Pulled the whole front bumper off in one move. Help with washer fluid container.
 

The other day I parked up close to a cinder block wall at the shopping center.This area is away from the other cars which is what i normally do. When I came back to the car, I turned the wheel and started to back out. I did not see that one of the cinder blocks was jutting out. The corner of the passenger side bumper caught the block and it ripped the entire bumper off in like 1 second. The good news is all it did was break a lot of the clips so it was easy to put back on .The flanges by the head lights were still intact.

The bad news is I cracked the bottom of the washer fluid container and all the fluid leaked out. I am going to get a new one but, in the mean time the damn LOW Washer fluid warning light keeps coming on along with triangle warning light. Its bugging the hell out of me . Is there a fuse I can pull to get rid of this annoying light. Can I just cut a wire in the container sensor.

P.S. I didn't even know we had a LOW Washer level light. I think it is ridiculous. I mean who doesn't automatically refill it periodically .

Thanks

The wiring diagrams in the FSM should tell you if the sensor wiring needs to be shorted or if the sensor needs to be unplugged (should be same as clipping a wire or removing a fuse but more easily reversed). Link in my sig.

Two wires, one ground. Try disconnecting them.

Unplug the level sensor at the bottom of the reservoir and it will turn off.

Also, depending on how bad the crack in the reservoir is you can probably just fix it with some epoxy putty or something.

I took off part of the wheel liner so I could see the washer fluid reservoir. I couldn't get the plug off so I cut the wires going to it. The frigging warning light is still coming on!!!

Should I wrap the wires together? Should I disconnect the battery then reconnect it to reboot the ECU? Is there a fuse for this warning light?


It is pissing me off.

Bruh.

SouthArk gave you the info you need to find out the answer to your question.

I looked at the FSM but could not find anything. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Very curious. After my TT install, I went quite a while with no washer bottle at all and no warning light. I assume some others with FI or certain CAI's had a similar experience with no washer bottle.

Do you have a meter? You might check to see if those wires have shorted together somehow during the accident.

Thanks. I don't have a meter but I clipped the wire about 3 inches from the reservoir so there should not be in any contact with each other. I just don't understand why the low washer level light is coming on when there is no longer any signal coming from the sensor because I cut the wire.

Most sensors either read an open circuit or a closed one based on fluid level.

In general, these run a closed circuit using the fluid as a conductor for a low level of power. When the fluid level drops beyond a certain point the current stops flowing as the circuit is now open.

Therefore
closed circuit = full tank = no light
Open circuit = low tank = light on

Try touching the ends of the two cut wires running to the computer and see if your light goes out.

Having said that, I haven't bothered to look at this specific sensor.

The info is there.

Many PDF readers will search the content of all PDFs in a folder. Put all the FSM PDFs in a folder and tell your reader to search that folder for "washer" and/or other appropriate terms. You will find functional descriptions, wiring diagrams, connector pinouts, and much more.

While Mach_Crit is probably right that shorting the wires will tell the computer the bottle is not empty, I'd still take a look at the wiring diagrams and verify that a dead short will not harm the computer. Are you sure you're not looking at the pump power wires?

Or get a piece of "self-stick" plastic (like you find on the display of a new clock) that is big enough to block the idiot light, blacken the plastic with a dark marker, and place the plastic on the gauge cover in front of the light. Did that with my headlights-on-high indicator.

I looked at the wiring diagrams but I am not very proficient in that area. Can someone who knows how to read the diagrams take a look and let me know if I connect the 2 wires whether I will damage the computer?