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My wifes 2010 Polo GTi threw up a washer fluid low warning on the dash, to which I duly checked but found the reservoir to be full. This warning light kept coming up every time we started and stays for the duration of the trip, so not intermittent.

I checked with my Carly - that does not show any faults.

Yesterday, i removed the lights & bumper to get the reservoir off expecting it to have a hidden level sensor, but the only electrical bit is the washer motor and that along with the wash wipe front & back system works fine.

I have checked all fluids in case low washer fluid warning actually means brake fluid! But, all good.

So, question be. Does anybody know what the Polo is doing? Or how i can make it happy again.

Check the plug on the sensor (below the pump) for corrosion.
Or, in case it doesn't have headlight washers, your coding might be off.

Okay my wife's 2015 Polo is newer than your one, so an 6C and not a 6R, it has LED headlights and winter pack from the factory, and that means in UK, it has headlight washers and so the bigger washer tank - but it does not have a washer fluid level warning sensor, or at least no instrument panel icon for washer fluid. That is okay because I knew about that before buying that car.

So, as iichel said, was that car supplied new with "winter pack" - ie headlight washers, heated seats and heated front screen washer spray heads? As far as I know, no Polos supplied into UK were spec'd with washer fluid warning system - I considered fitting that to my wife's 2002 Polo that came new with winter pack, but did not do it, I've considered doing that on this 2015 Polo that came new with winter pack, but 6 years have passed almost - though there is still time!

The liquid level sensor that causes most errors in the VW Group fleet is the coolant reservoir one but mainly that starts to give trouble in winter it seems sorting that out means replacing the reservoir which is a simple job.

Again as iichel said, it might just be a coding issue, how long have you owned this car and has it always had this issue? A friend at work bought a used VW Passat and it had many logged faults, most of them were for faults in the electrical systems for the rear seats - that car had no electrics in the rear seats and there was never an option for that in the UK market, strange things can happen!

@RUM4MO the tank with the extra headlight washer pump always has the extra sensor. perhaps it's not coded on your wifes polo?

I must confess that I have not checked on this 2015 Polo, but when I first considered this on the 2002 Polo, there was nothing, not even a closure plug/bung.

When I remove the wheel arch liner to check for rust this year or remove the bumper to check for leaks in the condenser, I'll check on this 2015 Polo.

VW Group do use the ability to leave off some crazy parts to fit in with certain market requirements - in Holland "every" car gets Cruise Control, in UK very few cars get Cruise Control - both my previous VW cars were imported from Holland so by default, even although they were being built to a spec equivalent to UK market - neither car was built to the official VW UK spec'd standard, what they were were Holland spec with as many additions to the build to make them "same as" an equivalent VW UK sourced cars.

Edit:- maybe due to being coded for Holland, both cars had "brake wear warning" not coded in while having sensors/sensor on the pads. Same for washer fluid warning on my 2000 VW Passat 4Motion - I only discovered these two "errors" when the headlight washers seemed to stop spraying fluid without the car warning me about low washer fluid - my previous 3 cars 2 Fords and a Vauxhall(Opel) all had low washer fluid warning syatm.

I have now had the 2015 Polo up on ramps and removed the under shield - for another reason, but when I looked up at the washer fluid tank, there is what must be a fluid level sensor slightly above the level of the windscreen washer pump - it is located facing inwards towards the centre of the car.

Next, to try to ignore the washer fluid level and see if that warning has been enabled!

I knew it

Thanks for the replies. Have owned the car for just over 5 years & has only just done this.

It has no LED/ headlamp washers or winter pack.

Very peculiar as the only wiring or electrical circuit going to the washer fluid bottle is the pump.

RUM4MO wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:19 pm Next, to try to ignore the washer fluid level and see if that warning has been enabled!

My 2015 SEL has the sensor & frankly it's a PITA. The good news is that it does indeed ping an alert when the fluid runs low. The bad news is it repeats the alert every 5 minutes or so! On a long drive that gets very annoying very quickly. So if it is programming on yours, check & see if there's an option to only have it ping once.

rbz5416 wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 3:23 pm

RUM4MO wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:19 pm Next, to try to ignore the washer fluid level and see if that warning has been enabled!

My 2015 SEL has the sensor & frankly it's a PITA. The good news is that it does indeed ping an alert when the fluid runs low. The bad news is it repeats the alert every 5 minutes or so! On a long drive that gets very annoying very quickly. So if it is programming on yours, check & see if there's an option to only have it ping once.

Sounds a bit crazy, yes a single warning ping when the low level has been reached and the low fluid light getting switched on, and another ping every time you switch the ignition on - but frequent pinging throughout a long journey just does not make much sense, more a hinderance than a safety feature.

Edit:- now I keep meaning to check if the low fluid warning light gets switched on during instrument panel BIT sequence!