I'm thinking of swapping a Canadian-spec windshield washer fluid reservoir into my US-spec car. The US-spec tank (76840-SDA-A11) holds 2.6 quarts; the Canada-spec tank ( 76840-SDA-C01 ) holds 4.8 quarts. The Canada-spec tank also has a fluid level sensor. In the service manual, this sensor and its associated dashboard light are annotated as "Canada"; anyone know if it's worth hunting for the 2-wire connector for the sensor on my US-spec car? IOW, did they just leave off the sensor but the wiring's there for it, or did they leave off the wiring, too?

Thanks!

 

Not sure if the wires are there and the bulb socket and bulb are in the dash? I'm going to guess the socket and bulb for the dash are not - too much of a difference between the two for Honda to "simulate" the two clusters.

But, I've bee wrong before and will be again....so inspect everything and see what is there and let us know.

 

A careful look at the instrument panel with a strong flashlight, does not turn up evidence of a windshield washer fluid warning light ("bulb and socket", no, all the indicators on these IPs are LEDs). You're right that there's a different instrument panel for the Canadian model — KM odometer and big KM/small mile calibrations on the speedo. Which is one of my few gripes with the car; as someone who drives both in Canada and the US on a regular basis, I'd much prefer the way GM figured out how to do it about 15 years ago: the analogue speedo has only one set of numbers on it, and pushing a button toggles between those numbers representing KMs or miles and also toggles the odometer reading between KMs and miles. Aw well, probably not worth pursuing addition of the fluid level sensor.

 

With a digital speedo the change is pretty simple and pretty easy to program into the PCM. It is about "three" buttons for me to change the 2016 Pilot between the two.

If the wires are there, it would be pretty easy to add a light to the dash. I haven't looked at the wire diagrams but knowing honda the switch is a ground that triggers the light to come on when the fluid is low - sending the ground signal.

As you said, is it worth it? Or just throw a little fluid in there every now and then. I know, I've run out even with trying to think about the time of year and how the weather has been over the last "x" amount of time since I last check/added washer fluid.

 

That's just it—the "analogue" speedometer on these cars is actually digital. No reason why it couldn't've been programmed to provide US/Metric readout at the push of a button, they just chose not to. »grump«