How to Replace Front Washer Pump 2003-11 Honda Element

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years.

Hi, everyone. Sue here, at 1A Auto, and today, I'm going to show you how to replace a washer pump in an '06 Honda Element. If you need any parts for your car, click on the link below, and head on over to 1aauto.com.

To start with, we have to take the front bumper off. So, I'm going to raise my vehicle up on a two-post lift. You can use a jack and jack stands at home. And you're going to get all the bolts underneath first.

To start with the bumper, I'm going to take the outer cover off. And there is two on each corner—10mm socket style bolts. They're probably pretty rusted, but you can't get up in there with a spray, unfortunately. See if this one will come down or if it's spinning in place. Yep. I'm going to try to get some spray up there, because this clip does have a cutout, right here. I'm going to have to let that soak, and this one, I think, is spinning in place. I'm going to come over here—get these ready.

At this point, where you try to remove these little bolts, here, holding. So, they're metal clips with welded nuts on them that hold the plastic down. They're so rusted that the nut has broken off on the metal clip. All four metal bolts—two on that side, two on this side—are just spinning in place. What we're going to do is bring it back down, and we're going to disconnect the top of the bumper, and see if we pry it out, if we can access these, and go from that point.

I'm going to remove this plastic clip that's still intact. The other one's missing. Now I've got one piece out from underneath. Now I'm going to bring it down halfway, because I got to go in the fender well and see if I can take the two bolts out from the fender well. I'm going to take the fender flare—this bolt off both fenders, so that I can access the bumper. That goes in here, on a clip. That's an 8mm socket. I'm going to do the same thing to the other side.

Obviously, everything on this vehicle is somewhat broken and causing havoc. So, you just got to get this piece out. Now we're going to move on to this one. Hope they all don't break. There's five total on this. Look at that—just like the way it's supposed to go. Obviously, we're going to have to get a whole bunch of body clips for this vehicle, because we just started, and this is how much they're all just coming apart and breaking. They're so brittle. Let's see what we get. There we go. Now we just simply lift this up. There you go.


Now we're going to remove all the other plastic clips that we see up here. I think I'm going to have to use multiple tools at the same time to try to save some of these. It's like they're made of steel. I've never seen anything like it. Okay, let's move onto the three on each headlight. Okay, we'll move over here.

The reason we're changing these headlights—they're not as foggy as they could be, I've seen a lot worse—but something else that's pretty common with these elements is these ears break off. It's a lot of weight on this front nose design, and I think that has a lot to do with it—the cold—and just tapping—you tap it. Both headlights are broken on the assemblies. That will give an improper headlight alignment. Obviously, you go down the road, your headlights will shake or they're not lined up properly.

I took this bolt out and I took these other two body clips out. I'm going to take this last one, here, just to give it a little more flex. Now, you're going to pull this flare out, like that. You've got this ear tab that goes over there. See, it mounts right over that screw part. Then, these are plastic push pins. So, you're just going to grab it from the top, pull it out. Now we got to do the same thing to the other side.

The clip on the inside of this fender well is just spinning. So, I'm going to try a pair of angled needle nose pliers to try to hold that clip in place, while I take my 8mm socket, and see if I can spin this free. Perfect. I'm just going to keep moving the broken clips—just going to do as much as I can. Now I can pull this flare out, grab the bumper, and give it a pull. There we go. Now let's lower it down and see if we can get to these broken tabs on the bottom.

Now that we have access to the bottom mounting bolts, you see the clip is broken. I'm going to use a pair of locking needle nose pliers—see if I can grab onto this. I'm going to use an electric 3/8 drive down below here with my 10mm socket. There we go, we're just going to end up breaking the plastic, I think. I've got one more over here. Now that I can reach it better, I'll spoke it. And now I'm going to put the locking pliers on this one.

I'm going to go down below and see what happens. I'm going to try it this angle—nope. Basically, every clip is rotted, busted—so now the bumper's off the car. When it comes to the time, we're going to have to remove each one of those clips. Whether we have to cut them out or just let them soak a little bit longer, we're going to have to replace those. Now I can remove my bumper from the area.

Now that I have a catch basin underneath it to catch the fluid, I'm going to disconnect the washer hose. Now I'm going to disconnect the hose from the tank. I'm just going to hold it up here. Now I can disconnect the electrical connector to the motor. There's a tab over here, on the inner side. Get yourself a little pocket screwdriver or a flathead screwdriver. Push in and pull that up.

Now it's done draining to a certain point and I'm just going to remove this motor. It is just held in by these little plastic ears part molding on the tank. I'm just going to take my pliers, go inside there, and wiggle it back and forth, and get it loose from that. Then you can pop it out from the grommet. We can examine the grommet, see if it's broken. Now, our pump works, but this pump is sold at the 1A Auto site. If you do need a pump for this element, don't forget to look.

Now I'm going to reinstall this. The way I like to reinstall them—I always put the grommet in first, because then I know that it's popped all the way in—it's sealed. Now I'll take the pump, line it up, and push it in. It's that easy. Now your pump's installed and you're ready to hook up the hose. Now you just simply rehook up the washer hose and hook your electrical connector up. It's just two-prong shaped, like a T. Line them up. Push it down. Make sure you put your hose back into the groove, and now you're ready to fill it up.

Now we're ready to put the bumper back on. We had a lot of hardware breakage from the age of the car—a lot of dry plastic. We have to replace almost all of our pieces, but I'm just going to line it up and show you how to line it up. You know—you took it apart—I'm sure you can gather it. This notch is going to go right into the plastic notch that's in that fender flare. Hold it up. Line that up. And just push it right in. I'm going to do the other side the same way. Hear things starting to set themselves in.

Now you're going to put all your clips back in on the top. So, you're going to put one center clip in. Then you're going to install your top radiator cover, and the outer fours go in after. Then, don't forget to take each fender well and put this tab over. You got to tuck up the inner fender well. Put the tab over that. Then you place your top fender well over it and then put the screw in.

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