Not a totally random question. The nozzles on my 900 are pretty poor by modern standards, and totally worn out - the last few times I had to use them they had reaimed themselves randomly each time. They seem like an easy thing to update for improved performance, but with what? What cars came from the factory with really good pieces? Nice coverage, relatively easy to aim, and cheap being the basic criteria.
I like the GM ones that are in the wiper arm. No aiming required, lots of juice.
When I was a high school idiot, I plugged one side and turned the other around facing forward so that I could hose people/cars/pets with the hood-mounted variety.
Heck, I forget what car it was now, but I remember one had the totally awesome ability to shoot a jet of washer fluid clean over the roof and it would land on the windshield of the car behind me. I may or may not have intentionally "cleaned my windshield" if someone was following too closely.
Tyler H (Forum Supporter) said:I like the GM ones that are in the wiper arm. No aiming required, lots of juice.
That was the first thing that came to mind for me, too. A lot of GM products from the '90s did this; I'm not sure if they later switched to more conventional washer nozzles. But the wiper-mounted GM nozzles do great - they put a ton of fluid where it's needed, without spraying too much where it isn't.
I like the ones on my Toyota Sienna. Awesome fan pattern. I hate the GM ones on my 11 Chevy Express van. They are the ones others are saying are great as they're attached to the wiper. When they work they work well, however the seem to freeze up a lot, and I hate them. I've been driving this van for 8 years, and the washers are one of my only gripes. 185k miles. The ones on both my 74 REPU, and 78 RX-7 are the worst though. Not surprising though I guess as they are from the 70's.
90-94 lumina
Following... since the ones on my classic cars are pretty much worthless and I have no issues with making changes.
Following also, neon ones are pure junk.
In reply to Tyler H (Forum Supporter) :
Can the GM wiper arm sprayers be easily retrofitted? Probably have to figure out the plumbing as well. I love the idea, but I don't know how difficult it would be to do a conversion.
I like ones on the Sedona, they are hood mounted with 3 nozzles each to get good coverage on the large windshield.
The GM wiper Ones should be easy to plumb, they just had a section of flexible hose to go from the cowl to the wiper arm. I'm not sure how easy they would be to retrofit on the arms of something different.
The old school GM metal nozzles that hid in the slots of the cowl (think early 80s square body) were easy to adjust by bending, but were really just a piece of metal tubing pinched at the end to create a "nozzle"
EP3/RSX mist nozzles work pretty well, retrofitted a few of my older civics with those
76810S5TA00
Infiniti G35s come with some nice power-washers.
Early 2000s Volvo S60 are quite decent
Tyler H (Forum Supporter) said:
When I was a high school idiot, I plugged one side and turned the other around facing forward so that I could hose people/cars/pets with the hood-mounted variety.
I mounted one behind a Miata headlight. Pop the lights, squirt, retract lights.
I was not in high school, although I may have been an idiot.
The only - and I do mean only - good thing about DW's '81 Fairmont was the windshield washer setup.
Instead of individual streams from a couple of hood bumps, it had a single unit in the middle that blasted a pretty good fan of fluid all the way across the windshield, all at once. It was pretty effective, especially considering how useless most of the rest of the car was.
EDT (Forum Supporter) said:Early 2000s Volvo S60 are quite decent
And still very good in the late teens. The sprayers on DW's S60 are very effective for the nozzle / stream type, and deliver the goods. The V60 has the wiper mounted type and they work efficiently, but don't knock my socks off.
Just realized that the wiper-mounted type won't work for the 900 - the sprayers are in the hood, and hood hinges forward, so unless I drilled holes to run the feed lines to the wipers through the firewall somewhere, there's no way to get the fluid to the wipers.
I think I'd prefer something that has more of a fan pattern than individual jets. Come to think of it, the ones on my 128i aren't too bad - I didn't consider them because I assume they're typically BMW-priced, but I'll have to check.
I always liked the ones in the MK4 GTIs. They spray a flat pattern that covers the windshield pretty well. These were mounted under the backside of the hood so they may not work well if you're looking for something hood mounted.
I liked the Tribute ones I put on my miata. 3 nozzles made a nice fan on each side.
As a tangentially relevant factoid, the nozzles on a 1978 BelAir (= decontented Cdn Impala) could be cleaned out perfectly in the field with an unbent paperclip.
I actually don't recall ever having to do that in any vehicle since.
1st gen Scion xB. They have the triple nozzle type and hood mounted.
Tyler H (Forum Supporter) said:When I was a high school idiot, I plugged one side and turned the other around facing forward so that I could hose people/cars/pets with the hood-mounted variety.
One of my bad car guy jokes is I'll ask people riding with me if it's legal to install a oil slick release tank on my car. Like James Bond or a smoke screen. That legal?
Just a joke - I would never.
I was very fond of the 80s fords with their central washer jet that still managed to cover the entire windshield in one go.
In reply to Tyler H (Forum Supporter) :
A friend of mine did that but with the rear washer routed through a hole in the license plate for tailgaters.
The best I ever had were on a 2015 Subaru WRX. Not just the nozzles/spray but the wipers too. Nice pattern, completely quiet. It really was a thing of beauty. I would demonstrate for passengers and they would look at me like I was crazy for raving about them.
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