screen wash delay

[Smeeagain]

Hi - hope someone can help me get to the bottom of this problem on my 2004 3.0d Sport E53 X5.

When I press the screen wash button sometime the liquid hits the windscreen instantly and sometime it takes up to seven or eight seconds. I cant see any blockages and I've taken the filters out of the reservoir and cleaned them but its made no difference. Sometime it happens sometimes it doesn't. It only seems to happen on the front screen not the rear

Anyone got any ideas?

Smee

[scooby1doo1]

Depending on time of day or your lights on does it wash the headlights first, then the screen hence the delay.

[Turks]

If it is not what has been said by smeeagain, it could be that the pump is letting screenwash back into the bottle or leak. If this is happening then it will take a few seconds to recharge the lines with screenwash before anything comes out of the Jets.


Turks.

[Smeeagain]

its not a headlamp associated delay - it happens during the day. It does feel like the lines are being recharged - will continue to hunt further

Smee

[Turks]

Try to check all of the joints along the lines first, as well as where they meet the pump. If you have a couple of spare mates, then dry the lines, get them to put their fingers over the jets while you try to squirt them. The back pressure might reveal where the screenwash maybe escaping.


Turks.

[Smeeagain]

OK, here is a further symptom - a bit weird in my opinion but hopefully it will tell someone something as its quite definitive

With the car parked and the ignition only on, the screenwash works first time every time, perfectly. The delay in delivering the water ONLY happens when the engine is running. I know this as I've spent he last half hour on the driving way testing
it and it was always working. Out of curiosity I switch the engine on and now I get the delay. Switch the engine off and all is fine?

Some kind of electrical drain perhaps pulling power away from the pumps? Dunno

Smee