2018 (Mark 7) Ford Fiesta windscreen washer pump fix post
Discussion
This post is purely to document how I fixed my son's 2018 (mk7) Fiesta which wasn't getting washer fluid to the front or back windscreen, even though the pump was running fine. I saw a few guides on the internet, including from this site, so here's an attempt to repay the debt for whoever needs this info later. Just about everyone browsing from PistonHeads will probably know all this and find it overkill, but the point is to document everything in one place.
I went overboard because I didn't want to do this again any time soon. There are shortcuts.
You'll need:
Socket set, plastic trim removal tools, Torx and Phillips drivers, breaker bar and 19mm wheel socket, a jack and axle-stands or blocks (never trust a jack to hold a car up for a long time!), torch, small plastic takeaway tubs/ice cream tubs for bits, a swear jar, an endless supply of both tea and patience, white vinegar (cheap, good for laundry too), toothbrush for cleaning the pump, ibuprofen for later.
First, remove the driver's side wheel and wheel lining. I'm going to skip documenting this as if you don't know how to do that safely this guide isn't where you should be starting. The wheel lining needed a #2 Pozi to undo quarter-turn trim studs and a 10mm socket.
You should see something that looks like the below
The red circles are 10mm sockets, which are in some crappy cage-nut style clip, the green is a single-use stud for holding the fog lamp wiring loom, and the turquoise/cyan colour is the approximate location of the pump.
Shortcut, maybe: it's *possible* that you might be to waggle the pump out of the washer bottle at this point, but mine was really firmly stuck. It's just a compression fitting into a rubber washer, but I couldn't get the positioning right to put enough force in. You need to move it towards the front of the car.
Because I couldn't move the pump, I decided to remove the thing wholesale. This meant removing the headlamp and the foglight (i.e. really going overboard!), which was a mix of mostly Torx25 screws and trim clips. I needed to use a really stubby T25 bit in a tiny ratchet to have enough room to waggle everything out.
Once the two lights were removed, I was in this sort of state:
I now had enough room to undo the two 10mm screws which hold in the washer bottle, and waggle the bottle out towards the wheel well. The photo above shows a little plastic stud directly below the washer filler cap which appears to be specifically designed to make life difficult.
Once the bottle comes out towards the wheel well, you should have enough room to unclip the pump power connector, and then I had enough room to waggle the pump out of the bottle - this obviously lets any water that's in there out, so watch your feet!
After I freed the pump, it was pretty obvious what the problem was:
That mix of gunk (probably because of a mix of brands of washer fluid) is blocking the pump, and took about five seconds to clean with a toothbrush and vinegar. I cleaned it as thoroughly as I could, then reconnected the pump, dunked it in a takeaway tub filled with neat white vinegar, and ran the pump through both the front and rear washers:
No point not being thorough, so I took the bottle off for as good a wash as I could manage - I dunked it in a tub with a mix of soda crystals and vinegar:
Once that was done, I put the whole thing back together, which was pretty much a straight reversal of the above. It's easiest if you get the foglight roughly in place before you bolt the washer bottle back permanently.
I went overboard because I didn't want to do this again any time soon. There are shortcuts.
You'll need:
Socket set, plastic trim removal tools, Torx and Phillips drivers, breaker bar and 19mm wheel socket, a jack and axle-stands or blocks (never trust a jack to hold a car up for a long time!), torch, small plastic takeaway tubs/ice cream tubs for bits, a swear jar, an endless supply of both tea and patience, white vinegar (cheap, good for laundry too), toothbrush for cleaning the pump, ibuprofen for later.
First, remove the driver's side wheel and wheel lining. I'm going to skip documenting this as if you don't know how to do that safely this guide isn't where you should be starting. The wheel lining needed a #2 Pozi to undo quarter-turn trim studs and a 10mm socket.
You should see something that looks like the below
The red circles are 10mm sockets, which are in some crappy cage-nut style clip, the green is a single-use stud for holding the fog lamp wiring loom, and the turquoise/cyan colour is the approximate location of the pump.
Shortcut, maybe: it's *possible* that you might be to waggle the pump out of the washer bottle at this point, but mine was really firmly stuck. It's just a compression fitting into a rubber washer, but I couldn't get the positioning right to put enough force in. You need to move it towards the front of the car.
Because I couldn't move the pump, I decided to remove the thing wholesale. This meant removing the headlamp and the foglight (i.e. really going overboard!), which was a mix of mostly Torx25 screws and trim clips. I needed to use a really stubby T25 bit in a tiny ratchet to have enough room to waggle everything out.
Once the two lights were removed, I was in this sort of state:
I now had enough room to undo the two 10mm screws which hold in the washer bottle, and waggle the bottle out towards the wheel well. The photo above shows a little plastic stud directly below the washer filler cap which appears to be specifically designed to make life difficult.
Once the bottle comes out towards the wheel well, you should have enough room to unclip the pump power connector, and then I had enough room to waggle the pump out of the bottle - this obviously lets any water that's in there out, so watch your feet!
After I freed the pump, it was pretty obvious what the problem was:
That mix of gunk (probably because of a mix of brands of washer fluid) is blocking the pump, and took about five seconds to clean with a toothbrush and vinegar. I cleaned it as thoroughly as I could, then reconnected the pump, dunked it in a takeaway tub filled with neat white vinegar, and ran the pump through both the front and rear washers:
No point not being thorough, so I took the bottle off for as good a wash as I could manage - I dunked it in a tub with a mix of soda crystals and vinegar:
Once that was done, I put the whole thing back together, which was pretty much a straight reversal of the above. It's easiest if you get the foglight roughly in place before you bolt the washer bottle back permanently.
Edited by GrumpySod on Saturday 25th January 18:53
Edited by GrumpySod on Sunday 23 February 15:25
Edited by GrumpySod on Sunday 23 February 15:26
Edited by GrumpySod on Sunday 23 February 15:27
If you have gunk in your washer tank you may be able to clear it by stuffing a garden hose in as far as you can then turning it on fully. The agitation has always been enough to sort the problem for me. Your method is probably what the manufacturer would tell you to do though. Mine is the lazy man's version, worth a quick go first to avoid disassembly.
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