You're looking at one very expensive piece of hardware there. That's the module for GM's heated washer system, which is now being recalled in a very major way. More than 1.3 million vehicles in the U.S., almost 99,000 in Canada, and 64,000 in Mexico and abroad contain them, and GM is going to pay out $100 or so for pretty much every one that's still on the road.
The company already performed a recall -- an expensive proposition even when you're not compensating with cash -- to correct a printed circuit board problem. That wasn't enough; the modules seem to be prone to failure, and could possibly start a fire. So far, five fires have been reported. The company that made the module isn't making them any more, so a better design isn't possible. Instead, GM is disabling them, and then paying customers $105 in Canada ($100 in the U.S.) in compensation for loss of the feature.
I never understood why GM ever offered this in the first place. When I first heard about it, I figured it would heat the washer fluid so that, when you turned on the squirters, you'd get nice, warm fluid to take the ice off the windshield. Alas, that wasn't the case. Instead, you turned on the system, and it gradually heated the fluid. When the fluid was hot enough, it would then activate the washers and wipers to use up the fluid in the heated reservoir. Which meant that you never got warm fluid when you wanted (or could really use) warm fluid. You just got warm fluid when it was good and ready to give it to you.
That's still no reason for the module to fail, of course. But I'm betting that right now, GM sure wishes it hadn't bothered answering a question that no one asked in the first place.
