Sloshing noises - GC4P

[Old-Guy]

This afternoon, as I turned the Picasso out of its usual parking space (on the flat) after several hours of heavy rain, I thought I heard an odd noise. 10 yards on, at the T junction with the main road, definite sloshing from somewhere behind the dash. Let the car roll back a couple of yards and pulled up to the white line again and stopped abruptly. Definite sloshing from the scuttle region. Sounds like a classic case of "blocked heater plenum chamber drain(s)'. Pulled over down the road where I could investigate without getting run-over. Couldn't see anywhere obvious under the bonnet and the front floor mats weren't soaked. By the time I got back from doing the shopping, the sloshing had stopped; bitter wind and failing light discouraged any further poking around.

EVAPORATOR - PRESSURE RELIEF VALVE (Citroenese for Heater) page on service.citroen shows a water pipe and a "WATER EVACUATION BOX" somewhere on the bottom of the heater unit.

That leaves me with several questions:

• Where had enough water, to audibly slosh around, accumulated?
  Where do I find the 'Water Evacuation Box' (which I presume is the heater drain)?
  How do I clear the debris from the drain?
  Where has the water (probably) gone? It took a whole summer to get the back of the Xantia dry after the rear foot-well was flooded via a butchered tailgate membrane!

Any ideas/experience please?

[RichardW]

It's a common problem....!

The plenum drains exit behind the wheel arch liners, and have rubber flap valves on the end which block up with crud. Jack up each side in turn (it's doable without taking the wheel off), remove the 3 plastic rivets in the back of the wheel arch liner (and wrench off the mud flaps if fitted!) then pull the liner back. Reach in and pull the valve assembly out - it's just clipped in. Clean it out, and reach in with a finger and clean the scuttle out then flush it with a hose / watering can the intake is at the bottom of the screen), refit the plastic ring to the drain, and then push it back in. Takes <1 hour to do both sides. Inevitably when you pull the first one out, the cold water will run up your arm!

You might find that the water has run into the fan, so it may play up a bit. It's above the throttle pedal and relatively easy to remove - you may need to take it out and dry it out overnight on a radiator.

[RichardW]

[Old-Guy]

Thanks Richard - thought you might know the answer!
I don't (yet) think of trying Youtube. Still got my Xantia head on!

Slightly confused by the combination of the two (best) videos and service.citroen; I can't find the components of the water drain (not helped by the usual wierd descriptions), but I do at least now know where to start looking. When I can get the car on a lift, I'll be able to see what's what. There's an absolutely perishing wind today, so the workshop heater will be trying to warm the world, not the workers! The forecast promises a milder day on Thursday.

I suspect that 2011-on GPs are slightly different in this respect, as in so many others! I'll take some pictures and post some notes.

[RichardW]

It's a bi-annual service item really! I've had to do my Parents' car as well, as they had the same trouble.

[Old-Guy]

It's a bi-annual service item really! I've had to do my Parents' car as well, as they had the same trouble.

As the car is parked under trees etc (any combination of a spruce that drops its needles, a maple with leaves of leather, and rampant bamboo that sheds leaves whenever it's windy), this should needs to be an annual job for me!

I'll bet the water sloshed into the fan and has soaked the carpet!

[RichardW]

My Parents' is a 2011 facelift car - it's the same as our 08 car. This drain is not part of the heater, it's probably on the front bodywork page; I'll have a look for it later.

[RichardW]

It's under body work>windscreen item 14, water pipe.

[Old-Guy]

I don't believe it (well I do really,!), I looked there but not hard enough - it's so tiny! The image wouldn't have helped much.

Anyway... the sun came out this afternoon after my previous post so I dug out the trolley jack (NOT a job for the workshop - water and muck on the floor to be cleared up - not polite or politic to abuse hospitality) and had a look.
Parked on a slight sideways slope, O/S down, steady stream of water from behind the wheel-arch liner, so that side is still working; encouraging, hopefully that means that the blower hasn't been drowned.

© Old-Guy

Turned the car round, no water draining from the N/S.
Pull three plastic 'rivets' in the rear half of the liner: bottom rear outside corner, centre (of arch)towards the outside, on the inner (engine bay) wall.
Couldn't manipulate the liner enough to see behind it, not sure where or what I'm looking for, and the tyre gets in the way.
Removed the road wheel - now I can see what I'm doing; I missed a 4th rivet,hidden above and inwards from the 2nd rivet (above).
Remove 4th rivet and the liner can be pulled down and out enough to reveal all.
The drain outlet (best description I can come up with) is on the 'ceiling' of the wheel arch, to the rear of the strut mount (now there's an emotive term for a Xantia owner!).

© Old-Guy

Gave it a squeeze, flap popped open, several small lumps of compost dropped out followed by about a litre of cold, clear, water. Thanks to Richard's warning (above), I was wearing an ancient ski jacket with snow-proof cuffs and didn't get a sleeve full.
Easy enough then to remove the outlet moulding, totally choked with well-composted debris:

© Old-Guy

poke and rinse out the moulding. Poked a finger up inside the chamber - completely clear as far as I can tell.
At about this point (of maximum dis-assembly), it started raining again, so my tools got soaked.
Stuffed it all back together again; I'll do the offside some other time.
The bottom line is that the car is parked on an almost level bit of a cul-de-sac where the camber tips the car slightly to the N/S. As the debris was nicely composted, water would drain slowly through it; as soon as the car is driven, any water trapped would slosh from side to side finding its way out down the not-yet-blocked O/S outlet.
Blower still works fine. for now!
BTW the wheel-arch liner isn't easy to remove completely: at the lower front edge, at least 2 self-tappers that secure the bumper undertray go through the lip of the liner - and there's at least one more securing the front part of the liner! Clever!!!