dh53

Windshield washer suddenly not working. The Bentley manual seems to show the washer pump gets power from the wiper/washer relay so it is not individually fused. I assume this means if the wipers work and the washer doesn't the pump or pump wiring is kaput? I am ruling out blocked lines because I put my ear against the front fender and I don't hear the whine of the pump when it should be switched on.

Follow up question...Rock Auto shows a universal pump as the replacement. I have seen that the pump fits snugly into a grommet that must seal the washer tank so I am nervous about leaks if the pump isn't designed for the tank. Has anyone replaced the pump with a universal pump?

J. Patterson

Mister Bally

Standard Automotive Electrical troubleshooting techniques apply here.

Disconnect the connector from the pump motor. Attach 12 volts DC to the pump motor using the connector wire colors to figure out which wire gets positive and which one gets negative. You probably already know that the brown wire is ground on most Audi's. If the motor runs when you attach 12 volts to it you know that the pump is good and your problem lies in the circuitry between the steering wheel washer lever and the pump.

Otherwise, you have a bad pump replace it with the proper part.

dh53

The universal pump with grommet was $10 so I bought it without further troubleshooting...I figure if I am going to pull the old pump off I might as well put a new one in at that price. As J. Patterson says jack up the car and remove the front wheel, take off 4 or 5 of the torx head screws to pull back the fender liner but no need to remove it. Easy peasy.

I did a bit of Standard Automotive Electrical troubleshooting, measuring 12 V+ at the pump connector when the washer switch was on so I felt good about replacing the pump. For giggles I put the old pump on my bench top DC power supply set to 12 V and slowly turned up the current limit. At 5 amps the pump had not started turning but started billowing out some foul smelling smoke. If the pump wasn't bad before it sure is now. For comparison, the new pump spun up at 12 V and about 0.5 amps. I know, I know...don't run a pump when it is dry but I did this for literally less than a second.

Thanks to you both for the help!