I have a thing with cars and windshield washer fluid reservoirs. My next vehicle, it might be one of the things I actually put on my list that I’m looking for. Can I actually tell how much fluid is in the thing?
I almost ran out the other day, which isn’t a good thing this time of year. Thankfully I was able to get to where I was going and fill it up.
Years ago, it was a bit of a pet peeve that the size of the reservoir in most cars was slightly smaller than the size of a jug of fluid. Just slightly. I always had a inch left in the jug, so I would end the winter with about five jugs with an inch of fluid in them. Because, of course, I could never find the ones I knew I had when the fluid got low.
With my current vehicle, I seem to have enough space for a whole jug of fluid. I’m not sure how much more room I have, because you can’t actually see the reservoir. They have it hidden behind other stuff. Which I find a bit of an issue.
There is a warning light to let you know that you are out. I have had that come on a couple times, but it has to be pretty much bone dry for that light to come on. Otherwise, you get no warning when you get low. Low to the point that it will no longer spray on the window. It just sort of bubbles out a bit. There’s still some there. You can see that it’s there. But it’s not going to help you clean the windshield.
There is no way to tell how much fluid you have. You can check under the hood, but the reservoir is hidden. You can find the fill spout easy enough, so I suppose you can pull the cap off and yell down, trying to figure out the amount of delay in the echo that comes back so you can figure out how much juice is in there. Or maybe find a nearby stick and put it down there to try to figure it out. But that’s a lot to go through.
It would be so much easier to just look. But they make that impossible by hiding the reservoir behind other things.
I think it’s a great idea that some places are offering bulk fluid now, you can just top up your reservoir and pay for what you use. Great idea. But not every place has this service available, and I’m not smart enough to keep a spare jug handy in the car for when I will eventually need it.
Being able to see as you drive down the road comes in handy. It would be nice if it was easier to ensure that you could.
