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MG MGF Technical - Cleaning inside of washer bottle

I've just topped up the screen washer in my '96 F and noticed quite a lot of crud floating around inside the bottle. Apart from removing the under-bonnet shield and taking out the bottle, does anyone have any bright ideas of how to clean it before it blocks the pump and/or filter (assuming there is one)?

Thanks,
Tim.
Tim Jenner

Tim,

I occasionally get a white ball of 'soapy-type material' floating in the top of the fluid. I have just been scooping it out every year or so, but recently my windscreen washers had become a lot less effective and i was wondering if this was the cause. Let me know how you get on OK.

SF
Scarlet Fever

garden hose and washing up fluid, just keep the hose running till the water is clear, the road is immediatly under the washer bottle.
Will Munns

Just drop a very small quantity of bleach into the water bottle, i.e. less than a capful of the bleach bottle. It should not bleach the paintwork and will clear all the algae.

Do you use windscreen fluid as some makes have additives to help prevent this. My father always used clear water but suffered from time to time with the algae in teh bottle, using bleach to clear the system when near blocked. No bleached paintwork yet.

I took my mothers Rover 200 rear windscreen washer system to bits to unblock it and found a brown "bogey" like substance blocking the washer jets <yuck> I can assure you it wasn't pleasant when one cleared it out...

~PHIL
Phil

I only picked the car up on Friday (and have only stopped driving it to sleep and sit in the office doing some work)! The fluid in the bottle was clear and useless at cleaning the screen - it did smell very slightly, so I guess the PO was using a very weak mix. I've added a fair amount of screen wash fluid but it still doesn't clean the screen very well! Nothing to do with the crud in the bottle, though, think I just squished too many flies on those country roads.

I'll try Will's suggestion of just overflowing the bottle until clear. Does anyone know if there's a filter before the pump on the F? On my B there's a filter attached to the end of the tube which stops any scum getting into the pump, but I had to replace both pumps on my old Metro because of sediment.

Cheers,
Tim.
Tim Jenner

Tim, Try using some 'fast glass' polish to clean the screen, then apply RainX and water just flies off, along with flys, which also errm fly off.
Will Munns

This thread was discussed on 12/05/2003

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