Td5 D2 bodywork - Heater Blower Hole (1)

Still suffer from rainwater ingress onto the passenger footwell. No where as regular as it once was, but more annoying just the same. Particularly now since the recent work to make things better inside the cabin.

Past work on the problem identified the cause.. Rainwater is entering the cabin heater-blower motor intake mounted on the bulkhead scuttle panel and draining vertically down inside the unit to pool and eventually drain out of the blower motor mounting screws directly above the footwell.

I recently replaced the lower footwell panel having mounted the footwell light on it and fear that any water ingress now will just get absorbed by the foam backing- which is pretty much the historical issue.

Anyway, I found some good illustrative photos of the problem area on the net..

This view shows the open intake mounted on the scuttle plate. On this vehicle, the bonnet, wipers and the plastic scuttle cover have been removed. The dirty dusty line along the bottom of the windscreen is where the plastic scuttle cover and it's rubber seal contact the glass screen. It is obvious that if the sealing rubber is not doing its job then drain water will flow beneath it and drain straight into the open intake.

There are reports of peeps finding cracks in the black plastic scuttle cover and other leak points but the main problem is the design of the inlet. When the fan is operating, air is sucked in here along with any nearby debris (think of leaves and foam from that useless pollen filter nearby). There is no designed cover for it although on early Disco 1 versions something was available as an afterthought.

It is my guess that the D1 and the D2 share this inlet design.

I have tried to seal the windscreen run off area with various mastics and sealants and it did reduce the flow of water, but I feel the only answer is to make some kind of a hood for the intake..  Access to this area without removing the scuttle panel is restricted but not impossible! 

This is a view looking up from behind the fascia in the footwell area with the blower motor removed. It is possible to see up into the 'letterbox' inlet mounted on the scuttle panel as shown in the first photo.

Water is entering through the inlet and dripping down onto the blower motor 'hamster' cage and pooling in a circular channel that contains the three mounting screws. It is from the lowest mounting screw that the water seeps out into the cabin.

Reckon that the solution here is to fabricate some kind of hood for the inlet. Not to cover the inlet but to just redirect any drain water that finds it's way to that area..