Washer Reservoir Nightmare

[GALVANIZEDYANKEE]

I have had a windshield wiper problem since July of this year (07 B6 Wagon). The rear washer does not work either. You can hear the washer motor running, but no fluid gets to the windows. Instead when the washer motor runs the fluid leaks to the floor. The reservoir does not leak unless you activate the washers. It sounds simple. I have had it to the dealer three times under warranty, and three times they have failed to cure the problem.
I am retired mechanic and shop owner. What could be so hard to fix a leak in the reservoir bottle?
I have had it with the fine example of German Engineering. The Flat Rate Manual give nearly 2 hours to for the job. It sounded strange. No car should take two hours to pull the washer reservoir bottle. First you have to remove the front splash shield. Next, remove the right front inner fender liner. This gives access to the bolts holding the reservoir bottle, the electrical connection, and the hoses. I have the shop manual, but it does not mention if the reservoir bottle comes out from the top or the bottom of the car. I have never had a connector that I could not separate, until now. I had to cut the wires. Next, the corrugated hoses to the washer pump cannot be removed as they have become hardened. I had to cut the hoses for the windshield and the rear window. There appears to be a check valve in the pump. To get the
pump to wash either the front or rear they reverse the polarity of the motor leads, and the motor runs in the other direction. Great. I now have the wires and hoses disconnected. There are three bolts holding the reservoir bottle to the chassis. Two bolts come out from above, and one from the bottom. One of the upper bolts cannot be reached because an AC pipe sits directly over the bolt. Two clamps must ne remover to move the AC pipe. I figured this was the end of the nightmare. Wrong! The bottle is loose but cannot be removed because the headlight is in the way. To remove the headlamp you must first remove the front grill and bumper shroud. The reservoir bottle then can be removed from under the car. VW gives the warranty time payment of 1.6 hours. It is no wonder that they refused to make the repair.

[GALVANIZEDYANKEE]

I just got the washer reservoir back in place. I tried for half an hour to put it back from the bottom. That is the way it came out. I tried from the top and it easily went in after pulling back the interfering cables and AC pipes.

[CaliSoulSurfer]

What ended up being the problem? My washers worked just fine when I refilled the reservoir on 12/29. I tried using my washers on 1/3 and nothing. A little fluid from the passenger side, and then even less on the driver side. To me that sounded like it was a weak pump. Today I was getting fluid from the driver side but not the passenger side which wouldn't make sense as the passenger is the first stop along the system. Later today it went back to just being about a 10% flow for only the passenger side and 0% on the driver. Thoughts?

[GALVANIZEDYANKEE]

My problem started after I put washer fluid that contained Rain-ex. I put it in both my cars, and they both developed washer problems. It seems like it clogged the pumps or screen in the bottom of the tank. In the case of the VW I wasted my time by trying to remove the reservoir bottle. I found out that you can remove the belly pan and the lower front section of the fender liner. The pump is removable by lifting it up from the bottle. It just fits into a grommet in the reservoir. Make sure to replace the grommet as they are prone to leak. Removing the hoses from the pump requires you to remove plastic snap rings on the hose fittings. The hoses are plastic and tend to crack.