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Porsche Screenwash freezes

PeterS

Well-known member
Joined
1 Nov 2009
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9,296
Is it a well known fact and I am the last to find out, or am I missing something.

The Porsche screenwash freezes, and doesn't appear to have any antifreeze content. How crap is that?

There are reports of it turning into jelly when you mix it with conventional screenwash, so it looks like I am going to have to syphon it out and put "proper" winter screenwash in.

You would've thought that the Porsche product would be the all-singing dancing top of the range cure-all.

It is certainly priced that way.

:eek:
 
peters said:
The Porsche screenwash freezes, and doesn't appear to have any antifreeze content. How crap is that?

You would've thought that the Porsche product would be the all-singing dancing top of the range cure-all.

It is certainly priced that way.

:eek:

The thing about the proverbial "it does what it says on the can" is that you have to read what it says on the can. :D

Winter and summer screenwashes are distinctly different. Using the same one all year round would mean unnecessarily polluting the environment with millions of liters of wasted antifreeze.
 
How do you find out which one you have? I hardly ever take my car out in the rain, and it gets washed well before the screen would need cleaning when driving. As such I guess the screen was gets used once or twice a year.

MC
 
I've just rang OPC Solihull and the answer is no they don't do one.

"I wish we did, we used to do one years ago, but I'm afraid our one freezes."

Whilst logging onto their website loking for the phone number I also came across their page for winter wheels and tyres, and how important they are.

Not much good if you cannot see where you're going, I would've thought!
 
peters said:
I've just rang OPC Solihull and the answer is no they don't do one.

"I wish we did, we used to do one years ago, but I'm afraid our one freezes."

Whilst logging onto their website loking for the phone number I also came across their page for winter wheels and tyres, and how important they are.

Not much good if you cannot see where you're going, I would've thought!

Porsche's own employees buy their windscreen antifreeze in 5 litre bottles from Aldi at prices they know they wouldn't want to compete with, so why would they bother with it. :wink:
 
Is it the actual screenwash that has frozen or just the jets / nozzles? I have found that with the absence of an engine in the front it takes forever for anything forward of the windscreen to thaw, even on a 20+ mile journey, hence the front screen washers are next to useless in sub-zero temperatures.

I have no experience to back this up but I suspect even changing the screenwash won't help much because the jets will still be frozen...? :dont know:
 
It is definately the fluid.

The other day I put the washers on and after 5 seconds or so the wipers were tyring to clean ice off the windscreen"

The jets are fine (they are heated.)

It is the screenwash that it the issue.

I have just gone to syphon it all out so I can put some quality screenwash in, but the neck is a long way from the reservoir, and I cannot syphon it.

So it's a day of driving round using my screenwash to empty it the hard way. Just trying to avoid overheating the pump!
 
Ant Blain said:
Is it the actual screenwash that has frozen or just the jets / nozzles? I have found that with the absence of an engine in the front it takes forever for anything forward of the windscreen to thaw, even on a 20+ mile journey, hence the front screen washers are next to useless in sub-zero temperatures.

I have no experience to back this up but I suspect even changing the screenwash won't help much because the jets will still be frozen...? :dont know:

The screen and headlight nozzles are heated, so if they are cleared of snow build-up and the washer fluid has enough antifreeze added to it the washers do normally work even below freezing.
If insufficient antifreeze is added to cope with the temperature, the bigger danger is that the water will freeze when it hits the screen and just smear it with a streaky film of ice.
 
peters said:
So it's a day of driving round using my screenwash to empty it the hard way. Just trying to avoid overheating the pump!

Not a problem. It's water-cooled. :wink:
 
Wow, didn't realise the jets (or headlight jets) were heated, you learn something new every day! :thumb:

Are they wired up with the heated rear screen, similar to the heated door mirrors, then? Wonder if mine are broken or if it's just my Porsche screenwash that's frozen in the pipes stopping it coming out...
 
Ant Blain said:
Wow, didn't realise the jets (or headlight jets) were heated, you learn something new every day! :thumb:

Are they wired up with the heated rear screen, similar to the heated door mirrors, then? Wonder if mine are broken or if it's just my Porsche screenwash that's frozen in the pipes stopping it coming out...

Ive been searching for the answer to this myself this morning, and the nearest I can find is that they are heated all the time.

But I'm happy to accept other answers.
 
Ant Blain said:
Wow, didn't realise the jets (or headlight jets) were heated, you learn something new every day! :thumb:

Are they wired up with the heated rear screen, similar to the heated door mirrors, then? Wonder if mine are broken or if it's just my Porsche screenwash that's frozen in the pipes stopping it coming out...

They are permanently heated when ignition is switched on. They don't use enough energy to significantly add to global warming anyway.
 
We have and use different coloured liquids: blue for winter and yellow for summer. Difficult to not see the difference :D
 
DAB+ said:
We have different coloured liquids: blue for winter and yellow for summer. Difficult to not see the difference :D

That makes things much too easy - colour-coded liquids in transparent plastic bottles.

The British like life to be a challenge at every turn, so Halfords puts its summer screenwash (no antifreeze) in a non-transparent light blue plastic bottle so that you have to read the label to know what you are getting.

It does mean though that I am already well-equipped for the summer, when I (hopefully) no longer need to add antifreeze to my washer bottle. :D
 
Well here they do manage to sell blue coloured anti-freeze in a transparent plastic bottle besides the windscreen winter blue washer liquid. Need to be sure to wear your glasses before choosing, because I have no idea what happens if you put washer liquid in the engine and antifreeze in the washer bottle :floor:
 

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