Intermitent screen washer operations

[jammiedodger]

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction with this one.

Basically the fault at present is intermitent, but when I operate the stalk for windscreen wipers & screen wash operation the wipers start but the washer jets don't squirt. I can't hear the pump trying to operate, and normally after half a dozen tweaks of the stalk the jets will burst into life. The fault happens with both front & rear screen operations, and as the weather will be taking a turn for the worse at this time of year I'd like to fix it before it totally doesn't work., and ultimately fails its MOT.
Any takers??

Cheers Jamie

 

[lrj]

It could be the pump. There's a small rubber valve inside that moves depending on the front or rear washers. The rubber may have expanded and be causing a blockage. To fix it, the pump has to be removed and disassembled. What age of Clio do you have? On mine, a Clio II Ph1, I had to remove the wiper arms, the cowl panels, the wiper linkage and motor, before getting to the washer bottle and pump.

Here's a couple of links on how to fix it: http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?496162-Windscreen-and-headlight-washer-jets-fix-guide, http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54738

 

[jammiedodger]

The thing is I'm sure the pump isn't running, as there is no sound. When it does kick into life I can clearly hear the pump in operation

Cheers Jamie

 

[lrj]

Perhaps a loose connection somewhere then. May be the fuse or the connector for the pump isn't fully in. Does the stalk work perfectly for controlling the wipers?

 

[jammiedodger]

Yes the wiper operations are working perfectly, I'm guessing an iffy connection somewhere and hoped soemone else had experienced this issue and could have pointed me straight to the fault, rather than going through the process of checking all parts of the circuit . Which invariably means the last thing you check ends up being the faulty area!!

Cheers Jamie