A use for useless light washers! - MINI Cooper Forum

MiniCooperS2002 · #1 (**permalink**) Nov 22nd, 2002, 05:26 PM

How about instead of letting the useless headlight washers just sit there, re-route the nozzle to the intercooler (S only, sorry!) and get some nice cool water on the surface. Like a slow NOS system, but at least it's free!

NEMINI · #2 (**permalink**) Nov 22nd, 2002, 05:53 PM

I find the headlight washers useful tho /shrug to each their own i suppose.

YuccaPatrol · #3 (**permalink**) Nov 22nd, 2002, 06:53 PM

That is a clever idea. I have heard of some VW GTI's that have their rear window washer set up to do this for the turbo intercooler.
Has to be helpful with the heat-soak, but you probably should switch to distilled or purified water rather than washer fluid.

MiniCooperS2002 · #4 (**permalink**) Nov 23rd, 2002, 01:28 PM

And that's kind of what I've been wondering, whether it's washing fluid in there, or just regular water. It doesn't look like washer fluid, but I guess it would be wise for me to check. I would like to do this for autocrossing, but there would need to be a way to not have the windshield washers go on at the same time. This would be much easier to do than spraying water on the intercooler after every run. I don't think I would have to use it on the course, since the runs rarely exceed a time of over a minute.

MINIjewel · #5 (**permalink**) Nov 23rd, 2002, 02:15 PM

Although the washer jets will come in handy in the winter when all the slop from the road is coating the front of the car.

MiniCooperS2002 · #6 (**permalink**) Nov 23rd, 2002, 10:43 PM

But the thing is, I won't be driving the MINI in the snow. Don't want all that salt from lake effect snow in Ohio. Might drive the Miata, or the Jeep. So the only use I have for the washers doesn't apply to me. I took a look under the hood today, and realized it may be more work than it's worth. Instead I might just use a pressure washer filled with ice water. At least it would colder.

YuccaPatrol · #7 (**permalink**) Nov 24th, 2002, 02:27 AM

As long as you are in a relatively cooler climate, the ambient temperatures for most of the year will cool the intercooler very well as is. I am sure that the BMW engineers worked hard to ensure that the intercooler does its job most of the time.

But I would like to see someone figure out a way to do this, just for the uniqueness factor!

swamos · #8 (**permalink**) Nov 24th, 2002, 06:28 AM

I'm not convinced that it would help. If you have a look at the intercooler on the S, it is clearly designed with flow rather than maximum cooling in mind.

benggolf · #9 (**permalink**) Nov 24th, 2002, 01:03 PM

Here something that has been designed specifically for IC cooling.

IC Spray Cooler

swamos · #10 (**permalink**) Nov 24th, 2002, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by benggolf
Here something that has been designed specifically for IC cooling.

Aquamist IC Spray

Good link. However this is for water injection into the combustion champer, not for spraying water over the intercooler to bring charge temperature down. I think water injection by the headlight washers would be a little amusing.

benggolf · #11 (**permalink**) Nov 24th, 2002, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by swamos

Good link. However this is for water injection into the combustion champer, not for spraying water over the intercooler to bring charge temperature down. I think water injection by the headlight washers would be a little amusing.

Thanks Swamos for pointing it out. I posted the wrong site!

Have re-entered the correct website. Thanks.

swamos · #12 (**permalink**) Nov 25th, 2002, 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by benggolf

Thanks Swamos for pointing it out. I posted the wrong site! Have re-entered the correct website. Thanks.