The customer concern for today didn't seem all that bad at first glance: Customer States windshield washer inop. I've replaced many washer pumps, reservoirs, and lines in the past on our fleet of old vehicles to the point where we keep these items on the shelf. But the odd part of this scenario was that the vehicle in question was a new truck, a 2011 Ford F150 pickup. I verified the concern, (ALWAYS the first step in any repair), and found very little fluid being pumped from the washer nozzles.

The first thing I did was to make sure there was washer fluid in the reservoir, (I've seen this happen before !), and it was full. I also made sure all of the washer tubing lines were hooked up and not leaking. I don't expect a washer pump to fail on a new vehicle. But anything is possible which means I needed to do some digging. I removed the reservoir and dumped its contents out only to make an interesting discovery.

Fur !

And quite a lot of it !

At some point in this truck's brief but apparently eventful past, a previously living creature of some kind somehow managed to crawl inside the washer fluid reservoir.

Besides tasting really awful, windshield washer fluid must not be too good for your innards, something which this poor guy quickly realized.

Bones began appearing within the fur.

And so I have found the source of my concern.

At this point, I removed the washer pump from the reservoir and cleaned all the fur and bones out of the pump inlet. The next step was to make sure I got everything out of the reservoir so this couldn't happen again.

As for keeping the creatures out from under the hood, that will be up to the department in question to handle.