My IC spray has been redundant for a while due to FMIC, I've been planning to move my battery and washer bottle to boot for a while to make way for swirlpot gubbins.

Tonight I finally decided to have a look to see what the wiring/pump situation was, and was impressed to find the pumps for the IC spray and the washer bottle seemingly identical - with matching plugs.

First up I simply swapped the hoses over under the bonnet and used the IC Spray button to fire the washer jets, there wasn't enough pressure and the water barely reached 20% up my windscreen. I wondered if the pumps had different power ratings so I then put the washer bottle in the boot and tried again on the IC spray wiring... same result.

My intention was to make up some wire extensions to run through the car which would allow me to use the original stalk control. I've tested that in principal by running 2 7metre wires around the outside of the car but the pressure issues are holding me back from running the wires properly.

It seems like a fairly popular thing to do, so what have other people done about the pressure issues?

One thing that may be causing my issues are aftermarket jets, I've got the mist style ones which perhaps have too much flow to keep the pressure up. I'd love to bang my originals back in but they're long since missing.

Any aftermarket pumps available that have got a bit more oomf about them?

 

the hatch pumps seem to be better rated, and they have mist type, and spray the whole window

was always an issue on my hawk sti with the mist type jets

 

Cheers Gambit. Had a scan through eBay and found some aftermarket pumps for hatches which appear to be same fitment as mine. Might be worth a punt to see if they happen to be more powerful.

 

Bosch 044

 

Joke stealer

 

errrrrr you said walbro pal

 

FYI I relocated my windscreen washer bottle to the boot, but used a UK spec intercooler bottle rather than the engine bay bottle relocated. I tried both the original washer pump and the one from the intercooler bottle and they behaved the same...poorly!

I did find a "there-from-day-one" kink in the pipe that ran from front to back (my JDM had a rear window washer, hence the pipe) which, when fixed, improved things a little, but it is still only barely acceptable. This is on the OEM jets.

So...if you do find a different pump, let me know where it get it, and I will happily give it a try and let you know what I find

 

Cheers Tim, nice to know somebody else has tried the same and had same results. I'll share whatever I come up with.

Inline Bosch 044 is looking like the favourite though

 

I bought an OEM style pump new from ebay - about £5 so didn't have high hopes This was just to rule out potentially tired factory pumps.

Didn't make any difference, I traced the hose up through the boot a bit and did find it pinched between the boot lifter spring things. Freeing it up didn't make a huge difference, but i'll certainly trace the hose right through the car to see if anything else may be holding it back.

 

Could fitting a couple of non-return valves help?

 

I have bought a couple with this in mind...just not fitted them yet (hmmm...had them about 18 months I think lol).

 

The logic being to keep the tubes full of fluid so that there's less delay between the pump and the nozzle? I can't see why I should try it!

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Any joy?

Please don't imply that there's logic in my thoughts, they're random as hell most of the time.

 

My one way valves due to arrive tomorrow, so will find out soon. Also ordered some generic "single jet" jets too rather than my current mist ones, to see if they force more pressure through.

 

Unfortunately the one way valves made no difference to the range of my mist jets, though I did find out that Subaru actually has some installed already about an inch from each nozzle. I put one of my new ones about 1m upstream which reduced the response time of the water from the boot, but not the range.

I then turned to some new nozzles, http://www.wiperblades4u.co.uk/singl...l#.VgQmt_SxVP8

These have fixed it a treat! The nozzles are adjustable and I had to adjust the aim upwards a bit, but if I did it too far - I had enough pressure to launch water right over the rear spoiler

Problem solved, washer fluid relocation complete

 

Good news! Did the single-hole fixing with a nut fit the push-fit bonnet cutout on our cars OK? I see they do push fit and twin-nozzle versions so might just buy a selection and see what works best on mine

 

Yeah the nut fits my newage bonnet fine, though my old mist ones were clip fit ones.

They're so cheap, buy them all and have a different spray pattern for each day of the week