Has anyone else noticed that the windshield washer fluid level is ALWAYS low, needing significant amount to refill, even when not used? I'm not talking weeks or months, so that evaporation could be the cause, but rather DAYS. No evidence of leaks under vehicle, either. What could do this?
No, never noticed you either have a small crack in bottle or a leaky hose that only leaks when you use the WSW. or a loose hose.
Do you ever wonder why they include an endlessly-long dipstick for a fluid in a clear container, which you simply fill until full?
I have started to have this problem over the last four or so months. I've had the car since May 2013 and never had a problem until recently. I did have the front nose replaced and thought maybe they jostled or jarred something that has a slow leak. I received the car from the repair shop and the reservoir was empty. I refilled it and about 4-6 weeks later (no driving as I was out of town), it's empty again. I refilled it again and waited to check on a dry warm day and can't find anything dripping from the car nor any wet spots underneath the car. The only possible moist spot I saw ONCE was near the rear wheels just in front of the axle. So was wondering if maybe the hose that goes to the rear wiper assembly may have a crack it in? All washers (front and rear) work fine. I haven't had a change to see if the headlight washers work or not as they are tricky to check. Ideas are appreciated...
my hypothesis is that the fluid slowly evaporates through the nozzles. although, one guy did report that the tube to the rear washer was leaking.
I'd agree with the evaporation but the challenge to that hypothesis is that in the four years that I've had the care it has never happened before until this year. I'm going to have the dealer look at it since I have the bumper-to-bumper warranty up to 100,000 miles.
well a few of those past years I was in Kentucky and Texas with temps above 110 F and it still didn't evaporate. The tank is covered and vented and the nozzles are quite small so the molecular cohesive forces tend to really limit evaporation through such a small orifice. I think to loose around a gallon of fluid in four weeks it would have to be either a cracked tank or hose. The trick will be to find it since it's gravity feed and not able to be pressurized for testing.
The tank feeds both front and rear washers. So the leak could be somewhere other that around the front of the car. Check the hose leading to the rear washer.
I would suspect an ill-fitting hose or the pump mountings. Both the front and rear washer pumps are fitted to the bottom of that huge tank in the space in front of the passenger side front wheel. Could be a cracked tank too, as all it would take is one sub-freezing day with an inappropriate amount of washer fluid antifreeze. Could have frozen and cracked the plastic pipes in the pump assembly. I've noticed that if I overfill my tank into the filler neck it will leak back down to the level of the top of the tank. I'll have to dig down there someday and check the integrity of that filler neck seal.
Evaporation does happen BUT most every system I've seen in past years is relatively "sealed" so there's no place for it to evaporate to. If there's a break in the system allowing it exposure to open air (even a small hole), it could be lost to evaporation.
Never had an issue with w/s washer fluid evaporating in any car. I'd bet on a leak. If nothing visual, try a pressure check..... noting the rear wiper tubing/ routing. Good hunting.
Top off your windshield washer fluid, then monitor the vehicle and see if there's any leak on the bottom of the car.
