Water in the hood well
 

On a whim, bought a 03 plate C70 ragtop a couple of months ago. Not bad condition and runs very smooth. Today decided to give the old girl a clean and have a bit of a tinker with it. (on going project) When I popped the hood half way to get rid of some fallen foliage from the seams, the well that the hood stows into had a few inches of water in. Used a sponge to get most of it out and had a feel under the drive motors to see if there was a drain hole or similar. Felt what seemed to be a rubber/plastic disc with holes in it, presume to be the same as the ones at the rear of the roof well. are these a drain hole? And where do they drain to, is this a problem with the car that is an easy fix? Only paid £800 for the car, but to me it has a lot of potential, runs really well, no serious bodywork issues and the interior is in fairly good nick for it's age. Just in need of a bit of TLC. A nice car I'd like to keep looking good and on the road. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi Skippy fox.

I have the same problem.

I believe that you cannot remove those perforated disks from above and that you have to find the drain tube from below, possibly undoing the wheel well liner.

Then unblock decayed leaves etc either with a pressure jet or a wire or both.

If you or others try that, please let us know how you get on, because I want to do mine too.

Thanks
Steve

Thanks Steve. Will have a look in that direction when I get home this evening, and keep you posted.

The drain pipes from the front grilles under the motors go down in front of the rear wheel arch behind the liner. It may be possible to see the ends of the pipe if you can get underneath the car, but really needs the liner removing to see properly. I blasted mine with an airline and even with a low mileage car that has been garaged it was surprising how much rubbish came out.

Mission accomplished. managed to pop the grills out under drive motors and clear the gunge out of the rubber funnel. Then with a bit of fiddling about got a hose pipe with a bent piece of 15mm copper pipe into the drain pipe and let rip. The amount of sludge that appeared from under the wheel arch liner was unbelievable. regarding the grills at the rear of the hood well, I managed to get to the drain pipe by removing the side panels of the boot liner and give them a good flush through. Probably going to leave the grills off at the front for now and just keep an eye on things, now that I know of a potential problem.

Good that it is sorted :regular_smile:

How did you 'pop' the grilles off? I cleared my pipes from underneath - being afraid to touch the grilles as I thought they probably held the rubber funnels in place and hence formed the seal.

The other place to look at is the front scuttle: the drain pipes get clogged very easily.

Managed to get a long flat blade screw driver under the lip of the grill, bit more luck than judgement but it did the trick. The rubber funnels seem to be firmly attached to the bodywork. And yes thanks already spent a frustrating half hour clearing the scuttle panel drain pipes, the joy of having Leylandi's up the side of the drive:angry_smile:

Hi Skippyfox,

OK good to know.

So do those grilles pop off if you use enough force? Did you work around it, or did it pop off all at once? Did they pop back on OK?

Are there are few catches around the edges, or does the whole circumference pop into a recess in the funnel?

If I can get mine off, I would probably want to use a Karcher jet wash to squirt into it. Does that sound reasonable to you?

Steve

Hi SteveSarre

Yes with a little brute force I managed to pop the grills out intact without breaking them. Still working on how to get them back in though. At the moment I'm going to leave them out as most of the litter collects in the rubber funnel, and with the grills removed I can get my hand under the lift motors to clear it out. You might struggle to get a jet wash lance under the motors though. Regarding the drains at the rear of the hood well, her indoors came up with a good idea, fill the drain funnel with water and give it a good pump with a sink plunger. Works a treat, blasts the crud out of the drain pipes and then just give it a flush through with a hose pipe. The grills themselves have a slightly raised lip on them so I would think with a bit of persuasion the could be pressed back in, but for now I'm leaving them out just to make things easier for clearing the drains out. With them in place it's amazing how much crud gets through and ends up blocking the drain tube.