I've just noticed my headlight washers activate twice. So when I pull the stalk back they'll activate, then they'll activate again about 5 seconds after that. It's quite annoying now I've noticed it.

I've just noticed my headlight washers activate twice. So when I pull the stalk back they'll activate, then they'll activate again about 5 seconds after that. It's quite annoying now I've noticed it.

Its meant to, they have 2 stage cleaning. The first spray is supposed to loosen the dirt, the second to wash it away.

They do seem to work reasonably well, all the while mine function (the deplete the reservoir quickly then disable when the warning appear....i find I can go weeks with whats left from that point) my lights do work a bit better than when they are not activating and they start to get road grime baked onto them.

And this fifth wash malarkey is only applicable if it's the same journey. 

 

10th wash.

They can be a little bit of trouble when travelling at speed, very limitting on the vision.

I would have thought at the kind of speeds you wring out of your 1.4 that the water would evaporate

I filled the washer tank on Saturday. Today is friday and after 230 miles in winter dark commuting the washer low warning light is on.

 

On my MKII a quick screen wash stalk pull then another only washed the screen. On my III this trick doesn't work.

 

I want to wash the screen only. The headlight washer is ineffective so whats the point? SAAB and Volvo have headlamp wipers as they know a pressure wash does little to clear lights.

 

I had two Subarus that has a separate button to blast the lights. This was especially useful when youths stepped out to cross a road in front of me...

 

Is VCDS the only way to stop draining my screenwash in winter when I commute for 2.5 hours in dark?

My warning light came on last week... I'm still going and I've used the washers quite a bit this week.  I think the threshold is set way too high for it to show the warning and disable the headlamp washers.  Personally, I wish it carried on washing the headlamps until the fluid actually runs out...

I want to wash the screen only. The headlight washer is ineffective so whats the point? SAAB and Volvo have headlamp wipers as they know a pressure wash does little to clear lights.

Older models did, but they've had the pressure washing kind for over a decade now. My current Volvo has the pressure washing type and it works well. Of course I wash them by hand whenever I stop at a petrol station, but the washers help keep the lights in ok condition while driving.

 

That said, I use the washers quite a lot, but have never encountered a low washer fluid level warning on my Volvo. The tank has 6,5 liters capacity and I usually add about a liter per 100 km.

 

 

How much is the capacity on the Octavia btw? I couldn't find a clear number anywhere.

Edited 19 December, 201411 yr by kallekilponen

I filled the washer tank on Saturday. Today is friday and after 230 miles in winter dark commuting the washer low warning light is on.

 

On my MKII a quick screen wash stalk pull then another only washed the screen. On my III this trick doesn't work.

 

I want to wash the screen only. The headlight washer is ineffective so whats the point? SAAB and Volvo have headlamp wipers as they know a pressure wash does little to clear lights.

 

I had two Subarus that has a separate button to blast the lights. This was especially useful when youths stepped out to cross a road in front of me...

 

I'm glad someone else agrees with me. Wonder if its a coincidence you've also driven Subarus?

I've just stumbled onto this thread while I was researching how / if it could turn the headlight washers off completely, but if I can do a VCDS adaptation to adjust it to a 2 second press, I'll do that. BUT.....

 

I have to say that my reason for wanting to disable them is a little different.  In winter, I will have to do my commuting to work in the dark and often in snowy or icy conditions.  Having read that the washer stalks are quite fragile, particularly in cold conditions, I'm more concerned that during the winter, the trim panels that cover the washer stalks might get frozen to the bumper and that may damage the mechanism that operates the washer stalks.

 

I have to say that I'd like to see it work with a short press for a windscreen wipe, a  slightly longer (1 second) press for windscreen wash and wipe, and a long press (2 seconds) for a headlamp wash.  I don't have Xenon's BTW!!

 In winter, I will have to do my commuting to work in the dark and often in snowy or icy conditions.  Having read that the washer stalks are quite fragile, particularly in cold conditions, I'm more concerned that during the winter, the trim panels that cover the washer stalks might get frozen to the bumper and that may damage the mechanism that operates the washer stalks.

 

No problems with functionality up here. Use screenwash to stop the water freezing.

This is of course true. But I can reassure you that this wasn't some simple schoolboy questionnaire. The results came from a combination of interviews, panels and videos of operators actually using different UIs.

 

 

 

No, of course it isn't. Unfortunately "long-press does A and short-press does B" is actually not simple enough for many. We therefore made changes.

 

 

 

 

Who researched whether people wanted simple controls? No offence intended, but you're maybe confused.

 

 

 

You are absolutely correct, most people don't. But a wise company doesn't say that to their customer, "your fault, you idiot, you should RTFM". Instead a wise company will try to work out an intuitive UI to achieve the functionality required. A "long press does A, short press does B" is not intuitive and requires the operator to RTFM.

 

 

 

 

Nope, the "long press, short press" logic is flawed, for the reason given above.

 

 

 

I think the Subaru design engineers thought that "long press does A, short press does B" was logical, mainly because they themselves knew how it works. Unfortunately customers don't know unless they are either, a) trained or read the manual. The Subaru system might appear better to an operator who knows how it works. To someone who is not trained or has not read the manual, it is useless.

 

 

 

I've worked with engineers with this attitude in the past. They're now doing something else. Their seats are filled with engineers that work closely with customers to discover the real needs, rather than relying solely on their own experiences.

Having retired from a lifetime of working in the field of IT Hardware and Software development I totally agree with Susi on this, to many engineers, techs and software designers actually believe they know best but create systems which few people can use, at least without intensive training on poorly thought out systems and interfaces.

If you don't want the headlights to wash just, run the washer bottle from 0 to 1 litre capcity

 

Simples

^+1

Of hit it with a hammer

On the Octy 2 it was possible to disable in via VCDS. I'm now looking for the similar option in the Octy 3

No problems with functionality up here. Use screenwash to stop the water freezing.

 

 

Thanks, but it's not the water spraying ability of the washers that's a concern for me,  Like you said, good screenwash will stop the nozzles and tubes from freezing.  It's the nozzle covers getting frozen to the bumper that concerns me.  Quite often we will see heavy rain in the evening that later freezes overnight, leaving the doors and handles frozen shut etc.  It don't want to end up with broken mechs as a result.

 

I might just do as "themanwithnoaim" suggested and just run it down till the warning light comes on and top it up every now and then.  Bit of a PITA though.

Wax the car well and the rain should bead off the car better

So reading through this there is no fuse to pull like vauxhall has

On 08/11/2014 at 16:28, komtuur said:

Anyone have tried this via VCDS?

To extend the interval cycles that the headlight washers will activate to a) prevent the front of your clean car being sprayed, and to reduce the amount of screen wash usage.

1. Go to [09] Central Electronics
2. STG access permissions -> Function 16
3. Enter access code 31347
4. Go to adaptation channels (Function 10)
5. Select channel 1 - Select "Number of operations front windsceen wiper washer per SRA activation" (in German - Frontscheibenwischer Anzahl Betätigungen Frontwaschanlage pro SRA Aktivierung auswählen)
6. Adjust value to preference (no of times you can operate the windscreen washer stalk before the headlight washer activate).
7. Select channel 3, and adjust the activate time for folding the switch to enable headlight washers in the first place.

I'm interest in this last point, that i could control myself when headlight washers activate. Which values and which channel should i change to activate headlight washers by folding the switch lets say 2s or so. 

Also, i would like to cancel that headlight washers comes on automatically every first time i use windshield washers, if it possible to change this also to 2s switch folding time. Thank you.

 

Awesome 

 

I've adjusted mine so that they now wash every 4th pull instead of 10th pull.  I've found that the washers are quite effective , it also helps to have a decent water repellent on them like Gtechniq G5. 

Worth mentioning that UK Mot rules now insist you have there operating if you've got Xenon headlamps, just in case comes on this thread with the idea of disabling them.

^^^ That will be 'requires' that they work for a pass at a MOT.  Nobody can insist they work as they freeze and no longer work.

 

Nobody at a MOT checks that there is Winter Wash in at a MOT so that it might clear windscreen and not freeze in the bottle or pipes.

As it is even if not frozen in the Washer Bottles they can freeze in the pipes before getting to heated nozzles.

44 minutes ago, Offski said:

^^^ That will be 'requires' that they work for a pass at a MOT.  Nobody can insist they work as they freeze and no longer work.

 

Nobody at a MOT checks that there is Winter Wash in at a MOT so that it might clear windscreen and not freeze in the bottle or pipes.

As it is even if not frozen in the Washer Bottles they can freeze in the pipes before getting to heated nozzles.

 

Insist/require, whatever. 

 

All I'm saying is they'll fail the car if the headlamp wash doesn't work on a car with Xenons when they test, so people should have that in mind if they want to muck about with it.

They should fail them, you might well be failed.  Not all are being failed, but then UK MOT's are like that, even as the DVSA / DfT tighten MOT's.

6 minutes ago, Saints92 said:

All I'm saying is they'll fail the car if the headlamp wash doesn't work on a car with Xenons when they test, so people should have that in mind if they want to muck about with it.

Not just a car with Xenons, if ANY car is fitted with headlamp washers they must work at the time of the MOT (for the rest of the year, well...) - my 2015 Octavia has Halogen headlamps and headlamp washers (factory fitted).