Of the cars, and motorcycles, I've driven I found that the motorcycle has the worst (leather glove) and the Mk5 GTI had the best. Motorcycle wins points for fuel economy and feeling aliveness, GTI gets points for having the proper number of doors (2).
In reply to 02Pilot :
Early '80s Ford.
mad_machine (Forum Supporter) said:I was very fond of the 80s fords with their central washer jet that still managed to cover the entire windshield in one go.
I agree that they worked rather well.
I never would have guessed so many people are running modded washer nozzles 
.
I liked the headlight wipers and washers on my Volvos. Other than those, I honestly cannot recall how well the washers functioned on any other car I've owned, and that includes the current fleet. Guess there just isn't enough of a delta between the good and bad to register on me.
My intrepid one's were horrible. 3 streams per nozzle but no amount of cleaning got them working good, they did the job but barely. Since doing paint and body, I've swapped them out for a set of Napa 'Help-Me' ones, which look to be more of a 'fan' style. I'll find out in the spring when I get the washer fluid reservoir installed and hoses routed.
Back in the 90's, I worked for the company that made the washer nozzles for most domestic cars. They used patented fluidic designs that were way way superior to the single-stream squirters and shear nozzles used by everyone else. The fluidic circuits were custom designed for each vehicle. This means that your old UncleDavid, as a 20-something car guy, got to do high speed testing at all the big 3 proving grounds. Very cool. I have tons of stories.
Anyway, with regard to cleaning performance, as previous posters have noted, the wiper-arm-mounted nozzles used by GM were the very best at cleaning. We had other good designs, but arm-mounted nozzles are by far the best. Note that their Achilles heel is that the hoses are exposed so the fluid tends to freeze sooner than with other designs. There are a bunch of different arm-mounted nozzles, with different spray angles, flow rates, and mounting details, so pay attention when you're picking them up at the yards.
The ones on my 2018 Jetta are real good. The 99 Suburban leaves some room for improvement. The TR250 - LOL!!!!
02Pilot said: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.
For a cheaper fan-pattern alternative, look at the 2012-2014 Ford Focus. Hood mounted and a nice, wide spray pattern. They work well enough on my wife's car.
I drove an 84 Chevy pickup which had the most amazing squirters. They would pulse when the wipers were in just the right position. I never found out if it was designed that way or just broken very fortunately, but it made them way more effctive and didn't waste fluid.
Not my Civic's since I pulled the tank and lines out of the car.
Do you need to pick a squirter from how far in front of the windshield its mounted ?
On some cars its in the center on the cowl only a few inches from the windshield ,
but some are mounted on the front hood farther forward , so the angle of "attack" would need to change....I think !
No complaints on FiST,s pattern. Pretty well covers the wipe area.
On all my miatas I've used them from a 95 or 96 for escort. The Miata has the two little hole squirters, where the escort had a nice fan. Both have the same hole in the hood as well so it pops right in
In reply to californiamilleghia :
I've been thinking about that. The 900 has a pretty upright windshield, which I imagine would be a consideration, especially for anything that's spec'd for something with steeply raked front glass. I haven't measured the distance from the nozzles to the windshield, but it does seem it would be a factor as well. When it stops raining here I'll have a closer look, take some measurements, pop the existing ones out to see what the holes in the hood look like, and then pull the trigger on something.
After thinking about everything, I decided to order nozzles for a late-model F150. Got the OE parts because they weren't expensive and got significantly better reviews than the generics. Did a test firing today and, while the pattern is good, they don't have enough oomph to get the fluid high enough on the windshield to be useful. I think I need a more powerful pump to make the most out of them. The other issue is that the original nozzles have a very small base diameter, which means that if I want to use the F150 parts I'll have to drill out the holes. For now the originals are still in place while I figure out my next move.
The fan pattern nozzles on my Jeep are quite good. And they got even better with a bigger washer pump and a coolant heat exchanger to warm the fluid. They spread the fluid pretty nicely and flow a decent bit. The BMW nozzles unfortunately kinda suck. 2 streams per nozzle, which isn't great.
Aim and performance: In general, steeper windshields result in much better washer nozzle performance. The closer the hood to windshield angle is to 90 degrees, the larger the low pressure area at the base of the windshield. That larger low pressure area minimizes the the change in spray trajectory as vehicle speed (relative to wind speed) increases, and is also easier on the fluid droplets. Bigger droplets are more likely to go where you aim them (more mass vs surface area). As windshields were laid flatter through the '90's our job as washer system designers got harder. We'd have to start with a high static aim to get the fluid where it needed to be at highway speeds, and tweak the circuitry to get bigger droplets. A potential compensation is a variable voltage (and therefore pressure) washer pump. Those work great (voltage proportional to vehicle speed) , but the manufacturers would never pay for them. Cowl-mounted nozzles are more sensitive to variations in aim, AND more sensitive to dimensional changes in the cowl panel, which is usually plastic and deforms over time. Single nozzles have to have a wider spray angle, which means more of the spray is traveling at a greater angle to the front-to-back airflow. If you don't want to do arm-mounted nozzles, second best is two nozzles on the hood. Bias the spray pattern to the driver's side a little bit. It may take some experimentation to find the right combo of location, aim, spray angle, and flow rate.
In reply to Uncle David (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks for the explanation. The Saab 900 setup is probably rather different than most modern cars. I'll try to get a photo or two and some measurements.
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