Even though it’s 2019 and the new style Wranglers (JK, JL & JT) are now in their 12th year of production the windshield defroster system still stinks. Our new 2018 JL has so many modern features that further improve on the JK like a heated steering wheel and backup camera but still frozen wipers and a partially defrosted windshield still remain.
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We have griped on this a few times over the years and it continues. Let’s set aside that this article isn’t really about this but it all kind of ties together. These annoyances really take the fun out of driving when it’s snowing.
Back on topic…our new JL was experiencing near frozen wiper fluid almost every time it was below freezing, again an easily fixed problem but this is the fluid that came in the Jeep from factory. As usual it was usually only noticed when the conditions were bad and a clean windshield was a matter of safety.
Above are some pics of driving on a sunny but somewhat melty day after a snowstorm. With the fluid frozen the washers were useless and the wipers just managed to make messy streaks all over the glass.
So after arriving home the Jeep was parked for a while in a warm garage and let to thaw. The fluid in the bottle was like a slush and since the bottle is situated outward and forward of the engine under hood warmth seems to do little. We decided to drain it and refill the system with better stuff by Prestone. Prestone washer fluid cleans and de-ices at the same time. The bottle indicates it’s good to -27 degrees.
We popped off the hose that feeds the nozzles on the hood and placed it in a bucket. Running the washers allowed us to pump out the fluid. We refilled the washer bottle and ran the new fluid throw the lines to pump out the remaining blue fluid. After all that the washers work nicely even at the -2 temperatures the east coast experienced recently.
Update 2024
The jeepfan.com 2022 Wrangler 4xe still does the same thing along with the freezing fluid a switch out to better fluid is on deck. It is said that it is safe to mix the two types of fluid since they are nearly identical in their ingredients and that the only issue is that the -27 degree rating will likely be reduced.
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