I have an '05, which was purchased new on September 30th.

Why is my windshield washer fluid reservoir black?

I thought they were clear on the '05s?

Build date is July 04, but it is an 05.

 

I may be mistaken but I believe their all black on the '05's Mines black. Build date July '04 also.

 

Thanks.

I had thought the '05s were clear, and the '04s were black.

I was curious was because I wanted to know if I had a first model year or second model year engine.

 

I have an 05 MT Ti Gray, clear resovoir. I can check the build date if you want.

 

Clear resevoir here on a 2005 MT5 with a build date of April 7, 2005. Sounds like the change of resevoir color did not coincide with the model year change-over.

 

Thanks everyone. Thanks Pete.

Mic, I think you're correct.

The Hiroshima plant must have switched over to the clear resevoir at some point after the '05s started to be produced.

 

i have 05 clear... why would they even have a black one?? all the cars i've previously had were clear...

 

My guess is cost. You know, lowest bid thing? If black is cheaper and it meets the specs, they buy a batch of black. A few hundred yen saved on a large-purchase item adds up when they are buying tens of thousands of them. If clear is cheaper on the next acquisition cycle, they buy those. It's called increasing the margin, i.e., more profit.

 

Build April 12th, 2005 ... clear washer bottle

 

yup, some early build '05s (like July '04, which happens to be the first month '05s began production) have black washer fluid resevoirs, just like '04s

the early build '05s also may have an earlier model stereo head unit that does not allow it to integrate with the factory Sirius satellite kit

 

My 05 was built in 8/04 and it's clear

 

They were actually all manufactured clear, but there was a period of some months when washer fluid was very expensive, so many dealers were using black ink instead.

 

 

Mine's clear. 05, built 12/04