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My 1986 944 Turbo lost all the plumbing for its headlight washer system somewhere in its life. I discovered this while replacing my A/C condenser, so naturally I needed to fix it. The nozzles are still there, but are not hooked up to anything. I was pretty surprised how little info there is on the internet about this topic, at least for the 944, so thought it would be a worthy add.

I had to replace my entire windshield washer tank to do this, because my old one was in very bad shape. First thing I discovered is that Porsche has superseded all the old tanks to Part # 477955451F. This tank comes with a port for the headlight washer pump that needs to be drilled out for the pump. Presumably, one tank fits all this way, whether your car came with headlight washers or not. Here's the port.



I could not find anything from Porsche about drilling the hole. Instead, I measured the pump's seal that plugs into the tank, subtracted a mm or two, and came up with a hole size of 20mm (with is exactly 25/32"). I went with the pump that comes in the Hella box, rather than the seemingly identical pump that comes in a Porsche box for an extra $100... Here's the seal (part # 92862819300) on the pump (part # 191955681).



My old tank was riddled with holes, but ironically the headlight pump port had never been drilled, so I did a practice hole in it. I very carefully center punched the port, did a pilot hole, and then used a 25/32" hole saw on the end of a drill bit extension to drill the hole. It didn't go so well. There's no room for error. The hole saw walked a little on me, and I ended up with this.



I was tempted to cut that the entire upper lip off the port to see if that's what Porsche had in mind, but as best I could tell the hole below measured a little bigger than the seal, and didn't want to risk a leak. So, I did my thing and made a 3D-printed drill jig. It fits around the port snugly and keeps the hole saw exactly on center. I drilled an over size pilot hole first, so the hole would be placed entirely by the tool (and not the bit in the hole saw). I'll post the tool here on Carpokes for anyone looking to do this down the road. It worked like a champ.


Getting the pump sealed in the hole took a little effort too. The pump has a spacer sleeve on it that forces the pump into an awkward angle when trying to insert it into the tank, making it nearly impossible to push in. The instructions that came with the pump point out that this sleeve needs to be removed to fit some cars. So what I did was remove the sleeve in order to push the pump straight into the hole (after lubricating the seal with Krytox). It was a tight fit, making me again wonder if Porsche intends for people to cut off that entire upper section of the port, but my approach fits nice and tight with zero leaks, so I'm sticking with it. Once the pump/seal was fully seated, I was then able to put the sleeve back on to brace the pump in the tank as intended. The arrow points to the sleeve below.


With that, I tested the pump and it was a nice water-tight seal. I'll post more when I get the nozzles plumbed in, but didn't want to go to all the trouble without first testing the system. And without further ado, check it out!

Great write up and once again I'm reminded how handy a 3D printer has become in the garage of anyone keeping an older car alive.
Thanks

This whole project is an exercise in scope creep to the extreme. Originally, my A/C condenser was leaking. So I took that out. The new eBay one seems to fit like stock but, like the old one, butts up against the bottom of the SFR bigger intercooler. Since I'm trying to simplify this car and make it more 'normal' anyway, I opted to pull that intercooler out and go back to stock -- so off went the header panel and intercooler. Since I was in that area, I also decided to remove the water injection system I had installed years ago, since I no longer use it. The system was an octopus of harnesses, pumps, valves, and hoses that had me tearing half the car apart to remove. I was using the washer tank for that system, and had drilled several holes in the old tank for level sensors and feed lines, etc. So I figured I'd have to change the tank. That's when I realized the entire headlight washer system had been stripped out by some lazy body shop. So then I was off on this quest to drill the perfect hole. Once I got all that working, I realized the same shop put the headlight washer nozzles in the bumper with hose ends cut off and facing the wrong direction. I thought about just packing it in, since I will never ever need headlight washers, but perfectionism got the better of me today, and here we are now....

I understand the 'if its there and was original, it should work' perspective, its a first cousin of the 'while I'm in there' syndrome. You are far from alone in that sense. I replaced the nozzles and jet nuts of my washer when I had the car repainted......haven't used the feature since.......but its there as intended...

ROB III wrote: Sat Jul 20, 2024 6:14 am I understand the 'if its there and was original, it should work' perspective, its a first cousin of the 'while I'm in there' syndrome. You are far from alone in that sense. I replaced the nozzles and jet nuts of my washer when I had the car repainted......haven't used the feature since.......but its there as intended...

I'm not sure I even know how to activate them? It appears on the turn signal stalk with the windshield wiper sprayer, so wondering if the same switch activates both when the lights are on?

I think they are mainly for snow, which is important here in Silicon Valley since it snowed pretty good that time in 1974.

Yep, I'm sure it gets terribly cold there. I remember the radio forecast weather warning of brutally cold temps once in 83 or 84 when getting on the 405, the temp was 38 or 40, having moved to Long Beach from Detroit, I could barely drive my car I was laughing so hard. But I also remember a different day being on the beach in the afternoon and night skiing in the mountains at night.
Owners manual says " To operate the headlight washer, push the washer lever in the direction of the dashboard. The system only operates when the headlights are switched on."

ROB III wrote: Sat Jul 20, 2024 10:36 am Yep, I'm sure it gets terribly cold there. I remember the radio forecast weather warning of brutally cold temps once in 83 or 84 when getting on the 405, the temp was 38 or 40, having moved to Long Beach from Detroit, I could barely drive my car I was laughing so hard. But I also remember a different day being on the beach in the afternoon and night skiing in the mountains at night.
Owners manual says " To operate the headlight washer, push the washer lever in the direction of the dashboard. The system only operates when the headlights are switched on."

I can relate to the cold Detroit winters - 18 of them will do that to you. However, even worse must have been those brutal mid-40° Cali temps where Tom is and you once were. Unbearable! Fairbanks-like. Lol.

I'll be posting plans for this headlight washer aiming tool in the next few days, along with the STL for the wrench, but thought I'd share a quick peek in the meantime.

It's weird what makes us happy, but I finally finished plumbing up the headlight washers, and was able to squirt them on the headlights tonight. Yipee! I can also confirm that you pull on the lever to squirt the windshield, and push on it to squirt the headlights. Thanks to @ROB III for posting that above. There is almost nothing on the internet about how to route the bulky tubes, etc. so will try to detail that soon, along with a slow-mo with dramatic music showing these babies squirting. It's weirdly satisfying to watch, especially for something I'll never need and took a nonsensical amount of effort to fix.

Tom wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2024 6:21 pm It's weird what makes us happy, but I finally finished plumbing up the headlight washers, and was able to squirt them on the headlights tonight. Yipee! I can also confirm that you pull on the lever to squirt the windshield, and push on it to squirt the headlights. Thanks to @ROB III for posting that above. There is almost nothing on the internet about how to route the bulky tubes, etc. so will try to detail that soon, along with a slow-mo with dramatic music showing these babies squirting. It's weirdly satisfying to watch, especially for something I'll never need and took a nonsensical amount of effort to fix.

I love this post!