FHC. Where does the rain water go?

[TroonSprint]

Excuse my question, but it rains a lot here in the west of Scotland. In fact it's pouring today. On my Sprint FHC there are the extractor vents on the B pillar. I assume rain water must enter these quite wide slots, especially when it's blown along by the gale that we have today. Where does it go? It looks to me that the area behind the slot is closed at the bottom, so the only possible exit would be rearwards towards the parcel shelf. Surely that's not right. Does anyone know?

Mike

[billwill]

I haven't checked, but I think you will find that the bottom surface of that inside cavity slopes down towards the outside and there is a small notch under the metal grill.

So the rain water runs back outside through that little notch.


Here's a photo from the gallery on this site.

[foxoles]

Mike,I'm with you on this. Bill, I assume yours is an S3 and looks different.
On my '69 S4 I also can't see where the water would go.
Pic 1 shows the opening with grille removed.
Pic 2 shows a piece of cardboard pushed as far down as it will go and the opening and screw hole marked
Pic 3 shows the cardboard removed - look how far down it goes. No way can the water run out - it must go down. But as to where?.? If there is no bottom hole that drains to the outside it would fill up and then out of the airflow on the parcel shelf.

[TroonSprint]

Interesting photos Mr Foxoles. The slot on the Sprint is a different shape. In my rather poor photo (cropped out of a whole car picture) you can perhaps see that the slot has a cut-out at the front corner that goes almost to the bottom of the box within. Water that collects in the box will escape here apart from any at a depth of 1 or 2 mm at most.

Using a pen-light and a mirror I looked inside the cavity and the opening at the rear up by the window is much higher off the floor of the box, perhaps over 1 cm. So water should not escape rearwards onto the parcel shelf. Oh well, that's not how it gets into the boot then!

Mike

[l10tus]

Green Answer:

Do what the larger 'green' motor manufacturers do (except VW!) - catch all the rainwater run off, then collect it to replenish the washer bottle - easy !