Square Peg
Member
We've had out t6.1 for nearly a year now, and once or twice we noticed the carpet on the passenger side was slightly damp. Thinking this might just be caused by wet footwear, we left it to dry naturally. However, after a very wet night at the end of last week, I noticed that it was a bit more serious.... and a quick investigation showed that there was a drip coming from the bottom of the glove box on the left hand side, where the gap between the glove box and the small panel with the air bag switch is.
I spent quite a while on Google and this forum looking for reasons and solutions, and was a bit concerned to find it a not uncommon problem. We have a pop-top fitted rather than roof rails, so was able to rule this out as a cause fairly easily (having read here that roof rails is the common cause of the problem.) In addition, as there are no roof drains on our van, that was quickly discounted too.
The next plan was to check the scuttle, and I had to order a windscreen wiper removal tool and wait for it to arrive. It arrived yesterday, but as you might know, it was raining very heavily down here in Somerset, so I bodged up a container and some tin foil to collect any leakage in order to keep the carpet and underlying matting dry. This seemed to work, and by this morning I'd collected a mug of water.
Today, once the early morning showers had stopped, I had a go at removing the scuttle cover. I marked the position of the wipers, and set to with the removal tool. It was a suprise how much force was needed before they popped off the splines.
There wern't any leaves of mulch in the cavity, but what was in there was a bit bewildering at first, as the pic below might show. Having returned to the forum I searched for heated windscreen problems, and the search bought up a post from a forumite saying that whilst cleaning the scuttle on his van, he'd dislodged one of contacts to the screen, and wanted to know if he could re-attach it himself, or need proffesional help.
One of the answers to his query mentioned that sometimes when a fitter replaces a windscreen, the old cable and bits are left in the pan. As I have two wires etc still connected to my screen on the nearsidem and two offsise, I can only surmise that something similar happened to my van in a previous ownership..... either a new screen, or a new cable attached.
All very strange indeed, and I'm hoping it was the crud that was blocking the drain hole, and in heavy and persistant rain the level was reaching a grommet in the bulkhead that cables pass through.
Time will tell, but it's looking promising at the moment, so many thanks to all the people on this forum who have answered the various threads concerning similar problems, and come up with possible causes and solutions and methods of achieving a result.
I spent quite a while on Google and this forum looking for reasons and solutions, and was a bit concerned to find it a not uncommon problem. We have a pop-top fitted rather than roof rails, so was able to rule this out as a cause fairly easily (having read here that roof rails is the common cause of the problem.) In addition, as there are no roof drains on our van, that was quickly discounted too.
The next plan was to check the scuttle, and I had to order a windscreen wiper removal tool and wait for it to arrive. It arrived yesterday, but as you might know, it was raining very heavily down here in Somerset, so I bodged up a container and some tin foil to collect any leakage in order to keep the carpet and underlying matting dry. This seemed to work, and by this morning I'd collected a mug of water.
Today, once the early morning showers had stopped, I had a go at removing the scuttle cover. I marked the position of the wipers, and set to with the removal tool. It was a suprise how much force was needed before they popped off the splines.
There wern't any leaves of mulch in the cavity, but what was in there was a bit bewildering at first, as the pic below might show. Having returned to the forum I searched for heated windscreen problems, and the search bought up a post from a forumite saying that whilst cleaning the scuttle on his van, he'd dislodged one of contacts to the screen, and wanted to know if he could re-attach it himself, or need proffesional help.
One of the answers to his query mentioned that sometimes when a fitter replaces a windscreen, the old cable and bits are left in the pan. As I have two wires etc still connected to my screen on the nearsidem and two offsise, I can only surmise that something similar happened to my van in a previous ownership..... either a new screen, or a new cable attached.
All very strange indeed, and I'm hoping it was the crud that was blocking the drain hole, and in heavy and persistant rain the level was reaching a grommet in the bulkhead that cables pass through.
Time will tell, but it's looking promising at the moment, so many thanks to all the people on this forum who have answered the various threads concerning similar problems, and come up with possible causes and solutions and methods of achieving a result.
