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People barely refill their windshield washer fluid. Asking them to refill a tank with distilled water is a bit of a stretch. Not that I have anything about wate

People barely refill their windshield washer fluid. Asking them to refill a tank with distilled water is a bit of a stretch. Not that I have anything about water injection (I use it).

arethuza 10y ago
"People barely refill their windshield washer fluid" Where are you? I find that cars become pretty much undrivable within a very short time if the windshield washer fluid runs out - particularly in winter. NB I'm in Scotland.
- fibonachos 10y ago
  California native here. What is this 'winter' you speak of? In all seriousness, it takes about a month or more worth of dust buildup before the view out of my windshield can be considered to have been obscured in any way. Thankfully it rarely gets to that point since I usually clean my windows when putting gas in my vehicle.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - arethuza 10y ago
    I would say 20 minutes for car to become undrivable on a bad day in winter if no windscreen washers. I know this from bitter experience of letting my washers freeze up and having to stop and clean the windscreen with coffee every few minutes! Edit: The combination of low winter sun and heavily gritted and salted roads is probably the cause.
  - Anasufovic 10y ago
    My car has been screaming low washer fluid at me for months. Luckily I'm due for an oil change.
  - beamatronic 10y ago
    Not only that, but the windshield washer fluid you can buy in the Bay Area is NOT the kind that doesn't freeze. Which could lead to a surprise if you head up to Tahoe for skiing. You can buy the anti-freeze kind up there, but you are supposed to "promise" not to use it back in the Bay Area.
    - fibonachos 10y ago
      I actually discovered this by accident one morning a couple of years ago. We do get the occasional sub-freezing morning temperatures here during winter. One such morning I used my windshield washers and wound up with a nice, blinding sheet of ice on my windshield. I had to pull into a parking lot and scrape it off with a debit card. Rather dangerous situation for those of us who don't encounter real winter weather often.
- johnward 10y ago
  I would be afraid to ask some people in the US to refill their washer fluid. It will end up in the coolant or possibly oil. Although some diesel owners can apparently handle refilling the AdBlue tank or the dealer handles it.
  - arprocter 10y ago
    The British driving test contains questions with the hood/bonnet up 'where would you add oil?' etc
    - Grishnakh 10y ago
      Most Americans would never pass that test. It's a wonder we can even figure out the gas and brake pedals, and even there we frequently get confused, and then sue the automaker for "unintended acceleration".
      - aidenn0 10y ago
        My wife got a new car, and I looked up in the owners manual for what kind of oil it takes. The manual's section on changing oil was "To change oil, take car to an authorized Kia workshop." I died a little inside that day. [edit] Fortunately there was an "SAE 5W25" indicator on the oil reservoir cap.
        Grishnakh 10y ago
        You should get a new Mazda. I have one, and changing the oil doesn't get much simpler, though I do need to use tire ramps to get under the car, though I don't think that's too unusual for a car. The bottom is covered in a big plastic cover for aerodynamics, and there's a small access panel that's easily removed for access to the drain plug and filter (which are right next to each other). Take out the plug (you need a big allen socket, not too exotic), drain the oil, and then just reach up and turn the filter to get it off (the filter is mounted with the opening upwards, so it won't spill oil all over when you take it off). Put the new one back, replace the bolt (with a fresh crush washer), replace the access panel, then put 0W-20 in the port that's right on top of the engine. I'm pretty sure the owner's manual just has a section telling you which grades of oil are suitable for which season. From everything I've seen, if you want a car that you can work on yourself, Japanese is the way to go, and German is the absolute worst. Japanese cars seem to be designed for serviceability much more than other makes. German cars seem to be designed to be as hard to work on as possible without special tools, and American cars seem to be in the middle somewhere, and instead of being intentionally hard to work on, they just didn't think about it too much.
- dorfsmay 10y ago
  You know it's spring in Alberta when you consume more windshield fluid then gas!
- j2bax 10y ago
  Southwest Idaho here. Haven't filled my windshield fluid more than once since I moved here 8 years ago... Very little rain. Very little muck on the roads. Minimal bugs. Park car in the garage every night. When I lived in the Northeastern US I used far more windshield fluid.
Roboprog 10y ago
Make Jiffy-Lube do it every few months. Just like the window fluid :-)
- asimuvPR 10y ago
  I would stay away from such places. They tend to use cheap oil and filters (but charging for brand name) and shoddy workmanship.

People barely refill their windshield washer fluid. Asking them to refill a tank with distilled water is a bit of a stretch. Not that I have anything about water injection (I use it).

arethuza 10y ago

"People barely refill their windshield washer fluid" Where are you? I find that cars become pretty much undrivable within a very short time if the windshield washer fluid runs out - particularly in winter. NB I'm in Scotland.

fibonachos 10y ago
California native here. What is this 'winter' you speak of? In all seriousness, it takes about a month or more worth of dust buildup before the view out of my windshield can be considered to have been obscured in any way. Thankfully it rarely gets to that point since I usually clean my windows when putting gas in my vehicle.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- arethuza 10y ago
  I would say 20 minutes for car to become undrivable on a bad day in winter if no windscreen washers. I know this from bitter experience of letting my washers freeze up and having to stop and clean the windscreen with coffee every few minutes! Edit: The combination of low winter sun and heavily gritted and salted roads is probably the cause.
- Anasufovic 10y ago
  My car has been screaming low washer fluid at me for months. Luckily I'm due for an oil change.
- beamatronic 10y ago
  Not only that, but the windshield washer fluid you can buy in the Bay Area is NOT the kind that doesn't freeze. Which could lead to a surprise if you head up to Tahoe for skiing. You can buy the anti-freeze kind up there, but you are supposed to "promise" not to use it back in the Bay Area.
  - fibonachos 10y ago
    I actually discovered this by accident one morning a couple of years ago. We do get the occasional sub-freezing morning temperatures here during winter. One such morning I used my windshield washers and wound up with a nice, blinding sheet of ice on my windshield. I had to pull into a parking lot and scrape it off with a debit card. Rather dangerous situation for those of us who don't encounter real winter weather often.
johnward 10y ago
I would be afraid to ask some people in the US to refill their washer fluid. It will end up in the coolant or possibly oil. Although some diesel owners can apparently handle refilling the AdBlue tank or the dealer handles it.
- arprocter 10y ago
  The British driving test contains questions with the hood/bonnet up 'where would you add oil?' etc
  - Grishnakh 10y ago
    Most Americans would never pass that test. It's a wonder we can even figure out the gas and brake pedals, and even there we frequently get confused, and then sue the automaker for "unintended acceleration".
    - aidenn0 10y ago
      My wife got a new car, and I looked up in the owners manual for what kind of oil it takes. The manual's section on changing oil was "To change oil, take car to an authorized Kia workshop." I died a little inside that day. [edit] Fortunately there was an "SAE 5W25" indicator on the oil reservoir cap.
      - Grishnakh 10y ago
        You should get a new Mazda. I have one, and changing the oil doesn't get much simpler, though I do need to use tire ramps to get under the car, though I don't think that's too unusual for a car. The bottom is covered in a big plastic cover for aerodynamics, and there's a small access panel that's easily removed for access to the drain plug and filter (which are right next to each other). Take out the plug (you need a big allen socket, not too exotic), drain the oil, and then just reach up and turn the filter to get it off (the filter is mounted with the opening upwards, so it won't spill oil all over when you take it off). Put the new one back, replace the bolt (with a fresh crush washer), replace the access panel, then put 0W-20 in the port that's right on top of the engine. I'm pretty sure the owner's manual just has a section telling you which grades of oil are suitable for which season. From everything I've seen, if you want a car that you can work on yourself, Japanese is the way to go, and German is the absolute worst. Japanese cars seem to be designed for serviceability much more than other makes. German cars seem to be designed to be as hard to work on as possible without special tools, and American cars seem to be in the middle somewhere, and instead of being intentionally hard to work on, they just didn't think about it too much.
dorfsmay 10y ago
You know it's spring in Alberta when you consume more windshield fluid then gas!
j2bax 10y ago
Southwest Idaho here. Haven't filled my windshield fluid more than once since I moved here 8 years ago... Very little rain. Very little muck on the roads. Minimal bugs. Park car in the garage every night. When I lived in the Northeastern US I used far more windshield fluid.

Roboprog 10y ago

Make Jiffy-Lube do it every few months. Just like the window fluid :-)

asimuvPR 10y ago
I would stay away from such places. They tend to use cheap oil and filters (but charging for brand name) and shoddy workmanship.