General Drainage ,

[Daisy1st camper]

Hi , this is my first post on a forum so be gentle with me . I am at a loss of how the rain water drains away from the windscreen. On my m,h , a 2.8 ducato it seems to just sit in the plastic cover that the washers are attached to. On the passenger side where the heater intake is there is like a funnel type with a tube that just goes out to the engine compartment. Im guessing this is to let any water to drain out. But what a poor design im thinking. I have found rot around the top of this and had to cut it out and make good.
Can anyone shed any light on how to deal with this problem as water poors onto the battery as well. All ideas will be welcomed. Regards Gary.

 

[Anthony489]

Hi

Arrangements for dealing with water running off the widscreen on Fiat Ducatos have varied over the years, but none are very satisfactory (to put it politely). If you have a van that's driven nearly every day, airflow, engine heat and vehicle motion all help to disperse any water. If you have a motorhome that's parked uncovered for any length of time, none of these factors apply and the water sits around creating mischief.

As a minimum, there should be one drain from the scuttle trough. On the 2006 to 2014 (X250) models this attaches to a plastic tube of about 1 inch diameter that goes down and discharges into the offside wheel arch . This tube is only a push fit at the top, so a Jubilee clip is recommended to stop it dropping off. Your model will be earlier than this (X230 ?) and I am less familiar with the arrangements but it's probably similar. Maybe yours should have a tube and it's missing ?

Many X250 based MH owners (myself included) have improvised extra drainage tubes to the scuttle trough, and added drip shields to vulnerable parts in the engine bay.

One thing to particularly watch out for is that water falling on the gearbox can enter it and mix with the oil, which is the last thing you want especially in a vehicle that doesn't get the gearbox heated by regular long runs to drive away the moisture.