newbie with water in air box c5 hdi

[mckay77]

hi guys, I recently started getting a few problems with my c5 hdi (sluggish and hesitating) and with numerous searches on various forums I came to the conclusion that the maf sensor needed replaced or cleaned, so I thought I would clean it out first and replace the air filter and fuel filter, so when I went to change the air filter I noticed the old one had a damp patch on it....so I changed it anyways...cleaned the maf/changed the fuel filter...and all was great...I had full power restored...I then went out in the c5 today and It has now got anti pollution fault showing on the dash and the air filter is wet again...

my Q is...is there a fix for the water getting into the air intake? ive read something about drilling a hole in the bottom of the air box? just cant find any instructions on how or where to do it...any help would be greatly apprieciated

thanks in advance

p.s. I did search these forums before posting but just cant seem to find any details

[myglaren]

Is the wheel arch liner on the nearside front missing or damaged?

I had similar but more severe symptoms to yours after my wheel arch liner exploded into a thousand bits.
This exposed the induction snorkel to water and muck thrown up by the wheels. Made worse by the fact that those wheels are often in the gutter

My airbox was full of water, the filter absolutely dripping and the wires in the MAF corroded.
I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the airbox 'horn' to allow water to drain out and fitted a new wheel arch liner, MAF and air filter.
Been OK since.

I was going to cram a couple of those 'ball of wool' plastic pan scrubbers into the snorkel but have never seen any both large enough nor open-weave enough to do the job.

[mckay77]

ill have to check the liner tomorrow when its daylight ive not had a look at that yet, could be that its damaged or something as its a 53 reg

thanks

[mckay77]

right so the wheel arch liner wasn't broken or burst...any ideas?

[myglaren]

You need the liner off to check but perhaps the routing of the elephants trunk is incorrect or it is damaged.
You haven't been driving through floods have you?
If I ever take the liner out of this car I am going to try rerouting the trunk so it's intake is at the top of the arch, high enough to preclude sucking in floodwater.

[taffy]

i jus pulledmy snorkel off on my cars...worst fear is driving to a flood and it sucking the water up like a straw! i know it will decrease performance a bit and u might loose a few horses but been peace of mind for me

[myglaren]

Couldn't say about the impact on performance but you may find it sucking in more water, any that makes it through the radiator/intercooler in heavy rain.

[taffy]

i know what u mean but luckly ive never had a maf go on me either..im taking about a xantia here mind..i had a quick look at the c5 but cant fiqure its snorkel arangement..performance as instead of getting cold air from the bottom of the car it was getting hot air from engine bay..
c5 could be different (and prob is lol) but i thought id share my experience

[citronut]

hi and welcome

or worse still and hydraulics the engine, which can destroy the engine,

i just last weekend sorted a petrol piscasooooo out after a friend drowned it at high tide on a road he was traversing/paddling through ,

it had locked up the engine,

he had attempted following my over the phone instructions, "pull the spark plugs out and crank the engine, then re/fit the plug and try to start it" severl times,

turned out the manifold plenum chamber was dull of water, so every attempt at starting it, it just sucked more water up which just locked the engine againd,

once we discovered this i found an old GSA washer pump which we sucked the rest of the water out of the plenum chamber,

after this eventually she fired up,
it run ok now and hopefully has not caused any damage, time will tell

[taffy]

oh gosh thats lucky

[Northern_Mike]

C5 has an odd arrangement. Airbox looks a bit like a Xantia one, similar place. Pipe goes vertically down from the base, then has a flexi-hose type thing that goes up and into the wheelarch where it sucks air/water/crud in from. I have the pipe from mine but I've removed it.

The Berlingo has a similarly silly arrangement, but I binned it as I once ruined a 1.8D MK1 Berlingo in flood water. Mine just has an inch or so of pipe out of the airbox behind the headlight and it stops there.

[taffy]

so the c5 has a u bend before the air box?
that dont sound good design atall!
espeacially with the amount of standing water on our roads!

and i would have thought behind headlight is best place too as older cars had that arrangement too

[Northern_Mike]

so the c5 has a u bend before the air box?
that dont sound good design atall!

Yes. Completely stupid.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[mckay77]

C5 has an odd arrangement. Airbox looks a bit like a Xantia one, similar place. Pipe goes vertically down from the base, then has a flexi-hose type thing that goes up and into the wheelarch where it sucks air/water/crud in from. I have the pipe from mine but I've removed it.

The Berlingo has a similarly silly arrangement, but I binned it as I once ruined a 1.8D MK1 Berlingo in flood water. Mine just has an inch or so of pipe out of the airbox behind the headlight and it stops there.

so have you taken the full intake pipe out of your c5?

[mckay77]

it looks to me that the bag thing that's on the intake pipe is burst in places and because the pipe is a material thingy It looks like its just soaking the water in if that's makes sense....

so you guys that have removed the hole pipe....does no water get into the air box after you've removed it?

thanks for all your help guys!