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D2 - Body and Exterior Bumpers, bonnets, glass, trims - Everything outside

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  #1  
Old 5th March 2020, 03:25 PM
spannerrash spannerrash is offline
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Default Paddling in the footwells yet again.

Three years ago I spent a lot of time and effort drying out the interior of my car and fixing (or so I thought) all the possible causes of water ingress. I had the interior and carpet completely out to dry everything off and clean the seats. It took me ages (see photo). The car lives outside as I don't have a garage but she has been dry as a bone, up until now.

I check the drains regularly and in fact, just have again. They are not blocked. Yet water in the front footwells. The only thing I can think of, as I believe I have cured all the usual suspects, is that the plenum chamber drains are partially blocked and the amount of rain we have had lately has overwhelmed them.

So to my point.

1, Has anyone ever totally removed the plastic diverter thing from under the plenum chamber? In effect, just leaving one big hole.

2, Can anyone see any disadvantage to doing this?

3, If I can reach it, can it simply be pulled off from underneath?

Thanks all, Frank
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Old 5th March 2020, 03:44 PM
MikkiJayne MikkiJayne is offline
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Its been removed on a couple I've seen. If you have skinny arms it can just about be reached from the passenger side wheel arch with the headlight level arm disconnected and the inner CV heat shield removed, although its still quite a stretch. Easier with the driveshaft out. The disadvantage is that it may allow the AC to pull in fumes from the engine bay.

If the plenum drain is full though, it should run through the AC drains. If those are clear it shouldn't be getting in to the cabin. It should be fairly obvious if its getting in that way.

Have you done Botang's hole? That drips on to the relay panel and makes the passenger side front carpet wet.

A missing boot cable grommet can allow water in above the battery and if the car is parked nose-down it can run along the chassis legs, under the back seat and in to the rear passenger footwells.
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Old 5th March 2020, 04:15 PM
spannerrash spannerrash is offline
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Botang hole plugged and sealed (see pic). No water in rear footwells but I also replaced the boot gromet three years ago as the battery box was half full of water when I bought the car.
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  #4  
Old 5th March 2020, 04:25 PM
MikkiJayne MikkiJayne is offline
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That does suggest the AC drains then. Any water in the centre console vent?
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Old 5th March 2020, 05:50 PM
spannerrash spannerrash is offline
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No water in the centre console I can see or hear gluging with the fan on high output.

I have just quickly removed the drivers side transmission tunnel cover, where the acc red connector is and it does feel wet behind the sound insulation. I have blown through the acc pipe though, upwards and downwards and it seems clear.

It looks like I'm gonna have to remove the insulation tomorrow and run a hose pipe over the wind screen. See if I can find anything. It's a real pain though as I'm trying to use this good weather to get the rear end Re-built.

It's a good job these cars are made of aluminium otherwise with all the water ingres issues there wouldn't be any left. They'd av all rusted away by now.
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Old 5th March 2020, 06:33 PM
HPsauce HPsauce is offline
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MJ is right in that an overflowing (maybe just partly-blocked) plenum drain will run into the condenser tray. But that won't cope for long.
The problem is that the condenser drains are much smaller as in theory the condenser tray only ever has completely clean water condensed from the air, no debris, and at a slow flow rate.

Of course, in reality, as the tray isn't sealed some dust etc. finds it's way in so occasionally unblocking of the infamous "orange drains" is recommended.
BUT the plenum is inevitably filthy so any overflow has a high chance of bringing bigger debris that will quickly block the aircon drains.

The end result in my case is that the plenum overflow is usually polluted with small seeds (birch for me) which apart from blocking the aircon drains also come blowing out of the air vents when they've had a chance to dry out!
Trimming the tips of the orange drains to improve flow is definitely beneficial.
__________________
2003 D2 FL S8. Irish Green Pearl/Beige. Solar sunroof, auto-dim mirrors, electric rear seat functions, ski hatch retrofit; extended leather. Aftermarket DVB-T, reversing camera and full XCarlink (Bluetooth etc.).
2016 Volvo V40 T5 Cross Country (4WD) with ALL the toys including adaptive cruise etc. etc. Osmium Grey with Blonde/Charcoal leather interior. Polestar performance "optimisation". (A much rarer model than a D2 S8 by the way!) Oh, and a brand new engine at just under 30,000 miles on the factory one!
Finally: gone, but not forgotten.....
1998 D2 PF S8. AgateGrey/Platinum. Every option (I think) except electric rear seats, tiptronic steering wheel, ski hatch, towbar & dimming door mirrors.
e.g. Cruise control, NavPlus/TV, Bose, GSM, Xenons, Solar roof, Parking sensors, Alcantara/leather everywhere of course. (internal dimming mirror added later)
1998 (very early) Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec; ABS/TCS, Heated screen/mirrors, Aircon, Auto-dim mirror, Leather, Trip computer, Cruise control, OEM Ford SatNav with CD changer.
And before that a lot of Rover 800s, a few oddities, a lovely Triumph Dolomite 1850HL with Overdrive and way back in my schooldays an Austin Seven aka Mini 850!

Last edited by HPsauce; 5th March 2020 at 06:37 PM.
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Old 5th March 2020, 06:59 PM
MikkiJayne MikkiJayne is offline
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What I can't fathom though is how detritus from the bottom of the plenum gets in to the HVAC system at all. Water can only seep in through the various cracks and seams in the airbox - the only direct open path is in the top, and it never (!) gets that high. There are (as far as I know) no large open holes in the bottom of the box so I really don't get how the schmutz gets in there.
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Old 5th March 2020, 07:31 PM
spannerrash spannerrash is offline
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Just so I am clear. If the acc has not been run for a while (which it hasn't) and water is getting into the footwells, then the true cause is a blocked or partial blocked plenum chamber? If I remove the plastic diverter thingy underneath the plenum, water will no longer get in unless I run the acc and the drains are blocked. Is that correct?
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Old 7th March 2020, 12:38 PM
spannerrash spannerrash is offline
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Hi all
I have spent all morning trying to locate how water is getting into the footwells. The issue is isolated only to the front of the car but both footwells are affected, the drivers side being the worst by far.

Sunroof drains clear.
Air con drains clear.
Plenum chamber seems to be draining well.

Check out the images bellow. I did find this up at the corner of the os wing. Olmost like the botang issue but on the other side of the car. Pour water on the windscreen and the wiper blade directs it all into this area and yes, you guessed it, straight into the drivers footwell. This hole goes directly into the cabin. So, a stationary wiper blade directs 50% of all the water that falls onto the windscreen into this area. You couldn't make this s__t up.

I guess the golden egg question here is, has anyone seen anything like this before or is my car special?

My guess would be a poor repair at some point in its past but I'll reserve judgement until the forum gurus take a look.

This by the way doesn't explain the water in the passenger foot well. That little chestnut still needs to be discovered.

Cheers Frank
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  #10  
Old 7th March 2020, 01:38 PM
HPsauce HPsauce is offline
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Frank, I get plenty of water pooling in that area but it doesn't go into the cabin....
As for how it's supposed to look I'll leave that to experts like MJ.

Edit: Decided to have a look at mine and lubricate the suspect bonnet pins and catches at the same time. Photo coming shortly.....
__________________
2003 D2 FL S8. Irish Green Pearl/Beige. Solar sunroof, auto-dim mirrors, electric rear seat functions, ski hatch retrofit; extended leather. Aftermarket DVB-T, reversing camera and full XCarlink (Bluetooth etc.).
2016 Volvo V40 T5 Cross Country (4WD) with ALL the toys including adaptive cruise etc. etc. Osmium Grey with Blonde/Charcoal leather interior. Polestar performance "optimisation". (A much rarer model than a D2 S8 by the way!) Oh, and a brand new engine at just under 30,000 miles on the factory one!
Finally: gone, but not forgotten.....
1998 D2 PF S8. AgateGrey/Platinum. Every option (I think) except electric rear seats, tiptronic steering wheel, ski hatch, towbar & dimming door mirrors.
e.g. Cruise control, NavPlus/TV, Bose, GSM, Xenons, Solar roof, Parking sensors, Alcantara/leather everywhere of course. (internal dimming mirror added later)
1998 (very early) Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec; ABS/TCS, Heated screen/mirrors, Aircon, Auto-dim mirror, Leather, Trip computer, Cruise control, OEM Ford SatNav with CD changer.
And before that a lot of Rover 800s, a few oddities, a lovely Triumph Dolomite 1850HL with Overdrive and way back in my schooldays an Austin Seven aka Mini 850!

Last edited by HPsauce; 7th March 2020 at 01:45 PM.
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