VUE Washers Frozen..... I Think......??

[jmatero]

Well.... the car is 2 months old and this morning on the way to work, the steady stream of washer fluid I had at the start of my trip turned to a trickle and kind of splatter.... yup.... I ran out of fluid (damn that Saturn for not including a light!).
It was 16 degrees F.

ANYWAY.... I left the car alone this morning and just now on my lunch break got a gallon of 'The Blue Stuff'. I filled it up (yeah, it was EMPTY....) and went into the car to squirt away. NOTHING..... I can hear the "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" sound, but NOTHING out of the nozzles. So I go and squirt out the BACK and "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" but nothing.

uh........NOW what? Is there a common tube for the front and rear that could be frozen? That doesn't make sense. Usually, there have a separate front and rear motor when they share a tank but this car looks like it has only one. NOW WHAT? Can anyone out there... (Some Canadians perhaps....) fill me in on this? I can only assume SOMETHING froze but why now? It was empty... I mean, nothing broke in the 'pipes' as when I hear the pump, nothing is spilled on the ground. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[ssicarman]

If you had the blue washer fulid before then it should not be frozen. WHat you may have done is cause the pump to loose its prime (???) and it may take a while to get the washer fluid flowing again. Also if you ran the pump for an excessive time with no fluid it may have screwed up the pump portion of the washer pump.

[jmatero]

good news.... I filled the tank at lunch (again, no squirts...) so I parked the car in direct sun.....

At 5pm, I crossed my fingers and sure enough, SQUIRT SQUIRT!!!!

I'm happy now!!!! (and won't let that thing run dry again!!!!!)

[cmswq3]

glad it is fixed, the problem i always run into is when it snows, all the salt that gets thrown around ends up all over my car. When the snow melts it leaves behind its enemy "salt" which generally clogs up my washer fluid sprayer thingys ( i dont know the technical name or if they have one) when it gets cold you can bet that salt is the culprit when something breaks.