Headlight wash once every Five times
 

If I understand the way the headlight wash works, every fith time you activate the windshield wash, the headlight " drawer " pops open and splashes the headlight. Cool feature for that very cold, quick dry salt + sand + watever film we get up here in Ontario.
It would seem we should be going through a larger amount of windshield fluid than non headlight wash systems. New to me as I have not had this feature before, figure the system could get thirsty!.

is this true? i had no idea hahah . sweet.

Moyenne, I To Am In Toronto And Understand Your Pain! It Gets Really Anoying, So Anoying That I Turn Off My Xenons When I Want To Wash My Windsheild.

The headlight washers on my moms SLK are actuated by a separate button. Its a cool but useless feature down here in Texas, I wonder how much it would cost to retrofit headlight washers from Euro/Canadian Spec RX8s onto USDM RX8s? Not that I would ever want to do that.

I thought it activated every 3 times. I don't find it that much of a hassle.....and if you are going to complain about how much washer fluid it uses, perhaps you should start another gas mileage thread too! :D


Some people like to bitch about the most trivial things.

Your right regarding every 5th wash of the windshield, the headlight washers come out. But I am also noticing that it washed the headlights also on the first time I wash the windshield after sittin over night or long period of time. Strange that it doesn't say that in the manual but intelligent in that the first wash to get things clear from the get-go. The washer fluid reservoir hold over 4 litres of liquid and once is starts running low, it doesn't spray the headlights any more and gives priority to the windshield.

Can someone post a pic of this cause i do not think that my car has this. I have the touring package and not sure if that comes with it or not.
robert

american-spec cars dont have this feature.

-doug

Ahh! Good...I thought I was going crazy...there's no place for a headlight washer to pop out of on my car. :)

Here is a picture

Does anybody have a pic of them open or in operation?

You know, I thought I had this figured out. Of the 8 months I've owned my 8, I can only count 2 (yes TWO) instances where the headlight washer did it's thing. Scared the bajeezus out of me because it's so unexpected.

I don't think there is a magic number... 3 or 5 or whatever. I've tried many times and there's just no way to consistently make it work.

Consider yourself lucky. I'm glad I don't have those extra "lumps" on the front of my bumper. I find that feature to be too non-essential to be worth having on a car IMO.

MI FamilyMan, if you ever had a car with headlight washers, you would know how great they are especially travelling at night on a shity winter night. "Seeing is beleiving", literally. Going from not seeing well because of all the salt/dirt in the winter to being able to see as clear as if you stepped out of the car and cleaned them with snow and/or rag and/or water. If you live in an area that doesn't have snow, your remarks are totally understandable. I think its a nice feature and you don't really notice the bumps to much. I guess you get used to them! :)

The GT Model in Canada comes with them.

the jets on my moms SLK send heated cleaning solution onto the headlights--of course there isn't a need for them where I am.

Ya, what you said. In Calgary we get a mixture of extreme cold and then extreme wrming trends (chinooks) that make the roads very messy. So its a nice thing to have the light washers so you can clean your lights at night. Its better than having to stop and rub the lights down with snow.

For those that have the headlight washers and are having trouble using them consistently remember that the headlights have to be on for them to work. Also, they automatically clean every 5th time but if you want to just clean them make sure your headlights are on and give it a double pump, this will trigger a clean regarless if it's the 5th time or not.

Here in Europe those washers are mandatory in combination with Xenon lights as is automatic headlight levelling to prevent blinding. When dirt gets in front of the lens, the amount of glare increases substantially. The idea of combining them with windscreen wash is not so bad if you think of it, if your screen got dirty, probably so did you headlamp.

Here in the north where lots of people drive with spikes in the winter, you wouldn't believe how much dirt the car acquires if it is not freezing. The combination of water/salt/sand/asfalt can reduce the lighting to a half within 15 minutes driving in normal traffic. Amazing how much light comes back after the washing. Cars without headlamp washers (even for halogen) don't sell here.

In summer or clean driving conditions you most likely don't need them.

This may have been mentioned :(correction-it was, by SDRacer87) headlight washers are on the Canadian GT model. Eberkers' post indicates the same for N. Europe. Tire pressure monitors on the US GT. N/A in Canada. Thanx Hellbreed for the double pump info..didn't know that :)

my lights have condensation in them. Any suggestions

Same here for the condesation, albeit minor.

Anyone have a pic of one when it is open? Thanks

Yeah I'd like to see that myself as well. Here is a pic of the SLK headlight wash.

Your Mazda dealer will switch these out under warranty. Mine have this also, mine is booked in for early next month.

- Irish :cool: