Bit of a shock today.

Whilst preparing Ruby for Quay For My Car on Poole Quay, found ourselves vacuuming water instead of dust from carpet in driver's front footwell!
Instant depression set in, hate water leaks, tricky to locate, fix and dry car out after + potential damage.
The one thing that was positive was the amount of water, level up to the carpet, press down with fingers and carpet is absolutely saturated. Yes we had just washed her with hose pipe but no sign of water dripping in, haven't hose washed her for ages as love Meguiars waterless wash and apart from the huge downpour the same time which she missed ,because she was under cover at this time, it hadn't rained for weeks!

So where has all this come from ? It wasn't damp, it was a small flood.

Water was nice and clear, so not coolant from heater.
Drain from air con was first suspect, looked underneath with air con on and engine running, only to be disappointed to see water dripping from pipe underneath and could even feel the air blowing out of the hose too. Where could the water be coming from?

Decided it would be best to dry carpet out first to prevent damage, so stated taking out trim, first piece out was the clutch foot rest part on lower side of centre console.
Relief, upon removal the problem became clear. Water was coming from air con drain!
Fiat use a very cheap and nasty way of attaching the drain hose to the pipe on the heater box (hopefully photo will show better than I can explain) The rubber hose has a rectangular 'slice' removed from it which is designed to hang the hose onto a 'lug' on the pipe. Unfortunately either it has been knocked (although well protected behind trim panel) or the method of attachment is poor allowing the hose to drop slightly. Not enough for the hose to fall off but sufficient to allow water to drip out of the slit on the hose from the end of the pipe.
The fix (also shown in photos) is to push hose up to ensure that the end of the pipe is past the slit and attach properly to prevent it sliding down again, Jubilee style hose clip seems to have done the trick there.

All that remains now is to remove and dry carpet/sound deadening! At least hot weather should help there.

Sorry for long post, but hopefully might be useful to some of you and might well be worth looking at upgrading your hose attachment for peace of mind.

I wonder if this is due to people putting their feet up in the footwell and kicking the pipe off?

I did think this could of been the cause but the trim/foot rest is pretty sturdy and not sure if you can fit your foot between pedal and around trim. Will have a look when dried out and back together. At least with jubilee clip holding it tight now it shouldn't happen again.

Probably overkill,especially given the current hot weather,but have just purchased a dehumidifier to ensure completely dry before reassembly!

With Ruby in the garage,carpet lifted and dehumidifier running all the time and the sound deadening over the washing line, she has finally dried out completely.
All put back together,not forgetting hose clip.
Disaster avoided.

Seems like removing the carpet completely would be a lot of work, no?

The main carpet would be a huge pain to remove, well, in one piece at least!
It goes under the heater box from one side to the other, also I suspect the centre console + seats would all have to come out!
So lifting the drivers footwell carpet up and removing sound deadening to dry was the way to go.

So this is on the driver's side? On a RHD model?

Mila said:

So this is on the driver's side? On a RHD model?

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Yes. It looks dry but when you push down on it with a Hoover nozzle for example, water seeps up through the plastic carpet heel protector.

My car goes in Friday but thanks to this thread, I'll look this evening

Hi. Just removed the trim & applied a jubilee clip as shown. Seems the pipe gets wet when the a/c is running so hope this cures it.

One thing though, how do you get the sound deadening out. I take it that the sill / footwell plastic trim needs to come out but for the life of me, and despite undoing the screw in the footwell & at the back of the sill but can't pull the trim piece off

Any advice welcomed

This is in the boot, too:-

http://www.dry-it-out.com/DD822-Graphite-dehumidifier

Seat down, parcel shelf removed & dehumidifier set in laundry mode so high.

The Dehumidifier is normally used to keep the garage where our S4 Spider & GT live nice & dry. It works too as even in medium mode, a wet car is dry within 2 hours.

Will this dry the sound deadening through the carpet though

Squadrone Rosso said:

This is in the boot, too:-



http://www.dry-it-out.com/DD822-Graphite-dehumidifier



Seat down, parcel shelf removed & dehumidifier set in laundry mode so high.



The Dehumidifier is normally used to keep the garage where our S4 Spider & GT live nice & dry. It works too as even in medium mode, a wet car is dry within 2 hours.



Will this dry the sound deadening through the carpet though

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It should but best if you can seal the car as much as possible so the dehumidifier is working in an enclosed space

Mercky said:

It should but best if you can seal the car as much as possible so the dehumidifier is working in an enclosed space

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Ta. Boot is closed on the wire, both doors closed, glass up & with climate control, I understand the air flaps go to rest thus letting nothing in.

I do wish I could remove the sound deadening though so any ideas as to how the sill trim comes off please

With regarding removing the trim along the top of the sill, it's a while ago now but if I remember correctly :


Screw at back of the trim, near rear of front seat base.


Screw(s) at front of trim to right of your foot when using throttle pedal.


Then the trim is clipped vertically down into the top of the sill, I had a trim removal tool (plastic lever basically). Very tight/strong fit, if you lever one end up and a shine a torch in you should see the clip and peg that goes in to it.


Designed to be easy to assemble at the factory but tricky to take apart again!


My wife was having kittens watching me lever the trim up, waiting for the sound of snapping plastic but it never happened and came apart quite nicely.


Sound deadening is in several parts under main carpet, if like ours the square under the drivers feet was by far the soggiest. The pieces going up the side of the transmission tunnel and up towards the pedals were damp along the edges but not sodden like the main square!

Thanks - you've been a great help

Glad to help.
You'll be amazed at how much water the sound deadening can hold!
Really needs to be bone dry before reassembly,to prevent musty,damp smells,mould etc.
At least all the wiring is quite high up so out of harms way.

1/2 litre came out in the first hour. I've set the timer to 8 hours, left it in full dry mode so will check in the morning

I'll empty the tank (can't use the continuous use hose I normally use) and will repeat until it's dry

Squadrone Rosso said:

1/2 litre came out in the first hour. I've set the timer to 8 hours, left it in full dry mode so will check in the morning

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Good to see folks being pragmatic & fixing simple problems themselves, instead of whining on about the lack of dealer support .

Bad that Fiat can't see fit to attach the drain more securely in the factory - it's not like it's an unknown issue .

Personally I dont think I'd ever rest easy in my mind about a third party drying out the car - it takes some dismantling, a decent dehumidifier, and patience.

Got me thinking that this could be a more serious problem for anyone with interscope - I doubt the underseat unit and associated wiring would take too kindly to this amount of moisture. Would make for an interesting warranty claim experience .

Well, had another litre out this morning. Emptied the tank & set for another 8 hours whilst I'm at work.

One thing I meant to say is when you remove the rubber pipe from the heater box, the air & moisture comes out under pressure so I think blowback is the issue, especially in humid weather when the a/c is taking lots of moisture out of the air.

Squadrone Rosso said:

Well, had another litre out this morning. Emptied the tank & set for another 8 hours whilst I'm at work.

One thing I meant to say is when you remove the rubber pipe from the heater box, the air & moisture comes out under pressure so I think blowback is the issue, especially in humid weather when the a/c is taking lots of moisture out of the air.

Click to expand...

So what was the actual cause of the leak - loose pipe?