Vauxhall Cavalier water ingress

Check the flat rubber drain hose under the bonnet, which drains the scuttle where the blower intakes are, wipers, etc. It's central on the bulkhead and drains over the steering rack. I had a very bad "leak" which turned out to be this hose clogged up with tree crap.

In article , John Laird writes

Coincidentally, I noticed a wet front passenger side carpet yesterday in mine ('95 cav.) I found the flat hose you refer to above, but it was pissing down here yesterday so didn't spend much time looking.

The hose seemed to have glued itself together at the end so that it formed more of a colostomy bag than a drain, IYSWIM. Squeezing it to force the end open resulted in a torrent of water and muck.

Yes, it's made so flat as to be very narrow in cross-section, and thus easily blocked. My cars sit under a silver-birch tree which drops small seeds in large quantities at certain times. They easily find their way through grille slots - add water and you have instant sludge.

When leaving my drive when the blockage was complete, water could be heard sloshing about. It was easy to discount the footwells as the carpet underlay prevented any pooling, but much harder to work out where the hell else enough water could physically gather. I can't recall whether someone put me onto this hose or I found it myself, but like you I was amazed at the amount of water it was holding back (and which was overflowing down the cabin air intakes). Needless to say, a garage had already investigated without success ;-)

I agree - tree debris clogs the scuttle drain. My 95 was flooded when I bought it, but has been fine for the 5 years since, once I cleared and maintained the drain

Ian

Further info - the blocked drain leads to water ingress though the blower motor. I've cut the end off this hose to reduce the chance of it clogging.

There is another way water can get in. There's a plastic cover over the scuttle which has a low point over the blower motor, water can run along the bottom of the cover and drop onto the blower motor housing. To check for this, unclip the cover and lift the front up (to get it off completely you need to remove the wiper arms); you should be able to see the blower motor housing; it is a semi-circular black plastic thing. It should be clean, if there's muck on it - or if it is wet! - then water will come in when you have the blower on. I fixed mine by covering the whole lot with some pond liner.