rear washer pump noise, no spray

[pdlarson]

1999 V70XC no rear washer spray.

All front washers work perfectly. When pressing the button for the rear window washer, a pump can be heard, no spray on the rear window. No fluid is pouring out into the car that I have noticed or on the ground under the car. I have tried disconnecting the hose from the check / pressure valve in the cargo area by the pass side rear speaker and there is no spray out of that hose so the problem is not that rear check / pressure valve or a clogged rear sprayer.

I understand that there are two separate pumps but the only way I can see to inspect the reservoir / pump(s) is from under the front pass side of the car. I can see the bottom of the res but I only see one pump.

Can anyone help with the following?

a) How many pumps?

b) Where are the pumps / how to visually inspect?

c) How is the hose run from the pump to the rear of the car?

d) what else should I check?

Thanks a million!

Don Larson
Billings Montana

[8pack]

I had the exact same problem. Your rear washer pump is bad. It may be making noise but it us not pumping. There are 2 pumps. One for the front and one for the rear. Buy the rear one from fcp groton or wherever you like. It is around $35 I think.

When you get it, you need to remove tge washer reservoir and to do that you need,to get at it from both the top and bottom. When you disconnect all the hoses remember which one goes where.

When you get the reservoir out it is pretty clear which is the rear pump if you already have it. It uses a friction fit on the outside of the reservoir. I did mine when it was 10 degrees outside. Not that hard.

Let me know if you have questions.

[pdlarson]

I forgot to mention, I have checked the fluid level. It is full and after attempting to spray a couple times for about 6 seconds each, no change in the fluid level so I know it is not leaking anywhere. I have not had a chance to inspect the pump yet.

[pdlarson]

I asked around, searched forums, checked for a filter (non found) checked check valves (ok), moved on to pump.

After all this, I began to check the hoses at the top side of the tank. Mainly just to figure out where everything goes. Under the tank is a pump that has a hose to a Tee. This goes to the headlights and the windshield, both of which were always working fine.

On the top side of the tank, visible by simply raising the hood and looking around, (yes it IS visible), I saw a Tee here too, which I initially thought was for the front but it is not. I still don't understand why there is a Tee but I took all three hoses off, lift the wiper from the rear glass to avoid scratching, and had a helper inside press the button, LET THER BE WASHER FLUID! Man, it was high pressure, NICE! Turns out the Tee was installed incorrectly. There is an arrow to indicate flow direction on the Tee. Now knowing which hose sprays, and observing the arrow on the Tee, the rest is self explanatory.

I think the Tee may simply be to redirect fluid back to the bottle if the rear sprayer is plugged to avoid burning out the pump as i think the other hose out of the Tee just goes back to the bottle but it was hard to tell and once I saw pressure from the hose without the Tee, I didn't care anymore.

If nothing else helped, maybe this will.

Good luck!