Ventilation piping gap Puma Defender

[DiscoMick]

Hi folks, just wondering if anyone has a trick for sealing the gap in the piping for the ventilation in a Puma Defender between the passenger's mudguard and the firewall. Mine has a gap big enough to poke my finger through. It appears the piping doesn't meet and there isn't any obvious way of connecting them. Maybe something is missing?
The result is hot engine air gets into the ventilation and the air into the cabin blows warm. With the aircon on it means the aircon is not as cold.
I had my workshop look at it yesterday when doing the 100,000 kms service, and they scratched their heads and went off to try to find an exploded drawing which might show some piece that could fit.
I assume its either a plastic fitting or you just stuff the gap full of foam or wrap insulation tape around it. Does that sound right?
I did joke about wrapping a muffler bandage around it...
Anyway, if anyone has solved this problem I'd love to hear how you fixed it.

[SSmith]

Hi folks, just wondering if anyone has a trick for sealing the gap in the piping for the ventilation in a Puma Defender between the passenger's mudguard and the firewall. Mine has a gap big enough to poke my finger through. It appears the piping doesn't meet and there isn't any obvious way of connecting them. Maybe something is missing?
The result is hot engine air gets into the ventilation and the air into the cabin blows warm. With the aircon on it means the aircon is not as cold.
I had my workshop look at it yesterday when doing the 100,000 kms service, and they scratched their heads and went off to try to find an exploded drawing which might show some piece that could fit.
I assume its either a plastic fitting or you just stuff the gap full of foam or wrap insulation tape around it. Does that sound right?
I did joke about wrapping a muffler bandage around it...
Anyway, if anyone has solved this problem I'd love to hear how you fixed it.

There is supposed to be a token foam seal there, probably aged and fallen out - was pretty useless anyway.

I attached an ally plate to the face of the heater box and another to the inlet and ran some flexi pipe. Total PITA to do but at least it is sealed now.

[martnH]

I used some butyl rubber flashings from bunnings. I think it cost $30
Basically a cheap dynamat, to seal it up.

Seal the top half from above and the bottom half beneath the car.

It works a treat. I tested it by blowing external fresh air in with AC off on highway after the engine temperature bay was up, the temp is the almost the same as ambient temp.

[ninetubes]

looking to do the same, and to try sticking a foam filter under the snow cowl to see if i can keep some dust out.

any photos appreciated

[tact]

Hi folks, just wondering if anyone has a trick for sealing the gap in the piping for the ventilation in a Puma Defender between the passenger's mudguard and the firewall. Mine has a gap big enough to poke my finger through. It appears the piping doesn't meet and there isn't any obvious way of connecting them. Maybe something is missing?
The result is hot engine air gets into the ventilation and the air into the cabin blows warm. With the aircon on it means the aircon is not as cold.
I had my workshop look at it yesterday when doing the 100,000 kms service, and they scratched their heads and went off to try to find an exploded drawing which might show some piece that could fit.
I assume its either a plastic fitting or you just stuff the gap full of foam or wrap insulation tape around it. Does that sound right?
I did joke about wrapping a muffler bandage around it...
Anyway, if anyone has solved this problem I'd love to hear how you fixed it.

I have written about this in other threads before. Seems that the duct and blower motor assembly do not mate up properly. big gap even with near new foam rubber seal in place. Complained to the dealer multiple times and they couldn't figure out why/how to properly fix it - in the end they basically did a bodge job with sealing tape etc.

Would like to see the actual parts outside of the vehicle to see why they cannot be made to mate up properly. But not so interested to start ripping things out of my vehicle.

[martnH]

looking to do the same, and to try sticking a foam filter under the snow cowl to see if i can keep some dust out.

any photos appreciated

There you go.

I took the air duct apart when installed the roll cage (part of the procedure
Well they are just there hanging against each other. Not even friction fit or anything.

There is no adhesive on the foam. The foam is there just to fill the gap.

"Design" like this makes me puke

[DiscoMick]

Yes, I can stick my finger through the gap.
Thanks for the information folks. Very helpful.

[SSmith]

I have written about this in other threads before. Seems that the duct and blower motor assembly do not mate up properly. big gap even with near new foam rubber seal in place. Complained to the dealer multiple times and they couldn't figure out why/how to properly fix it - in the end they basically did a bodge job with sealing tape etc.

Would like to see the actual parts outside of the vehicle to see why they cannot be made to mate up properly. But not so interested to start ripping things out of my vehicle.

The problem is you fit the ducting to the wing before fitting the wing to the car. Kinda hard to get the 2 faces to seal up properly when wielding such a large part. **** design!
When I pulled mine apart for repairs, I neglected to refit the ducting to the wing before fitting it to the car did not end well.

Without doing a full custom job, sealing tape is probably the best fix.

[DiscoMick]

Yeah I'm thinking some kind of plastic ducting with sealing tape and maybe cable ties over it.
My mechanic is looking at it today so I'll advise if he comes up with anything.
I have some Car Builders stick-on waterproof floor sound insulation, which is said to be OK on the transmission tunnel, which gets warm, so I suppose I could just cut a strip of that to fit around and then tape and cable tie it. Would that work?

[DiscoMick]

So I pulled out some leftover pieces of Car Builders 4WD sound insulation and set off to see what I could do to seal the gap between the air intake and the ventilation piping.

First thing I found was the space is very tight down there. Also, I couldn't reach up from underneath, so I could only get down between various pipes.
So, after a lot of poking and skinning of nuckles, I managed to get a wider length twisted down and around underneath. I don't think I fully closed the gap, but most of it is covered. Then I ran another strip across the top. So I guess maybe three-quarters of the gap circle is closed, which can only be an improvement. You can see the top here:

It looks bodgy, but I hope it will work to stop much of the heat soak warming the ventilation air.
Why couldn't Land Rover do this on the production line to begin with?