Thread: Guard for air intake under plenum cover

Access to the plenum drains from the engine bay is easy without removing the plastic plenum cover. What to look for when you have the plenum cover off is to look for rust bubbles coming up under the paint and sealer and probe them for rust perforation - common areas for rust are around the bonnet hinge mounts and also at the same level on the adjacent A pillars.

A vent cap for the HVAC inlet would be useful and would remedy one of the more obvious causes for water ingress involving the plenum. I would buy one if they were available.

I don’t have any water into my passenger footwell.
the main reason for water entry is failure of the rubber seal between the windscreen and plenum to allow water to run down the screen and into the duct.
some black Sikaflex and a brick or two will fix it in a day.

regards PhilipA

the foam filter at the front lip are available and do not come with replacement covers whether LR or fibreglass.

-https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/264822852113?epid=1371475921&hash=item3da8ac0a11:g :4pQAAOSw2FVbOyg-&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsJH3MkaKwGkL98o6aaRnNnvldNWh VVFMCVTd5UW6tkue0jRhmZI%2BhpP0fx1zH%2Bc99Ez6o0Z6Lz ES46fmNhvFPG2%2F82CdmcqEdBu8TD8hI2RvBimMSAmsTopyMI rB9mxMxzrMLWASOoYhiaCSGEDajX9MkhX%2BheyVRbCpDJbJDe ugzl%2FcrWeKA3Bi6Dbv1as9F0CiCdBjWxZc0dNh7YMv1PmD8l D5aB3bLRSHn4E17Qsz%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6j6nsfbYA

Years ago I bought a 1/2 a metre of 2 meter wide 12mm thick aircon filter foam from that well known rubber store and cut it to fit. Cost about $8 then for enough to do 25 D2’s or do mine 25 times . It’s exactly the same as the genuine item - now where did I put that left over roll of foam ………

Originally Posted by onebob

Years ago I bought a 1/2 a metre of 2 meter wide 12mm thick aircon filter foam from that well known rubber store and cut it to fit. Cost about $8 then for enough to do 25 D2’s or do mine 25 times . It’s exactly the same as the genuine item - now where did I put that left over roll of foam ………

Yeah, I did same for my D1.. can't recall exactly which type, just pool filter stuff. They had an off cut laying around and he gave it to me coz I got other stuff too.

For the HVAC inlet, on the D2. I took the remaining pieces of the plenum cover(about 3 of them, and lots of shards) off. I have a roll of 30mm wide foam with self adhesive backing and make a hood for the HVAC opening around the top of it. Like a womans 'bonnet' type head covering(think of the story of the little girl with the red head covering fending of a wild dog! )

What was happening with the D2 was sitting overnight after(and during) rain, the heater fan would collect water. Taking off, you could hear the rush of water inside the heater fan area when turning. If turning the heater fan on, you could hear the rush of water vs fan. A few turns later and it would all slosh out at the passengers feet. My gorgeous darling not impressed, I explained to her it's a special feature of the D2 ... the foot spa ... LR designers way ahead of the less intelligent pack when it comes to designing cars! She got cold feet tho .. figuratively speaking(we're still kind of together .. although she's back in Japan for a while longer ).

But anyhow, the stupid looking, but effective hood did totally stop water coming back into the heater fan box now. We've had more rain the past couple of weeks than we've had in the past few million years I reckon, and I haven't had to go chase up another heater fan ... for the third time!

My current issue is, the plenum cover is in too many pieces to fit a new rubber seal between it and the screen(wont' hold), so the hood over the top of the opening had to work.

ps. S/H Camry(I think about 2002-2004 ish model) heater fan motors are a whole lot cheaper and easier to find than LR heater fan motors!

Undid bonnet, pulled bonnet forward and undid wiper arms and retaining nuts (2 on wipers; 1 bolt and 1 plastic nut in the plastic plenum cover itself) and removed the plenum cover (central air intake cover). The cover can allows leaves in, especially if the 'mesh' in the front of the plenum cover is broken as they all tend to be (plastic becomes brittle). Those leaves end up, in part, in the steel fan blades. See attached photos. So after a clean out I decided to ensure that even if water runs under the seal between the windscreen and plenum cover it cannot pool up and run over the little half inch lip around the air intake void above the fan. I used punch seal and windscreen silicon to seal it up. I also used some mesh trapped under the pinch seal to keep leaves out - this will mean even if leaves got in the fan will work the way it should and move air. The pinch seal should put up nicely against the plenum cover and should not cause it to sit ajar.

For now I will fix the plenum cover with sikaflex as I cannot souce a replacement readily and it is capable of repair. There is no real stress on them so they tend to hold together once glued.

These cars are starting to show their age but well capable of being restored and kept on the road. At least they can be worked on unlike a lot of more modern examples.

I will post some more photos once finished. Hopefully this write up might assist someone.

Cheers20220904_155952.jpg20220904_160425.jpg20220904_160818.jpg20220904_164105.jpg20220904_164332.jpg

I’m gonna have to do something with mine, might wait till summer.
That’s a lot of luck in there, how’s ya get that out, vacuum or there’s enough room to get ya hand in there