How good are headlight washers/wipers at keeping the headlights clean? > My winter car, a '86 BMW E30, had wipers until one of the previous > owners removed them. The wiper motors and nozzles are still there but > not connected (see picture). I've thought about getting wipers and wiper > arms and connecting everything as it used to be. However, I'm curious to > how useful they actually are. I realize that they're more than a > gimmick, but how much more?>

Thanks,>

http://members.road­fly.org/ulf/IMG_1192­.jpg

Deep

I can certainly tell the difference, especially in this weather (nasty, > with lots of residual salt on the roads) between headlights that are > dirty and headlights that have just been cleaned. I do most of my > driving after dark, so the headlights are always up and they do get > grimy. I generally go maybe 3-400 miles between gas stops, when they > get cleaned, and they do get gradually dimmer and the beam pattern less > distinct as they get dirtier. So I'd say that they probably do work > well. unfortunately my car does not have the headlamp washers otherwise > I'd be using the heck out of 'em.

nate>

I would *love* to have these on my E30. Want to sell the rest of your guts?> ­

I can't afford to do the conversion but I've heard of guys doing it from> scratch.>

If your driving was all in town or all freeway, you may never care, but my> mix of country and city driving would make them a big deal for my car.>

I do a lot of 300 to 400km runs where the middle 250km is on freeways at> relatively high speed.. In winter I get a lot of accumulated crud on the> lights and once I get off the highways onto the back roads for home, with no> other lights in the countryside, I can *really* tell the difference between> clean and dirty headlights. I clean them at every single gas stop and> sometimes even pull over to do it with a squeegee I keep in the car,> although since upgrading my bulbs I don't have to go to those lengths as> often. Washers are helpful, but the automatic wash system on the E32 I> drove for a while drained a lot of fluid as mentioned, and wasn't all that> effective really. Washer/wipers with fully manual controls would be ideal> imho.

-Russ.>