Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[mickthemaverick]

Just a thought Simon, can you fabricate a stiff plastic 'cap' / 'shroud' as indicated in the picture I have here:

Own mods to Simon's picture

The green shaded area is a solid shield. The blue line at the top is a silicon seal to the underside of the scuttle, and the blue shaded area is where the water will be fed into the gulley to drain out in the normal way.

[Dormouse]

Run water slowly onto the top windscreen rubber and watch where it runs to. The blob may be important.

[Mandrake]

Run water slowly onto the top windscreen rubber and watch where it runs to. The blob may be important.

Yeah, I did all that on Thursday night. I tried pouring water from a jug into the gap in the top of the windscreen rubber, also all across the windscreen - however none of it had any effect on the drip rate, just the same slow drip already happening due to the rain.

That's why I'm not sure how the water is actually getting under the scuttle... certainly not by the direct route.

[CitroJim]

Hi Simon, Good to see you are well again and finally able to look at this issue in reasonably dry weather!

I've had exactly the same on an Activa and your surmise about how water is getting into the heater intake is correct in my experience

That lump of putty is OE and essential!

I've also had a Xantia where the windscreen bonding had failed on that side leading to much the same issue...

[Mandrake]

Hi Simon, Good to see you are well again and finally able to look at this issue in reasonably dry weather!

Jim! I didn't know you were back, you can see how little I've been here lately to notice. A lack of time at work and outside work to jump on the forum so unfortunately I only turn up with pleas for help!

I've had exactly the same on an Activa and your surmise about how water is getting into the heater intake is correct in my experience

That lump of putty is OE and essential!

I didn't for a minute think that huge messy blob of putty was OE, it looked like a bodge someone had previously installed, especially given the glass was cracked in the area... But it figures though! I'm assuming this design flaw of water tracking down the edge of the glass under the strip and then dripping in this manner was discovered too late to change the design so Citroen's solution was to tell the assembly workers to put big blobs of putty there!

I've also had a Xantia where the windscreen bonding had failed on that side leading to much the same issue...

Lets hope that's not the case here as its a newly fitted glass, but I am not fully confident in the job the guy did...

I'm going to carefully remove the scuttle, hopefully without breaking the glass a second time... then put a huge blob of silicone sealant in the area the putty was in shaped to redirect the dribbles of water away from the vent and hopefully that will be the end of it. Then I can take the carpets out and give them a wash and a jolly good drying with a dehumidifier in the back porch...

[CitroJim]

Been back a while now Simon Interests very much rekindled by a little blue AX coming into my life

If you have a few days spare, my blog is full of it

[Gibbo2286]

For those leaks that emanate from the windscreen seal I used a very effective product called Granville seek and seal, it came in a small can like the three in one oil cans, liquid stuff poured in and worked like blood coagulating when it came to a leak.
Not sure if it's still available...............it's been a while.

[CitroJim]

For those leaks that emanate from the windscreen seal I used a very effective product called Granville seek and seal, it came in a small can like the three in one oil cans, liquid stuff poured in and worked like blood coagulating when it came to a leak.
Not sure if it's still available...............it's been a while.

Wow! Now that is a great product Eric and one hopes it is still around...

I once tried using strongly coloured food dye in a watering can to do similar but it wasn't very successful as I recall...

[Stickyfinger]

Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure Leak/Crack Sealer

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Captain-Tolley ... B003T6EJ9A

[bobins]

Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure Leak/Crack Sealer

Where's Frankie Howerd when you need him ?

[CitroJim]

That product looks well dodgy...

[Hell Razor5543]

Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure Leak/Crack Sealer

Where's Frankie Howerd when you need him ?

Or Kenneth Williams?

[Mandrake]

So I spent most of Sunday working on the car, first in repairing the leak (hopefully!) and then in getting the carpets out...

Removing the scuttle turned out to be very easy compared to the first time - partly because it was only recently glued in using "only" bathroom silicone sealant instead of whatever tough as old boots stuff they use from the factory, and partly because I found a better shaped blade. Just a couple of quid from tool station and it did the job perfectly slicing through it neatly like butter and no damage to the glass this time!

Sadly when I was refitting the scuttle the two pieces that I had glued together with a bridging block previously (see earlier in this thread) came apart just as I was putting it in position - as the sealer was already in place and the day was getting late I just said screw it and fitted it anyway - one clean vertical break near the drivers side won't have any bearing on leak worthiness on the passenger side.

Here is what I ended up doing to try to direct any water dribble away from the vent - it remains to be seen how successfully it is yet:

The main diverter is the big blob on the right hand side of the photo which should direct any water dribbling down the A pillar under the scuttle away from the vent. For good measure I added a blob on the left hand side as well. Unknown how successful this is until we get our next hard rain - which probably won't be too long from now! There is also a fillet of sealant across under that middle section of glass so the entire area above the vent should be fully "contained".

As for the water under the carpets, yikes....

The front left floor was completely submerged - but thankfully not up to the level of the very important connectors hidden below the passengers left foot - having had to do a bodge repair on that connector on Dad's old car due to water, this is a relief.

I continue to be impressed with the rust proofing on Xantia's - here we have a 25 year old car which has had a flooded floor for probably 4 - 5 months and there is NO rust in the floor pan at all and basically no damage except for some mould spots on insulation tape. Incredible!

I have a dehumidifier in the car trying to dry it out however I had forgotten that it will not operate when the ambient temperature is below about 8 degrees, which means apart from a small part in the middle of the day it can't get any drying done. I used to have a small oil filled radiator but it got damaged and thrown away so I might have to buy a cheapy oil filled radiator to go in the car to warm it sufficiently for the dehumidifier to work properly at this time of year.

One thing I don't know what to do about is the water which is soaked into the foam under the rubber mat thing which seems to be embedded into the firewall area - it's completely soaked as well:

It doesn't look like this can be removed without a LOT of work and potentially removing the dashboard ? Which I am NOT doing a second time. Any suggestions on how to get this dry ? For now I have just propped it up to try to let the de-humidifer do its work but it's slow going...

The foam mats under the carpets have quite a bit of black mould on them, I mould sprayed them, left them for an hour to get rid of most of that and then hosed them down outside.

Completely overlooking the fact that at this time of year it's nearly impossible to dry anything soaking wet outdoors. So now I have three soaking wet carpets with both the carpet and foam drenched with nowhere to dry them except one at a time in the back porch with the dehumidifier... Whoops...

So it could be weeks before I can get both the inside of the car and the removed carpets dry and clean and ready to go back in.

[mickthemaverick]

To dry that foam Simon I would wedge it off the floor with a piece of wood and then use a hot air blower of some sort, hair dryer, fan heater etc to blow warm air under it. It will take a fair time but will get the job done. Then place kitchen towel on top and underneath to check it overnight!

[Mandrake]

To dry that foam Simon I would wedge it off the floor with a piece of wood and then use a hot air blower of some sort, hair dryer, fan heater etc to blow warm air under it. It will take a fair time but will get the job done. Then place kitchen towel on top and underneath to check it overnight!

That's probably what I'll have to do, but the foam goes all the way up the back of the firewall, so it will be impossible to get all the water out if it has climbed up the back by capillary action.