Hey all, been a long time,
So, to jump straight to the point - no, I would rather NOT install a washer system, however due to work I'm having to move back to the UK and thus rather than go through the headache of selling my car here in Japan, I'm instead going through the headache of taking it with me.
Dash conversion to Miles I've already done (simple fascia swap), Making the normally non-functional rear fog light actually function I have also done, which checks off two of the three issues needed to be resolved for the car to pass IVA inspection when in the UK.
Currently my vehicle has OEM JDM spec headlights installed which are xenon units, one of the IVA requirements is that a vehicle either have Halogen headlights, or if it's HID/LED, that they either be under 2000 lumens, or that a headlight washer unit is present.
I'm open to any approach to remedy this requirement, but as my cars stock xenon I'm guessing swapping them for halogen units won't be straight forward on account of there not being a secondary space for low/high, and replacing the entire headlight unit has the new issue of adapting the current wiring to match the Halogen headlight setup, which if I'm not mistaken, has a different pinout and connector?
Last but not least, and why I'm making this thread, simply biting the bullet and buying the parts to add washer functionality to my setup, from what I've seen on diagrams the actual washer units are pretty simple and slide out/retract based on pressure from their feed pump, so it's just a case of bolt on the two actuators, run the feed line down to the water bottle and connect it to the pump.
With this in mind I'm considering just buying the parts from crash damaged salvage, but I have a few questions which I'm hoping someone here may be able to help me with.
Firstly, the Japanese washer fluid bottle, does it have the appropriate fittings to install the pump, and if so, does the harness that connects to the other pump for the windshield washers have a connection available for this pump, does it even have a pump of it's own?
Secondly, I read somewhere that non-UK vehicles have faint markings on the inside of the bumper to show where to cut the appropriate shaped/sized hole for the washer units, is this actually the case?, have any of you got a front bumper on hand that you could take a clear shot of the inside area under the headlight?
If it doesn't have this, is there a chance someone with a UK bumper could lay a piece of paper over the left side of the bumper, marking the shape of the cutout for the washer unit, in relation to the headlight / fog light / tow hook cover ?
If anyone has any ideas on how best to approach this, I'd appreciate it.
I've asked a company that deals with import IVA's for advice too and I'm waiting to hear back from them, but I'm guessing my "could I just tint the headlights to reduce output lumen values" isn't going to get a thumbs up
Either way I'll basically just make this a thread about importing JDM 86's into the UK for anyone that undertakes the same in future.