1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
D.F.,
I can only offer advice on (1) and (2).
(1). I noticed this same problem on my '96 9000CSE earlier this year. When I squirted the windshield (or attempted to), I could hear the pump but nothing hit the glass. This was also true of the rear washer as well - pump but no fluid. THEN I noticed that I was leaving a big puddle on the ground near the right front wheel. It turns out that there are little plastic T-fittings (really more like a Y-shape if you ask me) about 6-8" off the washer fluid reservoir for the rubber hoses that supply the nozzles (front and rear). The hoses get loose over time and pop off the T-fittings. Then when you go to squirt the windshield, the hoses spray washer fluid all over the ground.
The PROBLEM is getting to them to fix them. You have to remove the right front wheel and the inner wheel liner, which is easily doable if you're patient but nevertheless a big pain in the butt. Let me know if you need more help with that. After you remove the wheel and liner, the bottom of the fluid reservoir and the aforementioned hoses are easily seen and fixed. At the time, I simply slipped the hoses back on the T-fitting and cinched a couple of small zip-ties over them to hold them on. If I ever feel like getting back in there (I'm not in much of a hurry to remove that wheel liner again), I have some HoseTechniques.com silicone 3.5mm hose (in a pretty red color) to replace the old rubber hoses with.
When I got the hoses back on the fittings, I tried squirting the front and rear glass, and lo & behold, they got wet. Then I put everything back together.
It sounds to me like you've actually got an electrical problem with the rear wiper/washer, if you're not getting action from either one. Could there be a short or some problem with the wiring harness leading back to the rear wiper/washer? Do your license-plate lights light up?
(2) High speed vibration is usually caused by either badly balanced tires or tires that are internally separating (every set of Dunlop D60's I've seen do this eventually, leading to a whomp-whomp sound). Any problems with tires tend to exacerbate themselves at high speed. If it happened only while braking, I'd suspect the front rotors. If it happened when accelerating, I might suspect engine mounts. Turning corners - it could be CV joints or really bad wheel bearings. If it's just a constant shudder at high speed, it's almost always wheels/tires. Try having them rebalanced or do a front-rear rotation and see if anything's different or improved.
For what it's worth, I'm running Yokohama AVS-db tires on my car, in 205/60VR15. They're an ultra-high-performance all-season tire, with good prices from the Tire Rack. They're fantastic tires - quiet, smooth, great traction in dry and wet, decent traction in snow. When I had them mounted, two of the four required no wheel weights at all to be perfectly balanced, and the tire guy said he'd never seen that before - maybe one out of four every once in a while, but not two. They replaced the Yokohama AVS-S4V tires I had before them, which were also really good but not quite as good as these. They last about 40-45K miles if you rotate them once in a while.
John
'96 9000CSE turbo, 5sp
101K miles
Crawfordsville, IN
posted by 161.32.4...
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