MY CAR: (Y) REG 2001 Punto Mk2 1.9 JTD
Hi All,
In a moment of panic here after problems with council penelty charge notice mistake (on their part I might add), a pending hospital stay on friday and just cant be doing with any more things going wrong at the moment.
After the heavy rain today I picked my car up from where i leave it in the day to bring it to work. Whilst driving I heard a stange ticking/clicking noise. A first I thought the water had not drained properly from the sill above the engine as before I have had leaves block the drainage pipes. I then started to smell burning, looking around I could not sense where the smell/noise was coming from. I then (most likely stupidly) noticed the aircon was on setting one and thought i shud turn it up see if the noise was that. As soon as the dial hit 4 of 4 a big cloud of white smoke blew out.
A minute later I was parked at work and I opened the bonnet to have a look. No water in sill, engine all dry, fuse box dry, battery dry...all dry.
I then turned the blowers back on 10 mins later...setting 1/2/3 no air, but then 4 worked as normal both spitting out cold air on a/c setting and heat on heater setting.
After going back into work I remembered that I had before had problems with the blowers and it had been a connection above the passenger footwell. I went back to the car and pulled down the fabric but which hides the wires and found it to be damp. I then felt around and found the big cylinder shaped object (not sure what it is) to be wet all around. I also noticed that all of the back area of the footwell was damp.
Obviously at first light tommorrow I plan to have a little look, but time is short at the moment, I have to take my partnet to hospital tommorrow, 12 hour shifts until weds, I have thurs off then fri I am in hospital myself for a day operation and will be out of action for a few weeks.
Now comes my questions.
From reading various posts, I am guessing that the problem could be heater fans, resistor or heating matrix.
Now since the fans on setting 4 was producing heat I assume (hope) it is not the matrix. Now if it is the resistor/fans themselves...
1) How much are they likely to cost?
2) How long will they take an amatuer to fit/garage to fit
3) If a garage was to do the work, how much do you think it would cost (parts and labour)?
Normally I would be inclined to try to do the work myself so as long as there if not too much of a risk of me messing it up too much and making the car unsafe, but given my situation at the moment I am lacking time (and really money as well).
The thing is I really cant understand that if it was the spectacularly heavy rain today....how it managed to get into the car, I have not seen any sign of leaking. Could it be possible that if the drainage pipes below the windowscreen were blocked that water could have somehow entered the car that way?
I am pretty certain that the fluid was water, although will check the coolent bottles tommorrow to make sure i is nothing like that.
Anyhow off to bed as I have a busy few days. Any advice/comments would be greatly appriciated.
Regards
Eysteve
Hi All,
In a moment of panic here after problems with council penelty charge notice mistake (on their part I might add), a pending hospital stay on friday and just cant be doing with any more things going wrong at the moment.
After the heavy rain today I picked my car up from where i leave it in the day to bring it to work. Whilst driving I heard a stange ticking/clicking noise. A first I thought the water had not drained properly from the sill above the engine as before I have had leaves block the drainage pipes. I then started to smell burning, looking around I could not sense where the smell/noise was coming from. I then (most likely stupidly) noticed the aircon was on setting one and thought i shud turn it up see if the noise was that. As soon as the dial hit 4 of 4 a big cloud of white smoke blew out.
A minute later I was parked at work and I opened the bonnet to have a look. No water in sill, engine all dry, fuse box dry, battery dry...all dry.
I then turned the blowers back on 10 mins later...setting 1/2/3 no air, but then 4 worked as normal both spitting out cold air on a/c setting and heat on heater setting.
After going back into work I remembered that I had before had problems with the blowers and it had been a connection above the passenger footwell. I went back to the car and pulled down the fabric but which hides the wires and found it to be damp. I then felt around and found the big cylinder shaped object (not sure what it is) to be wet all around. I also noticed that all of the back area of the footwell was damp.
Obviously at first light tommorrow I plan to have a little look, but time is short at the moment, I have to take my partnet to hospital tommorrow, 12 hour shifts until weds, I have thurs off then fri I am in hospital myself for a day operation and will be out of action for a few weeks.
Now comes my questions.
From reading various posts, I am guessing that the problem could be heater fans, resistor or heating matrix.
Now since the fans on setting 4 was producing heat I assume (hope) it is not the matrix. Now if it is the resistor/fans themselves...
1) How much are they likely to cost?
2) How long will they take an amatuer to fit/garage to fit
3) If a garage was to do the work, how much do you think it would cost (parts and labour)?
Normally I would be inclined to try to do the work myself so as long as there if not too much of a risk of me messing it up too much and making the car unsafe, but given my situation at the moment I am lacking time (and really money as well).
The thing is I really cant understand that if it was the spectacularly heavy rain today....how it managed to get into the car, I have not seen any sign of leaking. Could it be possible that if the drainage pipes below the windowscreen were blocked that water could have somehow entered the car that way?
I am pretty certain that the fluid was water, although will check the coolent bottles tommorrow to make sure i is nothing like that.
Anyhow off to bed as I have a busy few days. Any advice/comments would be greatly appriciated.
Regards
Eysteve
