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Rain stops play.
After the Biblical amount of rain we’ve had of late I discovered the car was getting condensation on the inside of the windscreen and starting to smell musty. Initially I put this down to the leak discovered in the boot, but that was pretty dry. Turns out it was the front passenger footwell, it was soaked. Initial thinking was a dodgy door seal, but after a good spay with the pressure washer and no signs of ingress all the seal faces were dry. Checked around the A-post and windscreen for a build up of leaves and other muck that could be causing water build up, checked the floor pan for holes or missing gromets, all looked ok. Getting pretty desperate I tried google, it came up trumps, and found this little gem-
Turns out an AC drain is a common fault. All it needed was rodding out. I used a bit of spare 3D printing filament and it looks to have done the trick.
To dry it out I stuck the heater on 25 and pointed it at feet, then threw in some silica gel sachets to soak up anything that was left. It appears to have worked. A quick clean with the upholstery cleaner to tidy it back up and we are all set.
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Ad-blue gauge was reading low-  After some research it turns out the procedure for topping up the Ad-blue is farcical. In what design meeting was it decided that a tank that needs topping up should be hidden under the boot floor? Needing you to remove the boot trim and a section of the floor. Then when you do get to it access is so restricted you can’t pour the bloody stuff in!  I did however uncover a few other issues -
Quick overview of the procedure for getting to the ad-blue tank. Tools required-
Nearside of the boot floor under the stowage trays. Unscrew the 3 nuts and lift the access cover. As the nuts looked corroded pretty bad I gave them a good soaking in WD40 Trying to fill at home is not advised here, as access is so restricted you can’t pour it without spilling it everywhere. I ended up using a funnel attached to a length of pipe. Not a great solution. Use a pump at a petrol station if you can. As you can see there is water getting in somewhere, and there is a fair bit of tin rot. Before putting everything back together I’ve cleaned away the loose rust with a wire brush. Once clean I sprayed the area with hammarite to try and prevent it getting any worse. I’ve had to reassemble using the rounded nut as I don’t have any tri lobe locking nuts to replace it with. I’ve filed it down so I can get a spanner on it. I’ll replace it at a later date.
Having worked in and around the Automotive industry for some 20+ years, I thought it would be interesting to see if I can put any of the skills I’ve learnt to use by seeing if a grotty old SUV can be brought back to life and made to look presentable. The car of choice is a 2012 Mazda CX-7, to say this car has been unloved would be an understatement, it looks like Stig of the dump has been living in it! Mechanically the car is pretty sound, so hopefully not to much to do there. IssuesThe main issues all look to be cosmetic as you can hopefully see from the pictures.
It is basically a garden shed on wheels. The first wipe over of the dash to make it sanitary to drive ruined a new microfiber cloth No doubt we’ll find other issues as we go.
Its going to be a challenge…. |
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