e46 headlamp washer pump - xenon equipped

fismail

New member
After the repair to the 330d re the crank pulley replacement I see that my headlamp washer pump is not working.

I tried the suggestion below without replacing the unit. It sides on the front side of the windscreen washer bottle.

It is plugged in and fuse 51 which controls the system is not blown.

There is either not enough pressure to pop out the nozzles or a water leak which I am not detecting.

Has anyone else had a similar problem & what was the solution to fix it?

See part number 4 in this pic.

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According to E46 fanatics -> http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=548381

Hey MeRon, or anyone else with the same problem,

I have the EXACT same car and it had the EXACT same problem. It's the easiest fix, all in all it cost me $90 and took me 5 minutes to fix. I would turn on the wipers and hear the headlamp washer motor run but neither of the jets came out. If you look at the windsheild washer fluid resevoir, there are two cylindrical black motors, one closest to the front bumper, and one opposite. (If you need a pic let me know I can post one or send it). The one closest to front bumper is the one for the headlamps. Get someone to help you because you need them to activate the wipers for you to check whats wrong, (if you want to save washer fluid, just unplug the black cylindrical motor attached to the windsheild washer fluid resevoir thats furthest away from the front bumper, that motor is for the windsheild wipers).

What I did was I unplugged the hose from the headlamp washer pump and put my finger over the now open pump outlet (It will be pouring out washer fluid anyway so you'll have to put something over it to stop it). I then had the person in the car activate the wipers to turn on the headlamp washer pump (If you turn on your lights with your key in position #2 right before ignition, the first activation of the windsheild washer will activate the headlamp washer pump). Now what happened was the pump activated, but I felt NO PRESSURE on my finger what so ever (The pump is really loud and will vibrate just incase your not sure if it working or not).
This is an indication of a stripped gear or something in your headlamp washer pump (guys at stealership told me this). So I bought a new pump at the stealership, I gave them the VIN and WAS SURE TO MENTION IT WAS THE HEADLAMP WASHER PUMP ONLY. It cost me $90 in total after tax.

To install the new pump is very easy ( *** As soon as you pull the old pump out of the windsheild washer fluid resevoir it will POUR OUT FLUID LIKE CRAZY so you have to do this quick but read further on). Unplug the hose that runs into the old headlamp washer pump. Pull the old headlamp washer pump straight up and out of the windsheild washer fluid resevoir (it takes almost no effort at all) and QUICKLY drop the new one right in place of the old one and QUICKLY plug the hose that runs into the headlamp washers back into the NEW PUMP. The hose will ALMOST CLICK into place. Then simply activate the headlamp washers and watch them work in all their glory!

I'm not joking when I tell you that the stealership wanted $330.00 to diagnose and fix the problem. I just showed you how to diagnose the problem for free and fix it for just the cost of parts. I know this is the same issue your having because my fuses were fine, I heard the same noises. Its not a problem with the jets because its HIGHLY UNLIKELY both fail at the same time because they are clogged or otherwise. Its also not a kink in the hose because the single hose that plugs into the headlamp washer pump splits into two seperate hoses, one for each jet. If there was a kink, at least one of the jets would work becase there is only a few inches in the main hose before it splits and you would see the kink that was stopping the flow to both jets.

Hope this helps anyone with the same problem, good luck!!

- Be Well
 

Hellas

///Member
If you unplug the pipe and check that the motor does pump out water, then I think the next step would be to remove the pipe from the headlight washer unit and blow through it or something to check for blockages. The plastic strip below the headlight simply clips out (though it is sometimes a bugger to get back in...). The light washer should be accessible from there.
 
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