There's a leak........

[GrantA]

Yes a leak somewhere on the windscreen / headlight washer system, for the second time in a week I have found a puddle of bluish water on the garage floor in front of the nearside front wheel. I've searched the Forum but can't find any answers or advice. So before I start stripping the front of the car down looking for the leak does anyone know if this is common problem, is there a hose that sometimes comes loose on the XC70 or V70? I have put 10 litres of screen wash into the "bottle" in the last few weeks but as there has not been any obvious evidence of a puddle on the driveway straight after I filled it I doubt if I have overfilled it, perhaps it has been leaking as I drive along. What is the capacity of the screen wash bottle in a 2009 XC70?

Another question is when I turn the screen washers on the windscreen gets covered then the left hand headlight washer pops up and sprays and shuts off, then the right hand headlight washer pops up and sprays and shuts off. Is this normal?

Any help or advice gratefully received.

[cloggers]

Originally Posted by GrantA

Yes a leak somewhere on the windscreen / headlight washer system, for the second time in a week I have found a puddle of bluish water on the garage floor in front of the nearside front wheel. I've searched the Forum but can't find any answers or advice. So before I start stripping the front of the car down looking for the leak does anyone know if this is common problem, is there a hose that sometimes comes loose on the XC70 or V70? I have put 10 litres of screen wash into the "bottle" in the last few weeks but as there has not been any obvious evidence of a puddle on the driveway straight after I filled it I doubt if I have overfilled it, perhaps it has been leaking as I drive along. What is the capacity of the screen wash bottle in a 2009 XC70?

Another question is when I turn the screen washers on the windscreen gets covered then the left hand headlight washer pops up and sprays and shuts off, then the right hand headlight washer pops up and sprays and shuts off. Is this normal?

Any help or advice gratefully received.

I have had issues with mine as well. A pipe came of to one of the nozzles. Twice...

It is normal for the windscreen to be done first and then the headlights, one at a time. Mine does it to and unfortunately it can spill some more fluids on your windscreen...

[GrantA]

Thanks for the guidance Cloggers found the leak, it was actually on the suction side of the pump for the headlight washers. Probably a similar problem to the one you had where the pipe came off but mine was on the pump, it has a stupid clip that has to be "released" (or rather pulled back) to lock the pipe in place. It was a nightmare getting into it with all the plastic trim in place but do-able. Problem is I am a heavy handed Engineer and wanted to screw the Torx screws tighter into the plastic retainers "just to make sure" they were tight enough. Managed to kerb my enthusiasm this time and just nipped them up.

While crawling about underneath the car noticed quite a few of the engine/gearbox parts are stamped "FoMoCo Sweden" showing the true heritage of my Volvo............

[Nick44]

FoMoCo!
That takes me back a few years. I first got grease under my fingernails when my late Grandad owned garages, I used to spend school holidays at "The Works" as they were known, earning a few quid and learning lots.
Most of the manufactures then had these type of badges stamped or cast into parts. The one that always made me laugh was MoWoG on Morris cars.
That was 40+ years ago, when attitudes were very different. No longer funny of course.
Grandad's foreman always seemed to get stuck with the unusual cars, I also will never forget him swearing at a Peugeot like Columbo's one. He called it a "Pewgot"

[tt82]

Thread revival time.

I have developed a leak on wy windscreen/headlight washer bottle now. If I fill it up to the top of the filler neck, about 3 litres leaks out from under the car, in front of the Nearside wheel. I still have enough to operate the windscreen and tailgate wash, however I have not yet checked if the headlight sprays are operating correctly. As it is retaining about 3-4 lites of liquid, I assume my leak id from the filler neck connecting to the bottle, rather than a the tubes inbetween the pump and the nozzles coming loose. Has anybody experienced this?

[Model flyer]

Hi yes had exactly this with my sons 2009 V70. A section a the tubing that pushes onto the bottle had split . He just cut it back an inch and pushed it back on . He had to remove the wheel arch liner though as it was in the way . took about half an hour.

[tt82]

So does that mean the top of the filler neck is now an inch lower?

[Model flyer]

No it was one of the thin hoses that had split and allowed about half the contents of the tank to escape . I think it was a delivery hose that pushed onto one of the pumps, sorry I realise I said the bottle in earlier post . It would still squirt out the nozzles albeit at a lower pressure but mostly the liquid just run out the bottom of the bumper.

[tt82]

Cheers. Just checked my headlight washers and they're very weak, also a lot of water drips out of the bottom when they were activated. Seems like I have the same problem then.

[tt82]

Had a look at it today. Jacked up the N/S/F and removed the wheel to access the washer bottle. No sign of any issues on the wheel side. Topped up the washer bottle and the fluid was running along the the headlight washer hose which connects at the bottom of the washer bottle on the wheel side. Unfortunately the bottle was in the way of me finding out where the leak was coming from. So I removed the headlights, undid the top and bottom clips on the bumper and swung it out until I could get access to the pipe. The pipe had disconnected at the nozzle. Re-attached, tested and was working so I put the car back together an tested once more. All good. Success!




However it was short lived! With the N/S now being fine, the extra pressure blew the O/S connector and now water was pouring out on that side. However this one only needed the steering turned to full left lock, the 5 bolts holding the wheel arch liner removing and then there was enough play for to get my hand in and reattach that clip. Tested several times, everything refitted and then tested several times more. So far so good.