Occasionally one nozzle of your windshield washers clogs up. This can be a potentially hazardous situation, but is easy to fix quickly at home or on the road.
Step One
Check the amount of windshield washer fluid in the reservoir. Locate the vehicle’s reservoir and use the recommended products to fill it.
Step Two
Turn on the vehicle ignition. Test the windshield washer to pinpoint the clog. Examine the washer fluid system to see whether it’s in one nozzle or in the line. Make sure excess car wax is not blocking the nozzle opening.
Step Three
Push the tube from a can of compressed air (like the product used to blow dust off electronic parts) against the nozzle and give it a blast until you hear the washer fluid reservoir start to bubble.
Step Four
Try the washers. Chances are that at this point they will work.
Step Five
If this does not work, use the screwdriver and pliers to remove the tube from the bottom of the nozzle assembly. You may need to replace the nozzle assembly, which costs a couple bucks at the dealership and a couple minutes of your time. It just snaps in place into the hood of your car.
Step Six
Try the following if the compressed air doesn’t work:
Step Seven
Remove nozzle from hood and then insert the appropriate diameter guitar wire to clean out the clog. The third guitar string (0.025″ dia) works very well on 2003 Taurus models. It is constructed with an outer wire that is wound in a spiral around a central core wire. The surface of that spiral outer wire works like a pipe cleaner.
Step Eight
You can then fill your mouth with water and back-flush the nozzle by blowing through the outlet end. Then when you blow through the inlet end, you will see a perfect wide spray pattern that you haven’t seen since the car was brand new.(NOTE: Placing your mouth on either end of each nozzle will NOT kill you! Just clean them and your hands before proceeding).