After having problems with the washers only working on the rear windscreen when either the front or rear switch was selected I decided after looking at a few articles on here that it mst be the washer pump. I popped down to my local dealer and got a new one from stock at just over £30 incVAT. This solved the problem, so it does seem to be a common problem with these pumps. Mine was approx 4 years old when it failed.
Here is a short HOWTO for changing it:-
*Undo the three bolts holding the under-tray of the front bumper to the chassis (about 400mm back from the front of the car underneath the engine bay.
*Remove the two retaining screws from each wheel arch holding the wheel arch liner onto the bumper and pry out the plastic lug on the liner too
*I also removed the bumper wing nut (hold back the liner and it's straight up 10mm bolt), but I don't think that was required
*Undo the bolts and plastic clips between the headlights along the top of the bumper
*Pull the near-side side of the bumper away from the wing above it, reach in and disconnect the power cable to the fog lights
*Pull the off-side part of the bumper away from the wing above it too
*lift the top of the bumper away from the chassis (it's double skinned, make sure that you get both parts!) and lift the whole bumper off and place somewhere out of the road.
*The water bottle is at the drivers side
*Disconnect the hoses (pour very hot water over them to loosen them) - water will start to flow out of them if there's any left in the bottle.
*Disconnect the power connector to the washer pump
*Pull the pump away from the bottle, it should just come out. *The remainder of the bottle will empty itself on your feet at this point!
*Take the rubber seal, clean it and pop it back into the bottle
*Push the new pump into place carefully and connect the hoses (black hose to black connector and clear hose to white connector) - dip them in very hot water to make it easier
*Plug the power back in, fill the bottle and test.
*Reassemble in reverse of above.
This is an informative post as I have total loss of washers, both front and rear, on my Scenic 2 1.5dci. And yes, the bottle is full! I have taken the jets off and blown them through, they are clear. So, next stop is the pump.
Took the inner wing liner off but can't get the undertray off as it appears to be rivetted on (all the way round). This is bizarre if it a factory fit, as this surely makes access much more difficult. Is anyone elses rivetted on?
I can get to the bottle but can't get at the front side of it to remove the tubes from the pump and take the pump off the bottle. I don't want o drill through the rivets but may have no option.
Any ideas anyone?
The 'rivets' I referred to in my previous are not rivets: they are push-fit clips which have a slight flare at one end. Once thesde are removed though they are VERY difficult to get back in as you can't get to both sides of them to squeeze them in, and they seem to be msade of aluminium (probably to avoid them rusting and disintegrating as they are underneath the car).
Anyway, I followed fjarvis's instructions in the originsal post. I didn't need to remove any of the bumper bits though: I found that I could get enough access by loosening and pulling back both the front part of the wheelarch liner and the undertray too.
Word of warning though to anyone else doing this job:take care when you pull the old pump off the washer bottle. As I was doing this lying on my side under the car the pump came out rather sharpish, and I gave myself a screenwash shampoo (50/50 screenwash/water actually). Luckily I wear glasses and that helped stop this going in my eyes too much. A lucky escape.
New pump cost £38odd inc vat from local Renault dealer who had one in stock fortunately. I also replaced the daft 'rivet clips' as I shall call them with self-tapping screws: there is plenty of room behind the screws so no danger of them piercing anything.
Oh, for a return to the 'old days' when everything was visible and accessible in the engine bay! (Well, it was in the cars I had: Minis, Escorts, and Capri).
I had the same problem as the OP (except I was at least washing the front window all the time!).
The way the pump works is that, when you go to wash the front windscreen, voltage is applied across the pump (obviously). When you go to wash the rear screen, the current is reversed. The result is that the motor spins in opposite directions for front and rear. This spinning then pushes a "movable plug" to block the "other" tube (that going to the window that shouldn't be washed).
The cause of the problem is that the "plug" gets stuck on one side or the other.
To fix it:
Disconnect the washer pump wiring plug.
Disconnect the two washer tubes.
Pull the washer pump out of the washer bottle.
If the grommet comes off with the pump, pop it back in the washer bottle.
Pull the black & white tube connectors out of the pump body.
Pull the black and white halves apart.
Prise out or otherwise loosen the "plug" I mentioned earlier.
Reassemble everything (be sure to push the black and white parts together firmly!), and hopefully you should now be able to wash both ends of your car again!
Thanks for the update SBradley. I could maybe have saved myself £38 then. You live and learn. Mind you, I did notice that the 'black & white' halves would , with a bit of fiddling, come apart, but as it was nearly 4 pm by then, and the car was needed the folowing day, I thought better of it. Have thrown the old pump away now so can't even disassemble the old pump just for fun now !
Having taken apart some old electric window switches and cleaned up contacts in them these sort of fixes do usually work.
Looked to me like a vice would have been handy to hold the pump whilst taking the black and white halves apart.
My (early) 53 plate Scenic 2 has a different washer pump - in my case the impeller simply spins different ways for the front vs rear washers.
Following dismantling of the two halves of the pump, the motor still worked. But when assembled, nothing. I finally tracked this down to a swelling of the gland between the motor and the impeller: it had swollen and was acting as a brake on the impeller. I skimmed it with a bit of sandpaper - to get at it you need to break open the black part of the pump along the visible line. It's easier to re-assemble if you put the white half onto the half of the black, then finally put the other half of the black on. However, it is hard to get the two black halves together - I used a black and decker workmate as a vice.
Providing I can hear the pump working the first thing I always try now is.
Syphon out all of the washer bottle fluid until its pretty much bone dry, fill it back up again with hand hot water, leave it for a couple of minutes then hit the washer switch, if the washer starts flowing keep it going for a while to give it the chance to wash all the crud out.
My wifes washers have stopped working, before I dismantle the front bumper can you tell if when yours failed you could here the pump running. I can and it would be handy to know if you could.
1 month out of warranty and I now have problem with my scenic washers. If you select either front or rear wash you get water on both! Wipers still operate correctly. Is this likely to be just the pump 'stuck' as described above or is there some electronic trickery to control the flow. Any thoughts gratefully received.
Done my washer pump today. If you got big hands remove the bumper, I removed only the trim as indicate in this video, thanks.
I couldn't cut off the bit of foam, if you got really little hands you can leave the foam in place but that likely won't work. Have broken the foam in the end to get better access.
Clear hose has hardened so be aware it's almost impossible to remove or pull off even if you have the pump in your hand. I had to cut it off. Very nasty thing... Perhaps a heat gun will make it softer but in these temperatures it's stiff and unpleasant.
Get a new pump. they're £10 on ebay or 130 (haha, choice is yours). Fiddly job, get a large bucket to drain the reservoir first. Once you pull off the pump it will all gush out. My plan to stick in my finger didn't work too well as you got one finger in the hole and no space to feed the new pump in...
Anyway, can realistically be done without removing the bumper. If all goes well 30 min job but we all know it won't go perfectly. Just getting the trim removed was a struggle to start with.
Especially if it's been seized for a while, get s needle clean the jets and flush at least a tank of water through the system, that twill clear it.
Well done
Did mine from in wheel arch... remove arch liner and a few of the fixing on the bumper/trim to be able to get access
Bottle right in front... pump round far side so working blind but as pump a push fit, no worries.
Seal likes playing hide and seek.
Pipes, cup of hot/boiling water, drop pump in it.
Pipes soften up nicely