Found a very old bottle of 5L pure screenwash from Halfrauds the other week, not been used in a few years i think, but used it anyway, although i did not freeze during the night, and washes fairly well, cruising along at a gentle 80mph this morning, near High Wycombe with the temp gauge saying it was -8.5 outside  :o

The water froze to the blades as soon as it touched it  :o

Although it does look like i sneezed and snotted them....

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/803897/Omega/Misc/washer-fluid.jpg

Yuk  ;D ;D ;D ;D Has your car got a cold :)

Mine's fairly new and still froze :o :o :o

And it's neat in the bottle at the moment ;) ;) ;)

Would it be worth adding a touch of coolant into the washer bottle or would that be potentially reckless and disasterous?

Omegadoha, Desert Member wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 14:10:

Would it be worth adding a touch of coolant into the washer bottle or would that be potentially reckless and disasterous?

Not unless i intend on drinking it! Screenwash is anti-freeze anyway....

I'll use this lot then flush it with water, and put some GM stuff in  :)

Doesn't antifreeze take the paint off?????  :o ::) :y

PhilRich wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 14:42:

Doesn't antifreeze take the paint off?????  :o ::) :y

Yes, just a bit different to screenwash!!!

he did say capful.... that mixture to 7L of water is not going to do much.

I use the Holts stuff.  Partly because its dirt cheap at Costco, but mainly becuase Costco had a 2 for 1 offer a couple of weeks back ;)

I bought 5 ltrs of the Vauxhall stuff, its cheap and works well enough

do not buy the readymix from halfrauds. i did and it froze in the pipes and bottle at -5. that was the pink so called premium. god knows what temp the blue stuff freezes at. get one that you can mix yourself so you can decide on the mix ratio. i put some non premixed in (-23) neat. hasnt froze yet.

john

tunnie wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 14:47:

he did say capful.... that mixture to 7L of water is not going to do much.

Yep, a touch of coolant as opposed to a Touch of Frost.  ;D

Omegadoha, Desert Member wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 15:55:

tunnie wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 14:47: he did say capful.... that mixture to 7L of water is not going to do much. Yep, a touch of coolant as opposed to a Touch of Frost.  ;D

Fantastic series, i love every one of those episodes  :)

tunnie wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 16:03:

Omegadoha, Desert Member wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 15:55: tunnie wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 14:47: he did say capful.... that mixture to 7L of water is not going to do much. Yep, a touch of coolant as opposed to a Touch of Frost.  ;D Fantastic series, i love every one of those episodes  :)

Nah, hate 'em.  Can't see him in non comedy roles to be honest

TheBoy wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 16:05:

tunnie wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 16:03: Omegadoha, Desert Member wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 15:55: tunnie wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 14:47: he did say capful.... that mixture to 7L of water is not going to do much. Yep, a touch of coolant as opposed to a Touch of Frost.  ;D Fantastic series, i love every one of those episodes  :) Nah, hate 'em.  Can't see him in non comedy roles to be honest

I think they are excellent, and he does well in all of them.

tunnie wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 16:08:

TheBoy wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 16:05: tunnie wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 16:03: Omegadoha, Desert Member wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 15:55: tunnie wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 14:47: he did say capful.... that mixture to 7L of water is not going to do much. Yep, a touch of coolant as opposed to a Touch of Frost.  ;D Fantastic series, i love every one of those episodes  :) Nah, hate 'em.  Can't see him in non comedy roles to be honest I think they are excellent, and he does well in all of them.

Porridge, Open All Hours, and of course Delboy.  Can't see beyond that I'm afraid.

Have had the pleasure of meeting him though :)

Vx screen wash, works well, cheap enough and does no turn to snot (like comma and carplan crap)

mine where frozen on the m4 at lunch time today. Looks like i'm going to have to use it neat. 25%sw roughly and frozen solid. Melted when i got to Slough as it was plus 2 degrees here at 12 o clock. Snow falling but its just slush on the ground.

Marks DTM Calib wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 16:35:

Vx screen wash, works well, cheap enough and does no turn to snot (like comma and carplan crap)

I found, with GM, that the headlight washers used to leave foam done the side of the car when it was really cold. Can't complain about its effectiveness though, and would happily use it again. Its just the Holts seems to be equally effective, but much cheaper (from cash&carry), and the amount mine gets through (with the headlight washers) makes it a good saving.

TheBoy wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 19:47:

..... and the amount mine gets through (with the headlight washers) makes it a good saving.

Screen wash lasts loads longer if you put the headlight washer relay's fuse in your door pocket!  ......  ;D   ;D  ;D  ;D

Andy B wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 19:52:

TheBoy wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 19:47: ..... and the amount mine gets through (with the headlight washers) makes it a good saving. Screen wash lasts loads longer if you put the headlight washer relay's fuse in your door pocket!  ......  ;D   ;D  ;D  ;D

But HIDs seem to degrade so horribly with even small amounts of crap on them, I'd have to stop 3 or 4 times on the way home.  I primarily flick the stalk to improve the lights rather than do anything with the screen

TheBoy wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 19:47:

Marks DTM Calib wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 16:35: Vx screen wash, works well, cheap enough and does no turn to snot (like comma and carplan crap) I found, with GM, that the headlight washers used to leave foam done the side of the car when it was really cold. Can't complain about its effectiveness though, and would happily use it again. Its just the Holts seems to be equally effective, but much cheaper (from cash&carry), and the amount mine gets through (with the headlight washers) makes it a good saving.

Had that today on the motorway lots of white stuff  >:(

TheBoy wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 19:54:

....... But HIDs seem to degrade so horribly with even small amounts of crap on them,  ........

So they say :-/, but I can't say I've ever really noticed  ;)

Just driven back from Cardiff on the M4, and had to do exactly as TB says, an occasional (sometimes quite frequent) wiper flick was enough to clear the screen with the spray kicked up from other cars , but the lights just got worse and worse... a quick squirt and all was good.

I'm running a 20% solution at the moment and... touch wood... its not frozen up... yet ...

:)

Andy B wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 19:57:

TheBoy wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 19:54: ....... But HIDs seem to degrade so horribly with even small amounts of crap on them,  ........ So they say :-/, but I can't say I've ever really noticed  ;)

If you can get away with it, :y

I find the dark lanes around the back of Silverstone a bit dark with my inadequate candles!

I use the holts/carplan stuff from makro.  Stock up over the summer when its 2 for one and work my way through it when the price is too high in wintertime...

Normally run 1 screenwash to 3 water ratio over spring to autumn then up it to 1/1 (or 2 screenwash/1 water if its getting too cold) and not really had a prob, either this year or previous.

Guess the secret is to ensure that the stuff in the system does not freeze in the first place!

As per TB, also use the splash from the oncoming lorry to wet the screen before a quick one flick of the wiper to clear the crudd.  If it builds too much, a quick squirt of the screenwash clears both screen and lights....   :y   

did you know, some BMW's have two bottles for screen wash? One for ordinary summer mix, tother for winter almost neat mix.

But dont worry, its equally useless in the cold. The summer freezes in the pipes anyway, so the winter cant get out the nozzle. Load a rubbish.
(If the bloke who told me understood it correctly of course, but being a Bmw owner he probably didnt)

Bmw. They really do need a slap. ;D

Screwfix have got Carplan dilutable screenwash  at 1.99 at the moment for 2.5 litres(reckon it makes upto 25 litres)

chrisgixer wrote on 22. Dec 2009 at 03:44:

did you know, some BMW's have two bottles for screen wash? One for ordinary summer mix, tother for winter almost neat mix. But dont worry, its equally useless in the cold. The summer freezes in the pipes anyway, so the winter cant get out the nozzle. Load a rubbish. (If the bloke who told me understood it correctly of course, but being a Bmw owner he probably didnt) Bmw. They really do need a slap. ;D

I've never understood why manufacturers don't wind a couple of turns of 8mm pipe round the screenwash reservoir and along the route of the pipe to the nozzles. Connect it up to the cooling system and it would never freeze. Would cost them a couple of quid though, so I guess there's my answer.

Kevin

Yes, when you consider all the K-Joules of heat getting chucked away from the exhaust and cooling system, its a shame they can't use it a bit more efficiently. The LPG feed has to be kept away from the exhaust by 6", but when they get it to the front of the car, first thing they do is to heat it up. :P

Ken

TheBoy wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 20:06:

Andy B wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 19:57: TheBoy wrote on 21. Dec 2009 at 19:54: ....... But HIDs seem to degrade so horribly with even small amounts of crap on them,  ........ So they say :-/, but I can't say I've ever really noticed  ;) If you can get away with it, :y I find the dark lanes around the back of Silverstone a bit dark with my inadequate candles!

As i've said countless times too, driving the Elite, i wash the screen but to only increase headlight output, if i had an Elite/MV6 as my main drive i would be using them the all the time.

It also changes a lot on the road surfaces, driving along light is good, then on a different type of surface it just goes crap  ::)  :-/

Ken T wrote on 22. Dec 2009 at 10:00:

Yes, when you consider all the K-Joules of heat getting chucked away from the exhaust and cooling system, its a shame they can't use it a bit more efficiently. The LPG feed has to be kept away from the exhaust by 6", but when they get it to the front of the car, first thing they do is to heat it up. :P Ken

Agreed-why do they locate the tank in front of the engine?  Most of my other cars had it in the warm area behind the engine and it was never a problem-some even had the pipe running in warm places and the jets on the bonnet top with holes in the insulation so the heat from the engine rose and defrosted it.

See my thread about this today!:

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1261476991/0#0

Hannah Judes Dad wrote on 22. Dec 2009 at 03:52:

Screwfix have got Carplan dilutable screenwash  at 1.99 at the moment for 2.5 litres(reckon it makes upto 25 litres)

Thats too expensive, and Carplan screenwash isn't that great. Much like their carb cleaner, which is less powerful than tescos value washing up liquid