Twin500s said:

Hello, I'm sorry if this has been posted, please correct if so. But one of my girls Fiat had a totally sodden passenger footwell both front and rear, this is a 2009 UK car.

I took off the side trim to find the hose to the rear wash wipe is bundled with the wiring harness and had split.

I went to MPD and bought a generic through connect 86p cut the pipe, heated it up with a heat gun and neatly rejoined the pipes.

I've now got kitty litter in the footwells to dry it out and took the underlay out, I could wring it out it was that wet!

I have a video too...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SnGDzKUNCs

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Ralf S. said:

It won't have split because it froze. It's a rubber hose, so it would have some elasticality, even if the car was in -20C or whatever for long enough that it would need to freeze fluid inside a rubber hose, inside a car, under a carpet and surrounded by insulation etc.

Rubber splits because it gets cut or it gets perished.

It's most likely that it was taken apart at some time for a repair or because someone was hunting around after an electrical problem or trying to fit some bigger speakers etc. and damaged it, or left the pipe exposed to a metal edge.

I doubt that Yannick in Tychy, who assembles 500s for a living, managed to route this pipe badly, whereas the other 117,000 he built that year didn't have a problem.. but you never know.

If the beast ever had anything spilt inside it (look for sticky stains/Maccie-D drive-thru soft-drinks gone AWOL) then that might have perished the rubber, if yours looked cracked.


Ralf S.

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typecastboy said:

It’s plastic not rubber I think. The ribbing will allow for expansion as well as bends but I don’t think there would be much expansion from it.

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Ralf S. said:

As far as I know, there isn't a factory out there that makes super-brittle pipes just for Fiat... so it's likely to be the same quality of plastic that every other manufacturer uses. Just guessing though... someone is bound to name that factory..

But these pipes don't split every five minutes (I've never heard or read of the same problem across the entire Forum).. so either it's been damaged by shoddy tinkering in the past, or it's been degraded by something acting on it. It won't be cracked because the water inside it froze, for absolute certain.


Ralf S.

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Ralf S. said:

As far as I know, there isn't a factory out there that makes super-brittle pipes just for Fiat... so it's likely to be the same quality of plastic that every other manufacturer uses. Just guessing though...
Ralf S.

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Gina500 said:

I would not bet on that, these guys go amazing ways just to save a fraction of a cent. I remember a coolant pipe on an old Alfa that had over time dissolved and nearly killed the engine for overheating. When looking for a replacement, I found out older versions of the car had metal pipes instead.

I'm glad I have a 500C w/o a rear wiper

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Ralf S. said:

Ah you boys... Think how much fun and interesting times you're having though, fiddling with and fixing your car.

You don't get the same hassle with a £60k Lexus... that's probably true... but that's why Lexus owners are all boring people who don't even know where the screen wash filler cap goes, and have no war stories to tell their missus precisely why there is a gearbox in the bath (long story... but she took it well in the end )

Love your Fiats dudes.. £2.50 for a rush of accomplishment and joy, seems worth a bit of aggro' from time to time.


Ralf S.

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Twin500s said:

it split because its the cheapest least flexible plastic money can buy. The blue is screen wash for the UK (down to -15c)

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