Any ideas for frozen wiper fluid jug?

[Iron Cowboy]

Someone in the family had more water than wiper fluid in the jug this summer and now its frozen. I dont have a heated garage or access so thats out. any ideas of what I could put in there to melt it (besides gas and a lit match ) or to help melt it while I put the sunflower as close to it as I can?

[Hafnutz]

Should be easy to remove it and bring it in to thaw it out. I wouldn't try any heat on it would probably melt. Or go to the local dollar wash and hit it with hot water from the pressure washer til it thaws.

[Shack]

Get the hottest tap water you can get and pour it in the washer reservoir and run the sprayer till it runs out. Repeat until ice and water is gone and then put good washer fluid in.

If you can get at it, take a hair dryer/heat gun to reservoir, till it melts the ice and a little hot water helps to speed things up. Then run the reservoir dry and put some new fluid in.

Either way, when you are done and put good wsher fluided in the reservoir, run the sprayers untill the good washer fluid runs threw the lines and spray nozzels. If not, you will have good unfrozen fluid in the tank and ice in the lines or nozzels .

Good luck!

[Macgyver55]

This is gonna be tough without getting it in someplace warm. My daughter bought a car out of California last year and had the same problem, luckily hers was under warranty so I didnt have to mess with it. What ever you do don't try the pump while its frozen or you could burn it out. Even if you get the tank thawed out there is a strong likelyhood that the motor could be cracked and leak.

On some cars the fluid tank is in between the inner and outter fender and difficult to remove, and will likey take overnight in a warm place to thaw. That would definitely be your easiest route so you dont have to take stuff apart. Pouring hot water in it at these temps will most likey result in a bigger icey mess. Then you have the issue of getting the lines and nozzles to thaw. It will be a headache for sure but with the junk they put on the roads it hard to go without washers.

[Shack]

Yep, Mac is right. If it does not spray, do not push the button for more than is needed to find out it does not spray.

He does bring up another good point I did not focus on. The lines and nozzles being frozen also . If you use a heat gun or blow dryer, yes try and use it on them when doing either of the things I said above.

If it does not work out for you, you can bring it in to a shop and they will charge you to unfreeze it. I used to charge about a half hour for a tech to flush out tank and lines with hot water in a heated shop, then refill. It would be around $50.00.

[hondavxr]

Add some heet or isopropyl in with the fluid. And try as much of the fluid out as possible. Thats the trick that we use at our shop. Use quality washer fluid also, because I have seen some cheap ones freeze.

[deadeye]

I would put a shot of heet into the jug and maybe go after it with a hair dryer.

VXR is right, use the good stuff when you fill it up. I remember when i lived in ely, seeing the jugs of blue stuff at lucky 7 froze up like ice cubes when it was a bit cold out. I like the purple or red stuff myself.

[Surface Tension]

Sometime a while back they started selling windshield washer solution around here for summer months. There is no Methyl alcohol in that solution. So watch what you buy. I had some of that left in my reservoir coming into a winter. In fact it might have done that again? Yep it was froze. I added isopropl and topped off with winter fluid. Eventually it thawed out on one of those winter thaw cycles.

[shizzy]

maybe take the car in for an oil change and a rotate? cheap way to have it sit in a heated shop for a while?

I would top off with the good de-icer washer fluid right away.

[Iron Cowboy]

Thanks for the help guys, I took advantage of the warmer day on Sat. and with the combo of a bottle of heat, space heater and then very hot water it melted all the way out. Chalk it up to another lesson learned the hard way

[Scott Stein]

shoulda thawed out yesterday!!