Aussie drivers stunned after little-known car hack goes viral: 'Cute little feature'
Videos of drivers showing off their concealed headlight washers have been doing the rounds online in recent weeks, with people realising they have small jet sprays which appear under the headlights after a sequence of buttons is engaged.
West Australian resident Jessica Curry told Yahoo News she spotted one of videos and soon discovered she unwittingly discovered she had the feature on her 2022 Nissan Patrol.
"I remember seeing a video ages ago about somebody using a little sprayer," the mum from Geraldton told Yahoo. "So I asked my husband about them. He's like, 'Yeah, they're sprayers."
Up until this point, Jessica had mistaken them for parking sensors. She joked the discovery process had been "hilarious", while also praising the feature for how handy it has been ever since the revelation.
"We do a lot of long drives and night driving, so it's good to have as an option!" she said. "It's quite a masculine car to have a cute little wash feature. It was absolutely hilarious [when I saw it the first time]."
The sequence of buttons can change from car to car, but those who have showed off their headlight washers online have followed this process with their Nissan Patrol:
Turn the headlights on.
Turn the high beams on.
Turn and hold the window wipers on for three seconds.
The sprayer pops out from under the headlight and sprays water and windscreen detergent to clear dirt and debris from the lights.
Another Australian driver shared a video of her putting the instructions to the test and was in disbelief to spot the washer arms popping out to spray her headlights.
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Thousands of motorists have now admitted to running out to see if their car has the nifty feature too, and the feedback has been a mix of delight and disappointment.
"My 2008 Outlander has it!" one driver said, while another 2017 Ford Escape owner claimed his vehicle had it. However, others had their hopes dashed.
"Ma'am my car was made in 1990, my automatic headlight washer has two arms, legs and is named me," one Aussie joked.
The feature is reported to be one more modern cars, in particular larger 4WD and SUVs and vehicles with bright high-intensity discharge (HID) headlights.
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