Hi all.

Ok so I am just slightly RAGING. Without going into the details, and bore you all, I have discovered , in my humble opinion, a serious design flaw with the grande punto.

Inside the front wheel arches is a plastic flap ( for access to the front light clusters presumably). This is needed on the passenger side as the battery is positioned directly behind the light cluster. NOT needed on the drivers side tho as plenty of room to change.

The problem with these flaps is that when locked, the area is not really water tight. By this I mean that all road silt / grit / salt gets pushed through the gap when driving. this is obv much more severe in current winter conditions and salt laiden roads.

Whilst I accept the concept of winter and grit on roadsis prob not verey common in italy.... in the UK its an every day occurance.

The car I bought my wife unfortunately had the driver side lock broekn on this flap and I can tell you the whole engine bay was covered in a salt/grit/mud solution. Corrosive to say the least!

Please feel free to shoot me down in flames but I cant see anyone agreeing that this is a good design. our previous car, megane, had a flap for access to light bulbs but it was designed properly! ( and they are french)...

BTW I have actually taped over, from the inside, the drivers side inner wheel arch flap to stop the road waste coming into the engine bay.

Rant over!

i agree, this is but one design flaw

the one i find more annoying is opening the boot and getting soaked

Yeah its pretty stupid.

Im always careful when cleaning my arches with the pressure washer.

Putting the tape over the gap seems a good idea.

By the sounds of things I would tape it up aswell. Is it in the wheel arch liner? I wonder if the punto evo has that flap, or a better version. The part might fit GP's

Adrian Bravo said:

By the sounds of things I would tape it up aswell. Is it in the wheel arch liner? I wonder if the punto evo has that flap, or a better version. The part might fit GP's

Click to expand...

yeah fella - just pop your head down to wheel level and look at the inner wheel arch liner - there is a 'flap' that has a lock on it ( can be opened from inside)

I just put very sticky tape over the gaps from inside the car engine bay.

it beggars belief!

Campbellonie said:

yeah fella - just pop your head down to wheel level and look at the inner wheel arch liner - there is a 'flap' that has a lock on it ( can be opened from inside)

I just put very sticky tape over the gaps from inside the car engine bay.

it beggars belief!

Click to expand...

as in the top pic here:

https://www.fiatforum.com/grande-pu...adlight-side-light-indicator-bulbs-gars4.html


I get more water in from the bottom than the arch liners

the flaps are made even more pointless by the fact they fold upwards, in the way of getting your hand to the lights anyway. waste of time...

cant say mine is that bad, got my hand in fine and had no dirt on the other side.
im sure the leaking boot and many other typical fiat faults are worth moaning about though

shocking!

never mind the steering shaft recall theres a ill fitting plastic cover!