Frozen windscreen washers

[Hitch]

Run the engine for an hour or so with a blanket over the outside on car bonnet to keep as much heat in as possible and see if the washers are unfrozen at the end of the hour .

I tried that unsucessfully so I had to resort to using an electric fan heater set on low directed at the washer bottle with the bonnet down and that blanket for two hours .
Once I found it had thawed I pumped through enough wash fluid to allow me to bung in a full litre of neat screen wash but found to my dismay that it freezes at only minus 5 o C . this morning it was absolutly rock solid with no slush in it at all , temp last night here was a tad under - 15 o C .

This morning I had to repeat the thawing exercise but it was not so long in thawing and now I've added half a litre of neat methylated spirit to the wash bottle and pumped it through the washers for 15 seconds . It should not freeze untill the temp drops to at least -20 oC but may freeze in the washer jets and a bit of the pipe for them for will for there wil be some evaporation of this new " Davy's concentrated antifreeze screen wash solution ".

So before we go out tomorrow we will run the engine to warm up the car , this should be enough to un freeze the washer jets and the short pipes , we will also check that the outside of the washers are ice free and working before we start out.

You want concentrate, not the premixed stuff.
It does work out expensive if you use it neat, unless you buy a gallon or more from places that are not called Halfords

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

You want concentrate, not the premixed stuff.
It does work out expensive if you use it neat, unless you buy a gallon or more from places that are not called Halfords

We had a heat wave last night it only dropped to minus 4.5 o C at 06:10 hrs and it was a scorching minus 1.2 o C at 08:15 hrs staying there all day till an hour or so ago.

Trying to locate decent screen wash around here is like trying to find a married mum under 35 years old

I've got rather fed up of local shopkeepers etc. telling me " People can't afford the expensive stuff you want , so we don't stock it ".