FinallyGotOne!
SILVER Star
(This post is gonna cost me some serious credibility, but I owe it to the community and I'm "takin' one for the team" here).
Don't Make You're Own!
I come from blue collar folk and even though I somehow got to a point where I have an LX570 and a 911 in my garage, I still like to save a buck when I can. And I hate paying a buck, or two or more, for blue or green water that supposedly cleans my windshield when I am driving. It never works! Even the expensive stuff doesn't do much to get rid of bugs. So about a year ago, I and my supreme intelligence decided that I could make a washer solution for almost nothing that would work at least as good as the stuff I was paying for and almost certainly better. Off to the Internets I went...
There are a number of recipes easily found via Google. Many of them are copies of each other, using the exact wording. Most are comprised of distilled water, vinegar, a tablespoon of dish soap, and maybe some rubbing alcohol to keep it from freezing. Some specify ammonia though that's probably bad for paint, or at least wax. So I mixed up a couple of gallons of solution with enough alcohol to maybe keep it liquid down into the 20s and happily filled up the LX, daughter number one's Camry, and daughter number two's Prius.
It worked! It didn't freeze, it cleaned my windshield - even the bugs - and the smell of alcohol in the cabin was strong enough to wake up boring passengers and keep me awake on long drives!
Then the windshield took a rock strike and had to be replaced mid-summer. For a number of reasons, including I don't DD the LX and there weren't a lot of bugs mid-summer, I didn't notice my windshield washer wasn't working correctly until a couple of weeks after the windshield replacement. The driver's side nozzle was dribbling out and the passenger's side was working fine. Within a couple more weeks, there was no pressure at all on the driver's side. I disconnected the hose where it disappears under the cowling on the driver's side and tried to blow it open, but air would only come out of the passenger side. At that point I thought it a safe assumption that the windshield guys had pinched a hose when installing the new windshield.
After checking the shop manual, IH8MUD, and YouTube and finding very little that would explain exactly how to get the cowling off (lots and lots of clips) I decided I had to take it back to the windshield installer and get them to unpinch the hose. It had been long enough since installation by now that I was willing to pay them a couple of bucks. And then I didn't get around to it.
In September, daughter number one asked me if I could help her figure out how to make her windshield washer work. After checking the owner's manual (good girl!) she confirmed she was pulling the correct lever, but all she heard was a "motor sound", but no fluid flow on the driver's side for the last couple of weeks. Uh oh.
A quick check with daughter number two revealed she only had a driver's side washer stream, and she was cool with it, so she didn't think it worth mentioning. Uh oh again.
So much for trying to save a buck!
To make a long story short from here on: Don't know why, but the concoction I mixed up caused a valve intended to split the flow from the pump evenly into a driver's and passenger's side spray, as well as prevent backflow, to fail. I tried to postmortem the valve and wasn't able to split the case cleanly enough to determine why it failed. Nothing was gummed up, there was no residue, the rubber-like diaphragm did not appear to be cracked or dissolved.
I also learned how to replace a windshield washer pump! While diagnosing the Camry's problem (2010 with 35K miles), the pump decided to quit. Still don't know if it was the Evil Washer Fluid From Hell or if it was just time. Fluid always flowed freely from the passenger's side, so it shouldn't have been stressing the pump. Dunno.
The valve on the Camry is located on the hood under the liner and it was easy to fix, as was the pump replacement. But I did not want to explore how to ruin the cowling that fits so tightly to the bottom of the LX windshield so I called a local guy who owned a windshield replacement place - not a big chain with a central reservation number since they couldn't even understand my request when I called them - and asked him if he would pull the cowl so I could replace the valve and then reinstall it. He was a super cool guy, but he argued that it was almost certainly not the valve, and that I could do the cowl myself. But he agreed to do it.
Turns out it wasn't very easy to get the cowl off, the valve was the problem (of course) and getting the cowl back on was a challenge that involved both of us, new clips, and a heat gun. (Edit: it was hard to get it off because the chain had glued the edge strips back in place when they replaced the windshield instead of also replacing the strips)
The Prius valve is also under the cowl and I haven't gotten around to fixing it yet.
Bottom line total cost to me for trying to save $3 on three gallons of blue water:
$30 for three windshield washer valves Toyota Part Number 85321-28020
$11 for a windshield washer pump Toyota Part Number 85330-60190
$20 handed to the cool windshield guy who didn't want to be paid (Todd at Glass America Huntsville)
$61.00!!!!
All that fun and I am back to square one: Does anyone know of a windshield washer fluid that actually cleans windshields but doesn't ruin paint? And is safe for Toyota valves and pumps?
Don't Make You're Own!
I come from blue collar folk and even though I somehow got to a point where I have an LX570 and a 911 in my garage, I still like to save a buck when I can. And I hate paying a buck, or two or more, for blue or green water that supposedly cleans my windshield when I am driving. It never works! Even the expensive stuff doesn't do much to get rid of bugs. So about a year ago, I and my supreme intelligence decided that I could make a washer solution for almost nothing that would work at least as good as the stuff I was paying for and almost certainly better. Off to the Internets I went...
There are a number of recipes easily found via Google. Many of them are copies of each other, using the exact wording. Most are comprised of distilled water, vinegar, a tablespoon of dish soap, and maybe some rubbing alcohol to keep it from freezing. Some specify ammonia though that's probably bad for paint, or at least wax. So I mixed up a couple of gallons of solution with enough alcohol to maybe keep it liquid down into the 20s and happily filled up the LX, daughter number one's Camry, and daughter number two's Prius.
It worked! It didn't freeze, it cleaned my windshield - even the bugs - and the smell of alcohol in the cabin was strong enough to wake up boring passengers and keep me awake on long drives!
Then the windshield took a rock strike and had to be replaced mid-summer. For a number of reasons, including I don't DD the LX and there weren't a lot of bugs mid-summer, I didn't notice my windshield washer wasn't working correctly until a couple of weeks after the windshield replacement. The driver's side nozzle was dribbling out and the passenger's side was working fine. Within a couple more weeks, there was no pressure at all on the driver's side. I disconnected the hose where it disappears under the cowling on the driver's side and tried to blow it open, but air would only come out of the passenger side. At that point I thought it a safe assumption that the windshield guys had pinched a hose when installing the new windshield.
After checking the shop manual, IH8MUD, and YouTube and finding very little that would explain exactly how to get the cowling off (lots and lots of clips) I decided I had to take it back to the windshield installer and get them to unpinch the hose. It had been long enough since installation by now that I was willing to pay them a couple of bucks. And then I didn't get around to it.
In September, daughter number one asked me if I could help her figure out how to make her windshield washer work. After checking the owner's manual (good girl!) she confirmed she was pulling the correct lever, but all she heard was a "motor sound", but no fluid flow on the driver's side for the last couple of weeks. Uh oh.
A quick check with daughter number two revealed she only had a driver's side washer stream, and she was cool with it, so she didn't think it worth mentioning. Uh oh again.
So much for trying to save a buck!
To make a long story short from here on: Don't know why, but the concoction I mixed up caused a valve intended to split the flow from the pump evenly into a driver's and passenger's side spray, as well as prevent backflow, to fail. I tried to postmortem the valve and wasn't able to split the case cleanly enough to determine why it failed. Nothing was gummed up, there was no residue, the rubber-like diaphragm did not appear to be cracked or dissolved.
I also learned how to replace a windshield washer pump! While diagnosing the Camry's problem (2010 with 35K miles), the pump decided to quit. Still don't know if it was the Evil Washer Fluid From Hell or if it was just time. Fluid always flowed freely from the passenger's side, so it shouldn't have been stressing the pump. Dunno.
The valve on the Camry is located on the hood under the liner and it was easy to fix, as was the pump replacement. But I did not want to explore how to ruin the cowling that fits so tightly to the bottom of the LX windshield so I called a local guy who owned a windshield replacement place - not a big chain with a central reservation number since they couldn't even understand my request when I called them - and asked him if he would pull the cowl so I could replace the valve and then reinstall it. He was a super cool guy, but he argued that it was almost certainly not the valve, and that I could do the cowl myself. But he agreed to do it.
Turns out it wasn't very easy to get the cowl off, the valve was the problem (of course) and getting the cowl back on was a challenge that involved both of us, new clips, and a heat gun. (Edit: it was hard to get it off because the chain had glued the edge strips back in place when they replaced the windshield instead of also replacing the strips)
The Prius valve is also under the cowl and I haven't gotten around to fixing it yet.
Bottom line total cost to me for trying to save $3 on three gallons of blue water:
$30 for three windshield washer valves Toyota Part Number 85321-28020
$11 for a windshield washer pump Toyota Part Number 85330-60190
$20 handed to the cool windshield guy who didn't want to be paid (Todd at Glass America Huntsville)
$61.00!!!!
All that fun and I am back to square one: Does anyone know of a windshield washer fluid that actually cleans windshields but doesn't ruin paint? And is safe for Toyota valves and pumps?
Last edited:
. For what it is worth I have done similar “cost saving” things, just to eventually pay several times as much in the long run.
