Winter Motoring: Stop your car's windscreen washer fluid from freezing

Winter is here and with it cold weather that can cause inconvenience for motorists.

A frozen windscreen can be swiftly deiced, but it can be trickier to deal with frozen windscreen washer liquid.

While having a clear windscreen is essential, long haul trips with extra salt on the roads and gritters out in force can still result in windscreens becoming hard to see out of and grimy.

With such extreme temperatures however, defrosting the car windscreen isn’t the only issue drivers are facing, with windscreen washer fluid also freezing in the extreme temperatures seen across the UK, meaning many are unable to clean their windscreen once they set off.

Here are some tips and tricks to stop your windscreen washer fluid from freezing over.

Don’t fill your windscreen washer fluid with water only

It sounds rather obvious, but many opt to fill their windscreen washer funnel with water only, meaning that as soon as temperatures from to 0 degrees, the water inside will freeze as well. Drivers are urged to use windscreen washer fluid and even look out for winter washer fluid, which has an even lower freezing point.

Put a lid on your windshield washer reservoir

Again, another rather obvious but important one.

Make sure that all the covers for your windscreen washer funnel are closed. This will prevent the fluid inside of your reservoir from freezing over. Failure to do so could result in an inability to wash your windscreen on sub-freezing days.

A handy hack?

Now this one is a little more of a life hack. When adding in windscreen washer fluid or even water, if you do not have specialist winter washer formula, adding a little bit of high-proof vodka to your windshield washer fluid could stop it freezing during the winter months. While it does not have to be expensive vodka, the lower freezing point can prevent your windscreen washer fluid from freezing. This should not be your first port of call though, and anti freezing windscreen wash or alternatives often being much more effective.

When adding new fluid make sure to drain the reservoir of your existing fluid first, unless you know for a fact that what is in the reservoir is also freeze-resistant. Mixing freeze-resistant and non-freeze-resistant windshield wiper fluid could damage your system. Empty the reservoir and start fresh with the new freeze-resistant solution.

Use winter washer fluid

Specialist winter washer fluid can also be purchased in some stores with a lower freezing point than “regular” screen wash – which can prevent your screen wash from freezing over in cold temperatures.