow the tube to spot any water that's leaking then plug it back in lol

 

[rodenal]

Sorry the panel comes off just by twisting the two clips 90 degrees then giving it a decent pull from memory

 

[abdus]

mine's behind just under the rear bumper/rear inner arch. Will get it fixed soon and get some pictures if possible.

 

[jesters3]

Check out this link http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=10646

It sorted my issue a treat, takes about 30mins to do.

 

[jcs356]

Mine had popped off in the wiring tunnel in the engine bay. You need to remove the air filter housing and underneath you will see some black trunking roughly 50mm by 50mm running from the battery, under the air filter housing, and up the scuttle panel roughly behind the glovebox. The rear wash pipe runs through there and there is a joint buried in with all the electric cables.

Did it twice until I glued it on.

 

[naquiss]

There are a number of joins in the washer hose, coming from the fluid reservoir, that can come undone. One is in the boot, above the left wheel arch, behind the subwoofer. Another is in the engine bay, not exactly sure where, but somewhere beneath the black box next to the front passenger side strut mount (see jcs356 post above for more details on that one). Yet another place is at the fluid reservoir/pump itself.

Remove the tailgate trim and pop off the hose from the washer and see if water comes out from there when you operate the rear wash. If so, then that other thread could help you (http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=10646).

If not, check the following after operating the rear wash wipe (better still, someone operates while you check):

1. In the boot. Remove the boot mat and check for signs of water/damp on the boot floor and the sound deadening material underneath the subwoofer. The fluid can also well up in the cavity beneath the alarm siren, so put your hand down there and see if there is any water.

2. Check for water beneath the front left wheel arch.

3. Check for water beneath the front right wheel arch.

Wherever you find the leak, they are a right pain the a*** to get to the hose to fix.

If you find the leak, and it is a loose join rather than a split hose, just reconnect and reinforce it with cable ties, this should prevent recurrence.

This is a common fault on A3s.

 

[AndyMac]

The tube can also fail underneath the tupperware sub, so check if the underlay is wet in that area. This is a nightmare as the alarm siren/battery & the central locking pump sits at the bottom, and you don't want either water logged.

 

[naquiss]

Lottie, I'm pretty convinced the join in the washer hose behind the sub woofer box is the culprit. Trouble is, you need to remove, or at least bend back the side trim far enough to remove the sub woofer (a few bolts, and some fiddling; some wires are clamped to the sub box, so you need to detach that as well), then peel back the carpet and there you will find the hose amongst other wiring. Its just above the top/crest of the wheel arch.

I emptied approx 4 litres of washer fluid into my boot attepting to find this result of the finest german engineering. It was leaking all over electrical joins and welling up in the cavity where the alarm siren is seated. Needless to say the alarm siren was almost submerged. The cavity down there holds about a 1 litre of water, so have a large sponge handy!

I fixed mine a couple of weeks back but have not reassembled it, so will take some pics and post it here if you need.

I also have the leaks in the engine bay beneath the air filter and at the washer reservoir. What a pain in the a***!!!

 

[naquiss]

"...then peel back the carpet and..."

I mean to say pull back the loose thin grey carpet, don't peel off the underlay!

 

[recomdos]

Mine has popped on the passenger side under the engine bay. The thing is though my strut brace is over the top and I don't have an attachment big enough to take it off! heh. Just one of those little things that gets left I guess. Though I do wonder if it would be causing any rust (obviously I don't use the 'squisher' as I know it doesn't work).

 

[jonS3]

The tube can also fail underneath the tupperware sub, so check if the underlay is wet in that area. This is a nightmare as the alarm siren/battery & the central locking pump sits at the bottom, and you don't want either water logged.

mine went here, search for the thread, i posted up a few helpful pics too...

 

[jonS3]

i beleive it might have even been your guide that helped me out andy

 

[AndyMac]

I only discovered it while I was fitting a stealth sub in a customers A3, this one wasn't as bad as yours, it had just drenched the underlay underneath the sub. An easy fix for me as I was taking the sub out anyway, but a real pig of a job otherwise.

 

[naquiss]

If you only rejoined the tube for that customer, its probably since come undone again!!!

 

[jonS3]

I dried mine up, re-clicked mine into place and then electrical taped it up real nice, so that it's never going to split there again. i know it done for a reason, so that it pops off under pressure, but it will just have to pop off some other place which will be easier to fix! just make sure for winter you put a good dose of screen wash in so it doesnt freeze, as this is what can cause it to pop off....

 

[AndyMac]

If you only rejoined the tube for that customer, its probably since come undone again!!!

Taped and zip tied it so it's going nowhere.

 

[whisp]

thanks for all the help dudes. The tube was still connected to the water bottle so its something in between the engine and the boot. I don't have much time to have a proper look (especially with the weather in manchester!) so I have booked it in at a local garage! I will tell you what he finds! Thanks a lot for the help!!

 

[grathies]

If youve had it leaking in thru the boot and start getting erratic alarm setting and the boot light showing as open then its probs saturated the boot switch sensor, seen that happen more than a few times, tripping out the microswitch

 

[grathies]

I mean the boot open warning light, it can often come on months after the event for no reason due to the switch corroding

 

[simch]

I just found this, my mk4 was leaking in the head lining so I did that, then tried the s3 and although some water does come out, after about 5 seconds, its not as instant or powerful as the mk4 is now. So after emptying a load through and not much getting to the back screen, I noticed a big puddle around the rear pass wheel, and a drip coming from under the rear wheele arch liner!! So I suspect its split or leaking under there, looks to be a pain in the proverbial to sort out! I am tempted to go see Andymac and get that bose sub junked if it all has to come out to fix the poxy washer pipe.

How strange is it, I have a Rover BRM that me and the missus have had from new, now 8.5 years old, 95k miles, never broken down once, oil chages, that's it and absolutely flies too! I have a mk4 that I have had 4 years, spent at least 4k on mods and about £2k in repairs to it. My S3 has had new coilpacks, lambda probe, the cats were shot, (replaced with the IHI conversion) and a split intercoller, all in a year. Oh and both windows droped since xmas on my mk4 !!!
I am beginning to wonder where all this German Engineering went!! My alarm siren is so crap, when the s3 got broke into, i could not hear it when stood next to the car, with no window in it! Now maybe I think its crap, but extra crap because its waterlogged......! !
Oh well, while its being fixed at least I can drive the trusty old Rover.?!?!?!