Filling up with washer fluid sucks when you don’t have a funnel. It can be a messy process, as even when you tilt the jug along its longer side and go slow, you’ll inevitably get a few drops in your engine bay without a bit of plastic guidance. However, convenience breeds innovation, and a reader recently reminded me that a solution exists if you own even a somewhat modern Volkswagen Group product.
Skoda, Volkswagen’s Czech brand, prides itself in little things that make owning a car a little bit easier. Stuff like an ice scraper hidden behind the fuel door, and a double-sided trunk carpet with one carpeted side and one rubberized one. One of my favorites? Something Skoda calls the integrated funnel.
It’s a soft one-piece plastic washer fluid reservoir cap that folds open into a funnel, part number 6V0955485. It fits most Audis from the 100 through to the current Q7, and most Volkswagens from the B4 Passat up through to the current Atlas. Oh, and did I mention that it only costs about $12?
Sure, that may be expensive when you consider that dollar stores sell cheap funnels, but there’s something nice about not having yet another thing rattling around in your trunk, and there’s always the thrill of buying fresh parts that just simply press into place. Installing one of these caps is a five-minute job requiring no tools, and it’ll make your life a little bit better.
It’s worth noting that all sorts of fluid caps from various Volkswagen Group products interchange between several models, which is why you can run, say, an Audi R8 oil cap on any Volkswagen with a VR6 engine, or this clever washer fluid cap on a litany of vehicles. Gotta love the cost-saving of modern automobile parts-sharing, right?
It’s not difficult to find this washer cap on eBay or through vendors like ECS Tuning, and it seems common enough to justify the manufacturing of replicas that are then sold on sites like AliExpress. Given the sheer number of Skodas in the rest of the world, that last point makes sense, but we wish Volkswagen would just adopt this clever cap in as many vehicles as possible. Of course, then Skoda would have one less unique, clever touch, but that’s the way marketing goes.
In any case, if you own a compatible car, this is a sweet upgrade absolutely worth splurging for, even if said splurge is only about the cost of a McDonald’s combo meal. This cap would unquestionably be my first modification because it’s functional, practical, and just plain cool.
Hat-tip to Christopher!
(Photo credits: Amazon, eBay)
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Wow, an electrical gremlin free VW part! Who knew? It is possible to have a fail free VW group part on you VW. Will it dry rot in a year to keep up the crap VW tradition?
“THE WASHER FLUID IS NOT FINE!”
Skoda really does make a better VW. Too bad this cleverness does not extend to making VW cars reliable, although if VAG made reliable cars Mercedes Streeter would need another hobby.
A coke bottle cut in half will do the same for less $. The diabetes is complimentary.
My Skoda had the trunk opening to the side so you could stand on the sidewalk and put stuff in it, of course it was also on the front to make things more complicated
Am I the only one who had zero issue filling washing fluid without a funnel and no dripping? Unless it is windy it isn’t hard given a steady hand and patience…..
If I start with a half empty bottle, sure. Not with a fresh full bottle.
have to remove all of the foil seal, it can create an issue. don’t pierce and push in.
But the real question is: does it fit the Boxster?
Who cares about spilling washer fluid? It’s literally soap. Gimme one of these for the oil.
I bought an Alibaba version of this for my B7 Audi A4. It’s a really rubbery material, so to all the people complaining how this will break I say, it seems fine. It’s nifty and I’ve never had a funnel for washer fluid that I didn’t lose or end up using for oil. This is always here and is a delightful design. Will it last 15 years like the original cap? I don’t know, I’ve got other things to worry about with a 17 year old Audi
Washer fluid reservoirs typically have a plastic cylindrical insert with a debris filter. If I were the one designing this, I would’ve made that insert the shape a funnel that rests inside of the reservoir. It would still have a snap on lid with a tether as they traditionally do, but you could lift the funnel/insert assembly out of the reservoir enough to make refilling clean and easy.
This is cool and all, but wouldn’t their time be better spent making cars that had better reliability? Maybe?
Am I the only one who immediately noticed it resembles a 68+ Beetle deck-lid? Maybe pure coincidence, but I think not given that it’s a VAG product..
I thought it looked like a small urinal.
So what I see is a mechanically stressed hinge in an environment that will completely destroy the integrity of the plastic and render it useless as a funnel or a cap in 10 years time. It’s still a cool idea, but I don’t think a lot of thought has given towards longevity.
I imagine that in the winter, when the plastic becomes stiffer, the hinge will break down even faster. Of course, winter is when you use the most windshield wash.
It sounds incredibly useful for a Porsche, no engine heat in the front to degrade the plastic, and the carpeted trunk can stay dry. I’m surprised it was Skoda that came up with this.
How soon before dirt gets into the fluid and clogs the nozzle?
There’s a screen at the opening. It’s visible in the top picture if you squint a bit.
$12 every 10 years to never have to look for a funnel is a pretty good ROI if you ask me.
The whole thing is made of a flexible rubbery/silicone type material. All of the mechanics of it are just based on how it is shaped. So when you open it, it pops up, and when you close it, it kind of turns itself inside out and seals shut. It really is convenient, and dirt cheap. There are even people using these on BMW’s.
Source: That’s my Q7 in the lead photo.
This is a good idea.
But even though the open cap looks like a urinal, people will still dribble on the floor.
A urinal was the first thing I thought of.
Mess? Washer fluid is about the only cleaning thing that ends up under the hood. It’s actively cleaning my engine bay when I spill/miss.
More expensive, heavier, much higher tooling cost and it fixes something that’s only a problem if you’re filling up your screen wash away from where you store your screen wash and funnel, and can’t abide a few spilt drops underneath your hood where you can’t see it.
I can see why every other OEM didn’t sign this off.
Heavier? Is that even worth mentioning?
Depending on the density of the OEM cap plastic, it probably could be made the same weight or lighter with proper engineering.
You’ve clearly never been in a mass BOM meeting at an OEM.
Doubling the mass of anything pisses management off, even if it’s only a 15 gram part.
Partly because those 15 grams on everything all add up to a measurable difference on a complete vehicle, but also because that’s 15 grams of extra material for a million cars, and that’s going to cost a lot of money.
If you want to split hairs, the larger cap could result in a smaller filler neck, and thus lower cost overall.
And I didn’t mention cost specifically because I was complaining you mentioned weight. Yes, material weight is typically the biggest driver in injection molded parts (I work in manufacturing), but it would be redundant to mention both using them same basis for both.
We get hammered on mass, even on parts that weigh very little. Unless the vehicle program is running under weight, which has never happened.
There is a guy whose entire job is chasing mass. There is also a team chasing cost. Sometimes we get them to fight by casually mentioning titanium to the weight guy.
Was I supposed to find that hilarious? Because I found that hilarious.
It’s the only fun we can get away with.
Seriously. My old conversion van was about 200 pounds heavier with a full gas tank than an empty one (6 gallons of 87 octane x 33 gallons =198 pounds). Not that that had any noticeable impact on fuel economy, but next to that…
Yo mama has a greater impact on the mass of the entire earth.
(sorry, couldn’t resist)
Most folks I know fill up the washer bottle wherever they buy the fluid, usually at a gas station during a snowstorm.
I only know the screen wash habits of the people I live with, and so far they’ve all filled up using my screen wash at home.
It’s probably cause all the people I know live in apartments, we don’t really have garages.
They need to make an equivalent for the coolant reservoirs for every EA888 engine car, given how often top-ups will be with their chronically leaky water pumps.
“This Incredibly Clever Washer Fluid Cap Will Stop You From Making A Mess Under Your VW’s Hood”
With a VW there’s always a mess under the hood.
Even in a brand new car.
But looks like it’s going to break off long before the usual kind does, due to more stress/bending on more plastic.
Maybe, but I still love the idea.
How many times will you really open this over the life of the car? 20? *maybe* 50. I think it’ll be fine.
I used to design plastic bottle tops with this sort of membrane/live hinge feature. Properly designed you’ll get bored of opening and closing it well before it wears out.
And if it’s made from the kind of plastics they at least used to use that were incompatible with the heat in an engine compartment, leaving them brittle within months from new.
It’s German (via Czech Republic) – you know the plastic is not compatible with the heat in the engine compartment. If they can’t make waterpumps and timing chain tensioners that can take the heat, what is the hope for this thing?
In the two newest VWs I have owned, I had quite a few plastic parts break off.