Does water Freeze at 36F......
 

Just trying to figure out should I proactively need to replace the washer pump
Prior till now, no issues operating pum - aka, it's behaved just fine all winter..

Front wiper pump appeared dead from cold start.
Tested rear wipers and they were fine.
Probably tried about 4-5 times engaging for a bit as driving....with no output

Interestingly enough, the pump was fine about 20 minutes later.
I don't think it was the washer fluid that was frozen but I just can't put a finger on the root cause.

32F :)

Fill the tank with blue stuff and see what happens.
Using plain water in the Northeast is asking for trouble.

I've found even with the blue stuff the washer tank will freeze up easily - Its happened to me before when we had the "polar vortex" a few years ago and temps in the teens -

Ok, purple stuff then. Supposed to be good for -20F :)

I think its the location of our washer tank up high and back in the engine bay that lends to that happening with the blue stuff - all my VW's tanks were tucked next to the engine and low in the bay I'm assuming to be shielded from the cold air running through center air intake/radiator section

This is where it gets odd Gents.....

Been using the same fluid I've used forever. Prestone Winter for winters, prestone Green for summer

Same winter washer fluid put in since turkey day.
Same fluid has not froze up in any of the lines of the system yet, and we've had colder days than 32F...

Ruled out the fluid as the rear washer was fine at the time when the fronts were just outputting nothing.

If the rear fluid was working just fine, it probably wasn't frozen.

Do you still have the little filter that sits inside the washer tanks fill hole?

White strainer - yes

Then it could be your pump going out.

That strainer also serves as a spacer to keep the lid from sealing. Without, the pumps can cause a vacuum in the tank which results in similar symptoms.

Going to have to RealOem this...as I thought there were 2 pumps. 1 for both f/r, and the 2nd one was for the lights. If that is the case, more wikipedia digging as how would it know when to only output to front and when to output to rear...It's been maybe almost a decade since I've changed it.