Headlight washer intervals?

[mcooke999]

UPDATE:

I tried today and found (to my amazement) that if you wash the windscreen several times within a short period, the headlamp washers only fire on the 5th/6th pull!...

However, I didn't have time to check whether this is true if you wait more than 5-10 mins between cleaning the windscreen, i.e.: whether it resets after a certain length of time... My feeling is that it does because as I say, I'm sure it washes the headlamps every time I've been washing the windscreen in normal everyday use.

[MacV50]

Yes, that's correct. Every 6 times but if longer than around 10 mins, it does the headlights again regardless

I don't mind the setup but feel that it shouldn't be doing it when the headlights are off

[Deck1ng]

I read somewhere on the internet that some Volvo's activate headlamp washers every 5-6 blasts, but only if within a set time period of 5-10 mins, after that it will activate headlamp washers again regardless so that might be what's happening to me?[/QUOTE]

I believe this is just a myth. Having sat outside and wasted a gallon of screen wash, mine squirts the headlamp glass every 5th pull of the stick, regardless if spaced out over 10 minutes or pulled in quick succession. Being on full beam, dipped or side markers made no difference. We can blame the EU for this 😁.

[Bromie]

From what I understand, Xenon lights (HIDs) were required to be fitted with headlight washers and levelling systems by law (this might have changed over the past decade, as the washers are now only required when the light output is above a certain number of lumens).

It was believed that due to the greater light output other drivers were more susceptible to being dazzled by the much brighter and more 'focused' HIDs if the lens was dirty (from road salt, for example). Therefore it is more important they undergo a regular cleaning, and Volvo obviously decided to go above and beyond and make sure that they never caused an accident by dazzling oncoming traffic (it kind of makes sense, given their design philosophy).

However I do agree that the use of screen wash, especially in the UK climate and weather conditions, becomes excessive.

When I had a Golf GTD I played around with some of the un-alterable settings with an OBD device (OBDEleven) - this let me change the operation of the headlight washers so they only operated after a long pull of the washer stalk. This was in my opinion a much better idea as the car couldn't drain my screen wash at its own discretion (I understand that this could allow for the possibility of the headlights causing the previously mentioned issues by becoming too dirty, but this was something I was aware of and always made sure to occasionally operate the headlight washers).

It would be nice if Volvo's cars were accessible for at least some of this kind of customisation (or at least be able to up the number of indicator courtesy flashes from 3 to 5!).

[Bromie]

I forgot to add - I have to agree that if I operate the washers within a short amount of time the headlight washers operate as expected, but if there's been a small wait (10-30 mins for example) they'll operate every time I wash the screen.

I do believe I've also seen this stated in the manuals for at least my previous 2013 V40, 2021 XC40 and current 2016 XC60.

[RDesign4Life]

Originally Posted by Bromie

It was believed that due to the greater light output other drivers were more susceptible to being dazzled by the much brighter and more 'focused' HIDs if the lens was dirty (from road salt, for example). Therefore it is more important they undergo a regular cleaning, and Volvo obviously decided to go above and beyond and make sure that they never caused an accident by dazzling oncoming traffic (it kind of makes sense, given their design philosophy).

However I do agree that the use of screen wash, especially in the UK climate and weather conditions, becomes excessive.

When I had a Golf GTD I played around with some of the un-alterable settings with an OBD device (OBDEleven) - this let me change the operation of the headlight washers so they only operated after a long pull of the washer stalk. This was in my opinion a much better idea as the car couldn't drain my screen wash at its own discretion (I understand that this could allow for the possibility of the headlights causing the previously mentioned issues by becoming too dirty, but this was something I was aware of and always made sure to occasionally operate the headlight washers).

It would be nice if Volvo's cars were accessible for at least some of this kind of customisation (or at least be able to up the number of indicator courtesy flashes from 3 to 5!).

So the EU thought that in order to prevent European eyeballs from the extra dazzling effects of higher light output HIDs it was necessary to prevent the headlamp from becoming dirty so made cleaning systems mandatory to ensure max light output and max water wastage.

Sounds about right - glad we are freeing ourselves of future Brussels Bollox.

[Bromie]

Well, these are the same people who dictated how much power our vacuum cleaners were allowed to have, so...yeah, sounds about right!

[Deck1ng]

[QUOTE=Bromie;2872103]Well, these are the same people who dictated how much power our vacuum cleaners were allowed to have, so...yeah, sounds about right![

Just far too much meddling