Windshield Washer Spray

[smegger2000]

Had my new '13 Deep Espresso Brown Encore Leather for a couple of weeks now, and I love it.

I have noticed that the windshield wiper spray hits the windshield very low. It basically hits just barely above the wiper themselves in the resting position. Is there a way to adjust this higher up this myself?

 

[Rioux]

Check this ...
http://buickforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32808

 

[smegger2000]

Thanks for the link Rioux.

 

[jimt]

yes, i had to adjust mine since all dealers say they are not adjustable but they are, you need a special tool available on ebay for about 11 us dollars, please look at post from about late august or early Sept for washer nozzles there is a post with photos of the tool . i will give you more info when i find the earlier posts ---jimt

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[jimt]

more info , if you go to EBAY search for item number 25133023089 or type in the following exactly as i saw it on EBAY - (Vauxhall Insignia Astra J FAN style washer jet adjusting jet tool) that should get you to it. PS the nozzles need VERY little adjustment , so if you do it yourself make small incremental adjustments they will spray so much better good luck jimt

 

[08Bluesky]

Reasonable on the price... Was about to click buy-it-now, but though "Gee, 4 months & we've yet to even hit the sprayers" - Perhaps they may be set correctly. Will have to fire them up tonight

 

[08Bluesky]

Tried them out last eve – barely hit above the arms.


Ordered the tool today.

 

[08Bluesky]

more info, PS the nozzles need VERY little adjustment , so if you do it yourself make small incremental adjustments they will spray so much better good luck jimt

Hey JIMT -

Bought the tool – Now what? Once inserted do you turn it? Push to one side or the other? What? Dinner was on the table so I didn’t fool with it much - Photos forth coming J

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[08Bluesky]

Did they adjust? Did they move at all? Did it make a difference? Do I know what I'm doing? Not yet sure... Will have to see how they work on the road.

 

[smegger2000]

I just got my adjusting tool as well and tried to adjust them. Is it just the middle part that gets adjusted or does the whole little nubby thing move? I'm not sure if anything changed or not for me.

While speaking of the windshield wipers, I am finding it an annoyance that you can't lift them up away from the windshield without hitting the hood. We have snow and frost on the windshield already here in Saskatchewan and it makes it tough to clear it away when you have to use one hand to keep them lifted as far as they go while you try to scrape with the other hand.

 

[mmadden2]

Yeah, I agree. That's a horse shit design if I ever saw one. Pretty stupid.

 

[08Bluesky]

Saw a post earlier where Customer Assistance claimed it was: “Designed that way to help protect the wipers” – Not to bash Buick Assistance (for indeed someday I may need them) However, it sounded like “word-spin” to me.

They also mentioned that you can lift them: “If the hood is raised a portion”
Tried that, mighty hard to hold the hood half way (no prop position) AND THEN try to lift the wiper??? Again, that did not work!

Even with the hood fully up - Sure looked like the wipers had a Stop on them to raise them only so far?

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[mmadden2]

One more thing to take away from me probably.

I assume my new line of thinking will be something like... "Easier to let service change the wipers, pay them whatever they want, too difficult to even do this simple piece of routine maintenance anymore."

*sigh*

Anyone know how to change the rear wiper when it's due? I've never had one of those before. Let me guess... Special tool from eBay required?

 

[Rioux]

You are reason, this is big problem, bad concept

 

[08Bluesky]

I just don't know/understand - finally drove the car at highway speeds the other day and saw that the sprays were quite low & useless!

Tried once again to adjust, kinda noticed that they seemed to "push in" a bit but still can't seem to make them spray any higher??

Strange design!?!?!?

 

[mmadden2]

I've read about the aiming thing on here, but honestly, ours seem to work just fine. They don't hit very high but it works well enough.

My big thing is how to clear snow and ice out of that area since the wipers can't pull forward- still not sure how to combat that piece of engineering genius. I wonder if a foot-wide strip of something (or even an entire windshield cover) could be laid to cover the wiper area before predicted snow and then just lifted off somehow. I certainly wouldn't want to ruin my paint by dragging anything heavy across dirty paint though.

Maybe a person on each side could lift straight up and then walk this thing to the front. Maybe they already make it.

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There's this type of thing but it's appears to be meant to cover the glass, not the wiper area.

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[08Bluesky]

Concur with your frustration mm!

Yeah, funny how the Driver side arm has a “Stop” before it hits the hood, while the Passenger side allows the arm to hit the hood. Though it seems to hit rather “flatly” and non-marring??? Still, I placed a bit of rubber under the Passenger side area to help stop any marring. We'll see how it holds up.

 

[NormT]

with the hood opened it is not much more clearance to lift the wipers off the glass.

My washers hit low but seems to work well.

 

[08Bluesky]

Agree with ya Norm. As for the “Lifting” issue (as opposed to the sprayer issue)….

I tried the “Customer Service” response of: “Access is granted with the hood half way up” (or something like that)… But that did not quite help much at all - for the Driver Side arm is limited by a stop.

So until we grow an extra (human) arm & hand - One to lift the hood, One to hold out the wiper and One to scrape away the snow (and or wash the window with a squeegee) we’ll just have to enlist the help of another person to do what should have been a simple task.?!?!?!?!

 

[mmadden2]

Last night, in preparation for freezing rain, I tried a workaround for the non lifting wipers:

1) With the car running (or key turned far enough that the wipers operate), set wipers to low speed and turn car off when wipers are up. If you miss, just turn the key back on (not necessarily the engine) and try again.

(we have rainsense wipers and at first I couldn't get the wipers to stay up because I had them set to intermittent, they kept completing their wipe when the car was turned off- intermittent didn't allow for catching them up, but low setting did)

2) With the wipers in the up position they can easily be lifted far enough from the windshield to remove snow & ice- sorry for the low light picture

3) Since the Encore allows for 2 consecutive remote starts (10 minutes each), you can remotely start the car and the wipers will remain in their up position because the car isn't on, it's just running. You can remotely start the car a 2nd time if needed. By the end of the 2nd start (20 minutes) the windshield is likely on it's way to thawing out.

4) To start the car a 3rd time, you'll need to get in and use the key, which will move the wipers. Hopefully you've cleared enough winter stuff out of their way before this so they can move freely.

I got through a morning of thick freezing rain and sent the wife off to work without incident. This method worked great, hopefully I'll be around and remember to do this again for the next storm.

FWIW, we drove around last night over slush covered roads and the AWD worked wonderfully. My wife's name is Andrea and has now started calling it Andrea Wheel Drive