Hi

I'm now into my second week as a Fiat Brava owner and it's not been without its ups and downs. I've now got the cam belt changed and I've just had that laser thingy done to my wheels and balanced etc...

Anyhow I digress, last weekend while cleaning the car out I noticed that the previous owners had put Potpourri in the ash tray, it wasn't very strong but I threw it out all the same.

Now, over the last few days I've noticed something that resembled a dried leaf, stuck in the air vent closest to me, so I tried poking it out but it wouldn't budge. Ah I thought if I open the vent and then turn the fan on to full and direct the air to the inside of the car it should dislodge it, brilliant!!! Not really, it was then that I’d discovered what the previous owner or someone had done; I got showered with hundreds of little pieces of potpourri flying out in all directions from the air vent.

I don’t know how much is in their, but would like to know how I’d go about removing the offending dried flora from my air vent system.

Regards

Fiat Bravo 1.6 16v with built in air freshener

Smart The dash comes to bits piece by piece and you can pull the front of the vents off, tip it out the back and put it back together. It's detailed in the Haynes manual. But it is a bit of a faff (aside from the vent by the drivers seat, that's not bad) so unless it's really bugging you, might be easier to leave it?

are you sure its potpourri, the bravo and brava are very prone to getting leaves sucked in by the fan. both my bravos had loads of leaves when i got them. turning the fan on i could hear them all rustling away, and every vent had leaves poking out. pullling up the plastic around the handbrake was like looking at a forest floor!

i had to clean it all out and then stick a pollen filter on the air intake (under a plastic panel in front of passenger side window wiper) because most models dont come with a pollen filter as standard. tut tut fiat, would it really hurt to add a pollen filter ?!!? then only cost a couple of quid at your local motor factors so fit one yourself after you clean all the crap out and then you have no worries.

I'm pretty sure it's what I said it was, but I'm open to suggestions I'll take another look.

The reason why I said it was potpourri was in the fact that a couple of dried flower heads appeared and the bits that where blown out resembled dried petals.

You say the air vent is on the passenger side under the wiper, I'll take a look and see if I can find anyting.

Regardles of whether it's dried leaves or not, I'd like to remove as much of the stuff as possible whithout having to strip down anything to get at the air venting system if possible.

Thanks for the input

haha thats quite funny!

To be honest, when I use the air con the car has a wet dog kind of smell for a little while. Maybe they had similar issues!

the wed dog smell is due to an old damp pollen filter (cheap to change and easy to do), or a bacterial infection in the A/C condenser/drier. you can chance the condenser, although an A/C service (new freon) often clears it up.

I got access to the fan, there where one or two leaves stuck in there but nothing really serious; however I don't know how much has been sucked in over time.

On the upside there was a loud vibrating sound coming from the fan area every time I turned the fan speed higher than one, on closer inspection I notice that the air vent flap didn't sit quite right and so I pushed it in slightly; it now sits properly and the noise from the fan has gone

I will give it the once over this weekend and see if I can clean out anymore rubbish, in truth I think I need to have it thoroughly cleaned out which I assume means removing the fascia etc to get at it.

BTW Jug, where can I purchase a pollen filter from?

Thanks

any motor factors will have them, and if they dont have one in stock they'll get one same day. of if you're willing to pay double the price halfords have them as well, and fiat dealerships.