Windscreen / Headlamp washers

[Ken R]

Had a bit of a nightmare journey of 220 miles today (mainly motorway) without windscreen or headlamp washers. Had to keep stopping to wash the screen. Temperatures were at best -1 but fell to -9 but the washers refused to work throughout. The headlamp washer units are now stuck in the open position. Any ideas how to remedy??

[J Henderson]

Had this happen a few times. Normally, I'd suggest just doing nothing and they'll retract on their own once it gets warmer, but it doesn't seem like the temperature is going to rise above freezing anytime soon!

You're going to have to heat them up somehow. A hairdryer or similar would probably be best.

Buy some screenwash with a lower freezing point to try and prevent it from happening again.

[peniole]

I assume since your car is a 22 that the wash in there is the factory/dealer fill still, right? Had the same problem, their fill is worse than useless at zero. Reported it to my dealer, clearly Lexus haven't gotten the message. Especially with our large volume reservoirs, I think it should always be winter mix.

[GeoNX]

Had the same problem with headlamp washers stuck open, I noticed the issue after a 30 min roundtrip this morning. I called my Lexus service centre and it was explained to me that this happens because of pressure build up  due to the low temperatures; they said there are no actual electric motor operating the washers, it apparently works  with pressure, and that I was the fourth person calling about this issue.  I wasn't initially happy with their response suggesting that this is normal during cold weather. The washers slowly retracted after 1-2 hours on their own, at least it seems they don't stay up permanently during cold weather, still not a great design in my opinion, or maybe just a wrong choice of screenwash as suggested here. Interestingly it appears that my washers retracted as the car was cooling down after the journey, so I am totally confused about the cause/effect relationship here.  

[Ken R]

The headlamp washers did indeed retract in the milder temperature today however they and the windscreen/tailgate washers still not operational and its "only" minus 1. Definitely a design fault as the washer fluid should be good to minus 10.

[Stumpyuk]

Yes, having the same problem with my NX 450H+.   Have had no working windscreen washing for 3 days solid.   Even a 2.5 hour trip down south didn't warm the system sufficiently to de-ice.   AA came out and said that other Lexus owners were having the same problem.   He had a stash of glass cleaner and cloths for exactly this problem, he handed over part of the stash to me.

[J Henderson]

My washers are staying usable with this stuff from Halfords.

-20 Concentrated Screenwash

Used neat. They also stock a -30 one, but that comes in a smaller bottle.

Avoid "ready to use" products IMO. You're just paying mostly for water.

 

[Harrier Man]

I am surprised this is still an issue in 2022 with so much tech on the car. This is surely a very practical safety feature that would benefit most owners.

In the 70s, I spliced a piece of copper tube into the rubber hose for the heater and wrapped the plastic tubing around it. Simple and effective. Not perfect as the nozzles sometimes froze and the warmed washer fluid couldn't flow until they had defrosted. In this day and age, I would have thought heated nozzles would be very possible.

[Ken R]

My screen washers and headlamp washers returned to active duty today with temperatures rising to 3 degrees but with a blanket of snow. Today's driving challenge was keeping the radar sensor and front camera clear as snow rapidly built up knocking them out of action. The joys of winter!😰❄️