Brendan, you may need to do the drivers side as well fella
Brendan, I’m sorry to have led you into this, but the sponge should have been left at the narrowest point, which is just down the bend, just on the vertical section of the hole, otherwise what you describe happens: it’s bigger past that point and you’ll lose them!
Now, even at this narrowest point, the sponge size (or number) should have been such that there is lots of pressure from them, so that they won’t move.
The coin tray situation I would have addressed by sealing the edge of it from inside the cabin. Mind you, my coin trays didn’t have a gap
Now that you started, you need to do the other side, AND close the holes behind the handbrake. Don’t stop till you’re finished now.
Guys. Thanks for the advice, but of course I did the driver’s side as well
And yes, I put the sponges in the vertical section. Apart from the first one which I lost
I’ve got two sponges side by side wedged tightly in each side so I don’t understand why it still gets warm on the driver’s side.
The handbrake opening was well and truly plugged sometime last year. No problem there.
Would it be better to use some of that modern foil insulation for lofts etc and to make a plate up at the tail end of the sill to seal it there?
The hole is not flat, very big and irregular shape.
Brendan, check this out: behind the rear panel, just behind the seat belt tensioners there could be a hole communicating the sill to the cabin.
I found this on my car, where in one side it was sealed, and on the other there was a big hole. Don’t know for waht purpose, as it was like torn out.
Check on this gallery: http://www.bookatrack.com/-pg?8 some pics (sorry, they’re not in order) solving this issue.
Needless to say, there was a lot of hot air coming through there.
There’s also some other pics regarding the foam thing and the firewall covering (had forgotten ebout those).
I guess I’d have to remove a seat to get the rear panel out. I HATE removing the seats because getting the bolts back in is a royal pain in the arse, and I always get them cross-threaded.
It worries me that I might knacker the threads and the seat might come unstuck if I ever have a crash.
I’ll probably give it a go at some point, but reluctantly.
With the proper tools it’s no problem. I’ve removed my seats about 15 times and never had an issue with crossthreads. The only difficult one is the front bolt furthest from the centre, because you have to screw it by hand.
The others can be done easily with an allen tip on a 3/8" socket wrench with an extension bar.
I’ll probably regret this but…I think I’m going to give it a go tonight. Wish me luck.
If it all go pear shaped, I’ll be going to Goodwood in the Wife’s SLK. I’m sure she’d be happy about that, but not me.
Yep, decent extension bar is all you need
And don’t do up all the bolts… Get them all in first then tighten them up (and remember you’re just doing up a bolt, not securing the QE2 )
The problem always comes with the third bolt. The hole in the seat frame somehow fails to align with the hole in the floor. Usually by a little over a yard!
Ok, so you have a problem with the way the rails are fitted to the seat then.
Ot you’re getting in the wrong hole (there’s two sets of holes in the front)
No, I’m just exagerating
I can do the job, I just always find it a PITA.
I have fitted a valve in the water pipes to my heater box so that only cooled air comes out of the heater box(my car has A/C fitted).I use this with windows closed and recirculation on and it actually works well enough to make the car reasonably pleasant to drive.I bought a small in -line valve that fits a central heating pipe so that I can turn off the hot water when its warm and turn it on again in winter so the heater works in winter.
I’d really appreciate a picture of that!
Cheers, Ian
I must admit I thought the vacuum valve in the heater supply did that when you selected full cold ??
Well I took out the rear panel on Thursday night, and sure enough, there was a large hole straight through into the engine bay. There was also a smaller hole on either side where the boot release cable goes through. (The one on the passenger side obviously being redundant). I covered all these holes with duck tape.
I did about 500 miles over the weekend, and I’m really pleased with the improvement in the cabin temperature.
I still need to take another look at the opening into the driver’s side of the dash; If I open the window, the dash heats up, and I can feel some warm air hitting me. (It’s still not too hot, but it could be better.) When I close the window again, it gets really warm inside for a couple of minutes until the dash cools down again. It cools down so quickly that it seems as though cold air is passing into the dash when the window is closed
Uldis, thanks very much for your advice and for pioneering this work. You’ve helped to dramatically reduce the earache caused by the nagging machine in the passenger seat
Cool! Just got some new coin holders so will put some stuff on them and then do a full dash and rear panel strip down!
Now I’m also looking at some way of bypassing the heater matrix, can’t be too hard but want to find a suitable valve that doesn’t get in the way too much… Now I’m no plumbing expert, but could you just splice in a T-Peice and another T-Peice ont he outlet of the heater matrix with just one valve and it wouldn’t “draw” coolant form the matrix???
Good results Brendan!
I had the sae effect with the dash heating when opening a window.
My explanation is thatbecause of the aerodynamics of the car, when you open a window, air tends to be sucked out of the cabin, proportional to the window gap size.
Air has to come in from somewhere and is being pulled through the easier place. The front route being through the sills, and since there are oil pipes there, air get heated on the way.
I have to believe that since the dash is still getting warm, the sponges are not sealing. Either they’re not covering the full size of the hle or they’re permeable.
Maybe you would have needed to soak them in paint or some other liquid that would make it difficult for air to pass when dry?
Maybe a different (tighter cell) sponge?
Ad remember, the startign point is making sure the cold/hot air flapper valve actually seals in the cold position. When I got my car new it didn’t and that was adjusted on warranty.
Once you’re sure the cold position blows only cold air, you can also help the system by putting the fan on max and open the window slightly.
That way the air going out the window is the sam amount as the cold air coming in the vents.
That is, until you have sealed the space behind the dash
Now I’m also looking at some way of bypassing the heater matrix, can’t be too hard but want to find a suitable valve that doesn’t get in the way too much… Now I’m no plumbing expert, but could you just splice in a T-Peice and another T-Peice ont he outlet of the heater matrix with just one valve and it wouldn’t “draw” coolant form the matrix???
Don’t know about an AC car, but I would be very weary of closing the heater circuit in a non-AC car.
And even more if you have a remote thermostat fitted, as it used the heater circuit as a bypass when the thermostat is closed.
In the worst case you might end up with no coolant flow at all as the stat would never open if hot water is not passin by.
Study very well your circuit before doing anything like this.
Now I’m also looking at some way of bypassing the heater matrix, can’t be too hard but want to find a suitable valve that doesn’t get in the way too much… Now I’m no plumbing expert, but could you just splice in a T-Peice and another T-Peice ont he outlet of the heater matrix with just one valve and it wouldn’t “draw” coolant form the matrix???
Don’t know about an AC car, but I would be very weary of closing the heater circuit in a non-AC car.
And even more if you have a remote thermostat fitted, as it used the heater circuit as a bypass when the thermostat is closed.
In the worst case you might end up with no coolant flow at all as the stat would never open if hot water is not passin by.Study very well your circuit before doing anything like this.
Just as I thought, I don’t have A/C BTW…
But if you look at the heater matrix there’s a pipe going in and a pipe going out… So you bypass the heater matirx with 2 x t-peices and valves, then this would maintain the bypass.
However I don’t knwo if you’d need two valves of you could just put one on the inlet side… My thinking is that the matrix should remain full of cold coolant… As even with my flap fully closed (made doubly sure of this!) the air is still warmer than the outside air.