I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment, so I decided to look into why my windscreen washers were not up to their usual strength. I also noticed that occasionally the car (740 GLT 2.3 Estate with 4 speed manual + overdrive) would misfire when cold started but came Ok when warm.
First thing I did was open the bonnet one morning when it was doing its misfire thing, couldn't find anything amiss but noticed a bird dropping on the windscreen so I hit the winscreen washer out of habit while stnding beside the drivers door. The washers were pointing downward of course but a huge jet of water coming upward from the engine bay caught my eye. I did it again and saw that the T connector has a small hole at the top from which water was arcing upwards and falling directly onto the distributer cap. I closed the bonnet and did it again. Opened the bonnet and found the distributer covered in water. Hurray, found the misfire problem !!!!
I plugged the little hole in the top of the T connector with silicon which stopped the flow of water in the engine bay, but discovered that the water would now take a couple of seconds to hit the windscreen which meant that the wipers were smearing the glass without water, also the nozzles were giving a weaker and weaker spray. I cleared the nozzles with thin fuse wire but they soon clogged up again. I then took off the T connector for a closer look and popped the top of with a knife blade. Underneath was the remains of a rubber washer and a little button with a spring in it. I reckoned the washer was acting like a diaphragm and the water pushed up against the button and spring allowing a flow and stopping it draining back. As I cleaned out the remains of the washer, I saw little bits of rubber in the two side connectors causing a blockage. I cleared it all out and the washer jets. This was the cause of the blockage, the washer disintergrating had gone up the pipes.
This is the good bit - The only rubber in the house I could find that looked to be the same was a Whoopee cushion belonging to one of my kids. I cut out a small circle to fit inside the T connector and refitted the spring, button and top. This disabled the Whoopee cushion for which I'm most grateful. I gave a test blow to the T connector and it wouldn't work as I thought it would, but I reasoned water is heavier than my breath so I refitted the T connector and it works perfectly !!!!!!
I must have saved at least £1.00 doing this !!!!!!
Told you I had time on my hands !!!!!
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'86 740 GLT 2.3 injection 7 seater estate, '89 740 SE 2.0 injection saloon, '87 BMW 316 carb Coupe