General Watery Panda

[Guydickinson]

After it’s been raining significantly, water is heard sloshing around under the footwells. It happens if the car has just been sitting on the drive. The local mechanic can’t see any cause. Has anyone any experience of this please?

 

[Johnbee]

Have you checked your duckbills? These are in the panel below the windscreen, where the wiper motor mechanism sits. Accessible when the bonnet is open, from the outside. What usually happens is the drainage holes have duckbill type ends on and these get blocked with leaves and detritus, causing this area to fill up with water when it rains.

If you have sloshing water sounds when cornering, a difficult to demist windscreen, or wet front carpets then this is probably the cause.

The good news is this is easy to sort and costs nothing. Either by removing the duckbills and cleaning them, checking you put them back as they also help reduce fumes coming in to the cabin. Alternatively a bamboo cane pushed through the duckbills will also do the job. I keep a bamboo cane in the boot of my Panda for this very reason.

If you use the search bar at the top of this page and type in duckbills, you’ll get plenty of info on this issue. Hope you get it sorted.

 

[Eltezz]

Interesting that this should come up. I just had the windscreen changed on my Cross and the fitter said there was an inch of water in there due to the duckbills being completely blocked with debris. He said they see it all the time on many different Fiats, Pandas, Puntos, etc. He also said they remove and bin them as they cause more trouble than they are worth.

I was happy to see mine go, they are a crap design.

 

[JayAre]

(duckbills) also help reduce fumes coming in to the cabin

trying to understand how their removal could cause this to be a noticeable problem - does the cabin air intake draw air from “the panel below the windscreen, where the wiper motor mechanism sits”? If so, then wouldn’t the water sloshing around (a considerable amount of water seems to collect here judging from comments in various other threads on this subject) be getting into the passenger compartment air vent tubes and blower fan mechanism and causing serious problems? Many have have posted they’d removed these pesky duckbills - have any noticed unpleasant engine smells coming through?

 

[Eltezz]

Well, as mine have been blocked probably since I got the car and have not noticed any smells, I would say they are about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Good riddance…

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Well, as mine have been blocked probably since I got the car and have not noticed any smells, I would say they are about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Good riddance…

Perfect for keeping smells out of the cabin, shirley? (Blocked bills, that is)

 

[A3jeroen]

Mine are out and I don't notice smell or other problems.

gr J

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

As well as the Panda (and poster of the original thread that referred to the clearing of the duckbills being important) I also have recently bought a 2013 Land Rover Defender, and note that it too has ‘duckbill like drains’ on the heater air intake, that were blocked solid with crud. Actually, most cars have something similar and most collect crud and get blocked. In normal use there should be no issues with smells etc coming in, since most of the air into the car comes from places other than under the bonnet. But, if there were, say, to be an issue with leaking fuel or exhaust systems under the bonnet (ahead of reaching the catalyst), and the external vents were blocked, eg by winter snow, then there is a small change if harmful gases getting into the cabin. So little chance, compared to the likelihood of the drains becoming blocked, that I’d not worry about removing them (That said, I ckeck/clear mine each time I open the bonnet, which is at least once a month while checking the other things there we all check regularly… of course)

 

[JayAre]

That said, I ckeck/clear mine each time I open the bonnet, which is at least once a month while checking the other things there we all check regularly… of course

in a Panda?

 

[Johnbee]

trying to understand how their removal could cause this to be a noticeable problem - does the cabin air intake draw air from “the panel below the windscreen, where the wiper motor mechanism sits”? If so, then wouldn’t the water sloshing around (a considerable amount of water seems to collect here judging from comments in various other threads on this subject) be getting into the passenger compartment air vent tubes and blower fan mechanism and causing serious problems? Many have have posted they’d removed these pesky duckbills - have any noticed unpleasant engine smells coming through?

I’m a simple guy, can only tell of my duckbills issue, not the technical side of it but I did find this post which also mentions no duckbills and possible smells.

Sound of water sloshing around when turning | FIAT Panda (Mk3)

Hi All Hope everyone is keeping well. I haven't been doing much on the car due to other things going on. But the Panda 1.1 keeps driving albeit with EML still on. Only thing I have done is attaching the AIR filter cover to the Carburetor like hole securely, because last time I noticed it was...

www.fiatforum.com

I had blocked duckbills on my 169 Cross, with a good few inches of sloshing water and a constantly misty windscreen, so I removed them. The windscreen problem went but I did notice a distinct whiff of engine smells in the cabin afterwards, when driving. I put them back in once they were unblocked and cleaned and the smell went. I never had that smell come back in the remaining time I had the Cross.

 

[Guydickinson]

Thanks very much for the suggestions. Duckbills seem clear. There is no obvious site for the ingress. Weirdly the boot floor can be wet after a lot of rain. The sloshing water can be seen dripping out from under the car behind the engine compartment - slowly.

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Thanks very much for the suggestions. Duckbills seem clear. There is no obvious site for the ingress. Weirdly the boot floor can be wet after a lot of rain. The sloshing water can be seen dripping out from under the car behind the engine compartment - slowly.

Do you have air con? If you have, it may be that the condensate drain is blocked. The 'cold radiator' is inside the car, in the heater box, and condensation forms on it (like any cold surface with moist air near it). The is a small drain from the heater box that runs out of the floor of the car just to the 'heater side' of the clutch pedal.

 

[Guydickinson]

Do you have air con? If you have, it may be that the condensate drain is blocked. The 'cold radiator' is inside the car, in the heater box, and condensation forms on it (like any cold surface with moist air near it). The is a small drain from the heater box that runs out of the floor of the car just to the 'heater side' of the clutch pedal.

Thanks Herts Hillhopper. The only thing is - why does the floor of the boot always get soaked after a period of heavy rain. How can it get from there to the under-floor space? It all seems very strange. Thanks very much.

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Thanks Herts Hillhopper. The only thing is - why does the floor of the boot always get soaked after a period of heavy rain. How can it get from there to the under-floor space? It all seems very strange. Thanks very much.

Two different things I suspect: there are some recent posts about issues with water getting into the boot.
You don't say if you do have air con... but if you do, the drain I mentioned can be seen in this photo (from a post about changing the pollen filter). the tube above and to the left of my fingers is the drain through the floor. https://www.fiatforum.com/attachments/188befb7-2178-4027-863b-246a0c360865-jpeg.210507/

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

in a Panda?

yes...

I don't do the 15000 miles a year I used to, but still manage 8000, so the screen wash gets used a lot - especially on my frequent trips to and from the Norfolk coast. I check the oil (it's a diesel and there the level can go up owing to the way the particulate filter regenerates and this needs to be watched). The tyre pressures are checked frequently - the change in temperature over the past couple of days has seen these drops by a few PSI so just inflated this afternoon...

 

[Guydickinson]

Two different things I suspect: there are some recent posts about issues with water getting into the boot.
You don't say if you do have air con... but if you do, the drain I mentioned can be seen in this photo (from a post about changing the pollen filter). the tube above and to the left of my fingers is the drain through the floor. https://www.fiatforum.com/attachments/188befb7-2178-4027-863b-246a0c360865-jpeg.210507/

Thanks - yes there's air-conditioning. I will look at that.

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Thanks - yes there's air-conditioning. I will look at that.

If you can find the other end of that from under the car, you might try carefully pushing something up it (a pipe cleaner would be ideal!) But beware a face full of water if it is/was blocked!

In the final photo from the pollen filter post (here https://www.fiatforum.com/threads/changing-the-pollen-filter-my-easy-way.481366/) you can also see that drain, running vertically between my wrist and the wiring loom to the left.

Pete

 

[Bonefish Blues]

You get a great deal of condensate from the drain when parked up, certainly more than you'd expect for the size of car, I've always thought.

 

[varesecrazy]

in a Panda?

2 minute job,
saves thousands every now and again

 

[JayAre]

2 minute job,
saves thousands every now and again

This is what @Herts Hillhopper indicated earlier - but a “2 minute job” to check the duckbills in a 312/9?? They’re hidden away behind that plastic bulkhead thing which needs to be removed (which - for me! - would be half a day’s work and no guarantee I’d be able to finish, never mind put all the bits back together again… )