has anyone upgraded their washer jets, to mist type,
the oem offering empties the tank in no time, and seem like 1970's engineering

 

I dont believe that a mist would do much. At least here with the bugs its the pressure that "blasts" the lights clean. But really the to me anyway the light wash is more of a "hey check this out" feature to show off the friends that dont have MINI's. I mean If my lights are so dirty that the need cleaned then I REALLY NEED TO WASH MY CAR.

Just re-read your post it seems you didn't specify headlights so were probably talking about the windscreen washer. I which case I sort off agree, Having a cabrio it would be nice to have jets that dont bounce water off the windscreen a nice gentle soaking would sufice. For the record I ould refill the headlight wash twice before the windscreen wash. If i even used either much.

 

I hope someone has a solution. Its one of the things that annoys me most about the car. You have to leave the spray on for so long just to get the entire windshield wet enough to get it all clean. Meanwhile most of your spray is heading off the windshield until the dry spots finally get wet.

 

Agreed, when I use mine half of the wash i sprayed on has already dribbled down the side windows and some of the windscreen is still bone dry. Be really neat if you could some how get the sprayers into the wiper arms themselves.

I smell a winter mod coming on.

 

Why wait till winter, those bugs are thick in the summer!

 

defo wind screen is the problem, i just know i am "wasting" water where ever i aim the jets....
i am also thinking in terms of water/meth upgrade so i need those front tanks to last much longer

 

just buy new nozzles from another car. most are universal. thats what I did.

 

Which car and what type of spray pattern do you have now?

 

If you time the spray blasts to hit the glass just before the wiper hits the liquid on the glass, you lose less, there is less run-off, and both the liquid and the wipers do their job quite well.

 

You are absolutely correct but I just dont think you SHOULD have to "time" it to make it work right. It should work better than it does. I use a different technique now. I pull the stock down right before pulling it back so the windshield wiper goes fast first and the wiper hitting the stream shoots the water all over the windshield. I found that operating it normally usually caused the windshield wipers to run too long after most of the water had been removed, often leaving streaks or making the wipers run on a dry windshield. By pulling down first, then pulling back to trigger the wiper fluid when you let up on the wiper stalk the wiper stops that swipe instead of going on two or three more.

 

Great tip. Muchos gracias!

 

I would love to have myst sprayers, but if I change my washer jets, won't I loose the heated option? That's the reason I haven't changed mine yet.

This is the first car I haven't changed the jets to the mysting type.

 

I bought a set from a honda jazz or fit as you would know it. they spray a lot better than the oem ones, but then i got side tracked and used them fot my IC waterspray instead, now i have to get a new pair and fit it to the car. they work so great on the honda i almost want to fit them to my old mini aswell.

 

I think I'll do this sometime this summer. Great idea! they irked me but it never occurred to me to do anything about it. :

 

My wife has a Focus and it has a huge fan mist spray pattern. I keep meaning to stop by the local junk yard and see if some wrecked foci are hiding in the back. Why by new when you can recycle?

The first time I used the sprayers after I got my car I was stunned at how junky the spray was. I thought to myself "Come on guys! You've got to be effing kidding! I thought this was BMW engineering…"

 

Good info all, I plan on looking into this. Forget bugs, it's impossible to keep the road salt clear!

 

Anyone have an idea which one is easiest to install w/o having to mod the hood to make then fit?

 

+1

 

i'm interested in which ones would fit best as well..

as i am not a huge fan of the ones on our cars

 

I'm going to try and fit some off a Ford Escape. i just haven't got around to trying it yet. Maybe tomorrow I'll see if the local Ford junkyard and see if they have any. Thanks for the suggestion Russell.

 

True story...

I heard BMW got a deal and a half buying New Old Stock washer nozzles from the original Mini (Rover). The idea was to stay true to the retro theme.

 

They have to buy a hell of a lot of them, they've made over a million new MINIs so far.......

I also did not see an answer to the heated nozzles question, is it the nozzle that's heated or just before the nozzle or?????

EDit: I may have answered my own question, it looks like (on Real OEM) the heater part clips on under the washer nozzle, like the nozzles are the same with/without heated nozzle option. So, if you can find one that fits the hole, it should work either way. My '08 Tundra puts out a beautiful spray pattern, I'm going to look at those too.

 

The heated nozzles are standard nozzles with heating elements bonded into the hollow section in their base.

The heater heates the whole assembly but NOT the pipes running to it!

BMW Z8 jets fit the R50/2/3 and are chrome & heated but cost about £25 each from BMW!

The OE jets are NOT the same as Rover Mini was............

FWIW I unpgraded to Ebay chrome ones with 2 jets as OE and would also like a fan type.......

Cheers

Chris

 

From my experience traveling in England, if something costs £5, it would cost about $5 in the US. Just change the sign... so my guess would be about $25-30 for each jet.

Current Mini nozzles are NOT the same as Rover Mini... that was a joke lost in typing!

 

But you didn't mention what the Z8 spray pattern was.