art239
New member
Hi all,
I'm a new member and would like to make my introductory contribution to this forum a useful one.
I came across the forum about a month ago while researching problems with the wife's 1600 Marea Weekend of 2000 vintage. The problems were unbelievably bad condensation with water literally running down the inside of the windscreen and side windows, a wringing wet carpet in the passenger footwell and what seemed to be a completely useless and feeble heater fan. After looking through the forum posts it became apparent that this was a fairly common problem, not just in the Marea but in other Fiat models too.
The consensus seemed to be that it was caused by either a leaky heater matrix, or water ingress caused by blocked drain holes situated in the bulkhead under the bonnet below each corner of the windscreen, or the heater controls stuck on the re-circulate setting. As it was the easiest option, I decided to follow the instructions to clear the drain holes first.
There was indeed much crap, about an inch of leaves, twigs etc, in the area of the drain holes, however even if it had filled with water I couldn't see anywhere it could get into the car. Nevertheless I cleared away as much I could, but it was difficult to access so I decided to remove the plastic panel under the windscreen wipers to make the job easier. This involved removing the wiper arms and a dozen or so self tapping screws (about 15 to 20 minutes work) after which the panel came off quite easily.
As soon as it came off I spotted a prime suspect, a pollen filter is fitted over the fan air intake above the passenger footwell, besides being unusually small for the job, it was absolutely clogged with rubbish. I removed it which exposed the heater fan and the flap which is activated when the re-circulate button is pressed. I then tried the heater fan, the ensuing gale force blast nearly removed what little hair I have left. I then tried the re-circulate system and the flap was working OK. Just to be certain I refitted the clogged filter and again tried the fan and the resulting feeble flow of air confirmed that the clogged filter was at least part of the problem.
The filter itself is made from some kind of pressed synthetic fibre, similar to chopped strand mat in appearance. Rather than try and find a replacement on a Sunday, I decided to see if it would clean up, so I got the hoover out and gave it a good going over, it still looked minging so I followed that by a soaking in detergent and a half dozen washes in soapy water and rinses until the water (eventually) ran clean. Surprisingly, it was still in one piece after all this and while not pristine, it looked fairly reasonable so I refitted it, tried the fan and was again rewarded with the gale force blast, but this time with the filter fitted.
I refitted everything and within a couple of days the car was bone dry, including the passenger footwell carpets which were previously soaking wet. Not a trace of condensation anywhere. So what started off looking pretty dire, with a possible leaking heater core, ended up being fairly easy and inexpensive to sort out.
As mentioned before, the fan housing is situated above the passenger footwell and what seems to happen is that the fan can't suck in air from outside because of the blocked filter which creates a partial vacuum, what little air it does get comes from within the car. This has a similar effect to having the fan on re-circulate all the time, the air quickly gets saturated and forms condensation on any cold surface. In addition, water is sucked out of the saturated air by the vacuum and drips onto the carpet below, causing the saturated carpet in the passenger footwell.
Hopefully the above will save a great many members a lot of grief and money in future, it's cured my problem and is certainly worth trying before going to the expense of having a new heater fitted.
Cheers
I'm a new member and would like to make my introductory contribution to this forum a useful one.
I came across the forum about a month ago while researching problems with the wife's 1600 Marea Weekend of 2000 vintage. The problems were unbelievably bad condensation with water literally running down the inside of the windscreen and side windows, a wringing wet carpet in the passenger footwell and what seemed to be a completely useless and feeble heater fan. After looking through the forum posts it became apparent that this was a fairly common problem, not just in the Marea but in other Fiat models too.
The consensus seemed to be that it was caused by either a leaky heater matrix, or water ingress caused by blocked drain holes situated in the bulkhead under the bonnet below each corner of the windscreen, or the heater controls stuck on the re-circulate setting. As it was the easiest option, I decided to follow the instructions to clear the drain holes first.
There was indeed much crap, about an inch of leaves, twigs etc, in the area of the drain holes, however even if it had filled with water I couldn't see anywhere it could get into the car. Nevertheless I cleared away as much I could, but it was difficult to access so I decided to remove the plastic panel under the windscreen wipers to make the job easier. This involved removing the wiper arms and a dozen or so self tapping screws (about 15 to 20 minutes work) after which the panel came off quite easily.
As soon as it came off I spotted a prime suspect, a pollen filter is fitted over the fan air intake above the passenger footwell, besides being unusually small for the job, it was absolutely clogged with rubbish. I removed it which exposed the heater fan and the flap which is activated when the re-circulate button is pressed. I then tried the heater fan, the ensuing gale force blast nearly removed what little hair I have left. I then tried the re-circulate system and the flap was working OK. Just to be certain I refitted the clogged filter and again tried the fan and the resulting feeble flow of air confirmed that the clogged filter was at least part of the problem.
The filter itself is made from some kind of pressed synthetic fibre, similar to chopped strand mat in appearance. Rather than try and find a replacement on a Sunday, I decided to see if it would clean up, so I got the hoover out and gave it a good going over, it still looked minging so I followed that by a soaking in detergent and a half dozen washes in soapy water and rinses until the water (eventually) ran clean. Surprisingly, it was still in one piece after all this and while not pristine, it looked fairly reasonable so I refitted it, tried the fan and was again rewarded with the gale force blast, but this time with the filter fitted.
I refitted everything and within a couple of days the car was bone dry, including the passenger footwell carpets which were previously soaking wet. Not a trace of condensation anywhere. So what started off looking pretty dire, with a possible leaking heater core, ended up being fairly easy and inexpensive to sort out.
As mentioned before, the fan housing is situated above the passenger footwell and what seems to happen is that the fan can't suck in air from outside because of the blocked filter which creates a partial vacuum, what little air it does get comes from within the car. This has a similar effect to having the fan on re-circulate all the time, the air quickly gets saturated and forms condensation on any cold surface. In addition, water is sucked out of the saturated air by the vacuum and drips onto the carpet below, causing the saturated carpet in the passenger footwell.
Hopefully the above will save a great many members a lot of grief and money in future, it's cured my problem and is certainly worth trying before going to the expense of having a new heater fitted.
Cheers
