How do you turn off Renault clio 182 sport head light washers only mine are leaking?

Answer 1

I'm having the same problem; before I fixed it I was refilling the full 5 litre tank every other day! Having seen a lot of Clio 182's it seems to be a common problem after they reach about 3 years old, there are two semi-solutions...

The first isn't perfect...I cut the tubes leading to the headlight washers and inserted a screw into the part leading from the washer bottle (the screw allows a build up of pressure to slowly leak through the thread so it doesn't overload any pumps), then put them through the plastic alongside the washer bottle itself (so they stick up). I only did this last week, they still try and pump and water still exits the tube but at nowhere near the rate it used to, and they don't leak!

Eventually I will be fitting non-return valves to the tubes and reconnecting them; the idea being it will require pressure (rather than gravity) to pump water to the headlight washers so they won't leak constantly.

The second is to simply time the washer stalk when you wash your windows; the headlight washers ONLY activate when your headlights are on and you hold the stalk in "squirt" mode for more than 1sec, so simply flicking the stalk for less than 1 sec prevents the washers from squirting...sometimes water doesn't squirt onto your windscreen for a while as the tubes empty, so quickly flicking 2-3 times usually gets your windows clean. I can email you a photo of the tubes if it helps? Andrew acsweeney1988@gmail.com