All Things V6...

[Stickyfinger]

Course dates changed...POO

another time David

[Mandrake]

How easy was it to fit winches to the front and rear of the car?

Nah it was fine

It would have been in a 1600cc 1980 Subaru, although I think from memory it was a 1st gear job.

[CitroJim]

If it hadn't made it in first there's a good chance it may well have managed it in reverse...

[DHallworth]

Well, winter is certainly here with a vengance and unfortunately, this year, the Activa is living outside

I walked past it the other day and noticed that it was properly misted up inside it and curiosity got the better of me. I went into the house and got the keys, opened the front passengers door, lifted the rubber mat and the passengers carpet was like a swimming pool.

On Saturday I took the passengers seat out of the car and revealed the true extent of the wetness...



Pi$$ed off was an understatement... I them set about taking the front carpet out and hung it up in the shed to dry out.



I knew instantly what the problem would be so I ventured round to the front of the car and sure enough the scuttle had lifted on the passengers side of the windscreen. It was particularly annoying as I'd rebonded this last summer. The drivers side of the scuttle was still stuck like sh!t to a blanket, unfortunately the passengers side has warped and lifted off the windscreen letting the water into the cabin.

The weather forecast for Saturday night was horrendous with torrential rain forecast, there was also a thread of snow. I was panicking as if it snowed when it melted it would all run down the windscreen and melt into the footwell. So, I hatched a plan. It was -1 so there was no way that the scuttle was going to stick to the windscreen again. I popped to Screw Fix and bought a wet vac to suck up the water and some T-Rex tape to stick the scuttle down temporarily.

I got home, warmed the scuttle and the screen up with a hair dryer to give it a better chance to stick, I then taped the scuttle down to the windscreen. It doesn't look pretty but thankfully the car has remained bone dry since. I'll keep an eye on it as I'm hoping that tape will hold until it warms up a bit.



I then removed the rear carpets as well and hung them up in the shed to dry along with the front and put the dehumidifier in the car to absorb the moisture. Thankfully there's no lasting damage to the car, the carpets have shampoo'd clean, the floor pan on the car has no marks and there's no rust or anything showing from the standing water.



I moved the heater control from open to recirculate to close the flap above the blower and unfortunately it's stuck so I'm going to need to try and free that off as well.

It's not a job I enjoy doing, but at least it's not difficult.

All I need to do now is try and find another scuttle that's not warped and will have a better chance of sticking back to the windscreen.

David.

[superloopy]

Looking remarkably like my TD David .... ingress is at the rear for me and i'd left the car standing for a couple of weeks when we went off on a 2 week 'jolly' to Gran Canaria only to come back to yet another 'swimming pool'

Car was all misted and streaming windows INSIDE ... that gave it away.

Anyways, weathers too bad to do anything other than mop up and stick a couple of silica gel bags in the boot and keep changing them.

When it's a bit drier, carpet out and into the grrenhouse, thats all i seem to use it for these days, xantia carpets

[Mandrake]

I walked past it the other day and noticed that it was properly misted up inside it and curiosity got the better of me. I went into the house and got the keys, opened the front passengers door, lifted the rubber mat and the passengers carpet was like a swimming pool.

On Saturday I took the passengers seat out of the car and revealed the true extent of the wetness...



Pi$$ed off was an understatement... I them set about taking the front carpet out and hung it up in the shed to dry out.

Really sorry to hear that David, I know I would be gutted in the same circumstances. The scuttle on mine is in some state with at least two massive cracks right down the scuttle, one near the middle and one on the drivers side with the middle bit starting to lift recently. Fortunately the passenger side where the fan is still seems to be bonded but for how much longer I'm not sure.

A word of advice - in your second picture in the top left corner where the blue and black striped cable bundles run to there is a giant slide connector in a moulded cavity under the rubber mat - lift that rubber mat and check that connector - make sure it is bone dry and preferably use some contact cleaner on it to flush out any water from the pins and protect it otherwise they will corrode very quickly and cause ALL kinds of problems.

We had this problem in Dad's car due to a scuttle leak, a few months later various things stopped working and it was traced to this connector - by that time it had sat wet for so long that some of the pins were corroded beyond recognition and I actually had to do a bodge job where I had to cut some wires and solder/heatshrink them directly together bypassing the connector! You don't want it to come to that.

I moved the heater control from open to recirculate to close the flap above the blower and unfortunately it's stuck so I'm going to need to try and free that off as well.

It's not a job I enjoy doing, but at least it's not difficult.

Almost certainly there is a kink in the cable - happened to both of my first two Xantia's, and seems to be caused (or happens more often) by trying to move the flap too quickly while the fan is on high speed as the pressure of the fan resists the movement of the flap and causes the cable to bend and get kinked instead. In fact its basically not safe to move the recirc flap while the fan is on full speed unless you move the slider slowly and gently - a bit of a design flaw. (I don't move it at all on high speed)

The way I fixed it both times was to straighten the cable out as much as possible with pliers then twist the cable 180 degrees and re-engage the T-pivot. (whatever those things are called on the end of bowden cables!) By re-fitting it 180 degrees out the force of trying to push the flap is now trying to straighten the small amount of kink that is inevitably still in the cable rather than trying to bend it in the make it worse direction.

Worked fine on both cars for as long as I kept them!

[DHallworth]

Thanks Simon, I'll lift that foam and see what's going on ASAP.

David.

[Mandrake]

Not sure if I was a bit vague - you don't have to lift the entire rubber mat up, in the top left corner of the footwell where those two cables intersect is a kind of flap/hatch of rubber which can be lifted up to reveal the connector resting in a moulded chunk of rubber. It seems to be a favourite place for water to collect after a scuttle leak.

[DHallworth]

Ahh yea, I know which one you mean now.

David.

[CitroJim]

David, so sorry to see what happened I've been there many times with virtually all the Xantias I've had.. Only Gabriel has not suffered but she leaked from somewhere else!

This really exposes a severe design weakness in the Xantia...

Hope all will be very dry and good soon. The biggest problem is drying out under the sound-deadening on the passenger-side bulkhead. Lift it up at the base of it in the floor pan and get some gentle heat underneath it.

I find it takes about three weeks to thoroughly dry out...

[Stickyfinger]

This really exposes a severe design weakness in the Right Hand Drive Xantia...

Just a little edit to that I think.

Can this problem not be solved/prevented with work on the bulkhead ?

[Mandrake]

Would a LHD model not just be vulnerable to the same problem on the other side ?

[Stickyfinger]

No, apparently not. Due to the way the water tracks/drains.

Why can the bulkhead not be sealed to prevent water entry on rhd cars ?

[Mandrake]

No, apparently not. Due to the way the water tracks/drains.

Why can the bulkhead not be sealed to prevent water entry on rhd cars ?

Not sure what you mean by sealed - there is a gaping big air vent hole for the fan to draw air in...which needs to be there.

The issue is when the scuttle comes away the water runs under the scuttle and directly down into the vent instead of being diverted around it to a drain.

You could perhaps argue the positioning and orientation of the vent could have been better thought out though...

Are replacement scuttles available ? Mine is really knackered and I'm lucky that the piece by the vent is still intact. Someone has broken it in two down the middle when replacing the windscreen wiper motor I think, as the park adjustment on the wiper motor was set wrong when I got the car!

[CitroJim]

As long as the scuttle is sealed correctly to the screen there is no great problem but gaining and maintaining a good bond between the screen and the scuttle panel is the hard bit...

I find rigorous cleaning with solvent and then using good, automotive grade silicone RTV seems to be the best approach...

I also keep some tape on the joint as a bit of insurance...