Little things can be the most aggravating...
About a week ago, the wife hit a deer with our '98 Nissan Frontier. It caved the bumper in and crimped up the driver's side fender but no real harm done. But the cave-in did puncture the windshield washer fluid jug - and the motor for the pump crapped out before that - so I decided to pull the SOB out and see whether I could get away with RTV'ing the plastic washer fluid jug and while I was there pull the dead pump motor, and pop in a new one once I found out whether the jug was fixable or needed to be replaced.
Well, I had to damn near disassemble the front end to get at the jug. Oh, I could get at the bolts that held it to the radiator support, but no way was it coming out without first removing:
The entire grille assembly and parking lights;
The filler panel below that;
the driver's side headlight.
Lots of hard to reach 10 mm nuts and fragile, gonna break 'em plastic snaps (hello, Mr. Nissan parts counter).
Took me an angry hour or wrestling with the above to get the stupid jug out.
It is now sitting on my work bench with JB Weld on the hole. Tomorrow I'll fill it up w/water and see whether it holds.
I still have to go to the parts place to get a new washer fluid motor. I bet that little bastard costs $70.....
My niece needs one of these on her '96 Cavalier. I got a good used one from the salvage yard because a car had most of the front end gone already. A local shop that I trust to work on my cars wants $90 to put it in. I told my sister to pay it as I don't have the time to remove the entire front end off the car. That's what I had to do to replace the horn on a '95 Cavalier once.
I have little use for lazy engineers who don't think about field repairs.
Honk if you love Jesus.
Text if you want to meet him.
Consider a generic replacement.
Auto parts stores in decades past carried the Trico AWL1, which was a very nice manually powered washer that clamped to the bottom of the dashboard, drank from a bag, was no big deal to install, and worked great.
I think they're over-ruled by the money-men who want the fastest/cheapest assembly process! It's easy to install the fluid jug (and other, similar parts) while the chassis is moving down the line naked - before the front end sheetmetal and trim goes on.Originally Posted by grouch
And that's probably all that matters... just like those cars that have engine compartments so tight you have to lift the engine off the mounts to change some of the spark plugs!
I'm gonna find out today!
If the OE unit is ridiculously expensive, I'm gonna try what you suggest - or stop by the salvage yard and see whether I can find a good used one...
I have a few buddies from college that are now mechanical engineers with their PE licenses.
Judging by their real world mechanical aptitude I'm not surprised by what I consider "design flaws, or ass backward shit" on cars or anything else.
"Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato " -Mussolini
All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.
Here:
http://www.tricoproducts.com/pdf/ACF1701.pdf
I lucked out!
The part (new) was only $20 at Advance Auto. I installed it yesterday and while I had the front end mostly disassembled, took the opportunity to straighten out the damage from the deer impact some more. It almost looks right now !
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote