Ford Ka (2008 - ) - 09 1.2 Water in the footwells&suicidal wiperblade

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Tue 26 Jan 2010 15:44
09 1.2 Water in the footwells&suicidal wiperblade - Fuming...
I have an 09 KA basic model, had it for 6 months, every month i have a problem where, mid wipe, my wiper blade just gets caught and snaps in half, leaving me doing 70mph on the m25, driving behind a lorry with salt spray and no wiper!!!!
The wiper has snapped 4 times in this way (different senario) and all the stupid ford garage keep doing is replacing the wipers every month!!! Does anyone else have this problem?

To top it off, after my last visit for a wiper replacement, i come home to clean the interior of my car to find ive flooded my mums hoover by sucking up water from the rear passenger foot well. If not already fuming about my 4th visit for a wiper blade, im outraged at this point.

On the phone again, being passed to piller and post, stupid unhelpful ford service ppl tell me to bring my car in and say they have no courtesy cars to give me. Then my jack russel of a mum stepped in and did the shouty bit.

Was finially told that its something to do with the bulkhead and the entire dash board has been stripped!? Whats a bulkhead? and whats wrong with it to make it leak?

Edited by Fuming... on 26/01/2010 at 15:46

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Tue 26 Jan 2010 18:23
09 1.2 Water in the footwells&suicidal wiperblade - Hamsafar
The bulkhead is the metal 'wall' between the engine compartment and the rear of the dashboard. On modern cars there are usually two of these walls about a foot apart. The one near the engine is the firewall, and the one at the back of the dash is the bulkhead. The trough these two walls make is usually used as a gutter for rainwater and as such water can leak in through holes made for pipes, cables, linkages etc....

p-car.com/diy/ac/index_files/image015.jpg

What snaps on the wiper? the wiper blade? What does it hit to snap it? Is it metal? I have never heard of this.

Edited by Hamsafar on 26/01/2010 at 18:24

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Tue 26 Jan 2010 18:29
09 1.2 Water in the footwells&suicidal wiperblade - Tommk4
The bulkhead is the panel behind the dashboard, that separates it from the engine bay...I'd be find out exactly what is wrong with it from them, it doesn't seem to add up to me.

Personally I think the problem is far more likely to be something simple like dodgy window seals or something, and as for the wiper it could just be that it has been bent out of shape and is pushing too hard against the window, or is wiping too far and going over the edge of the window, if you get what i mean, (its a common problem after icy weather) and is breaking because of that.

As I say, personally, going off what you've said, Id be a bit sceptical of what they are doing...but, then again, they might know something we don't.
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Tue 26 Jan 2010 19:58
09 1.2 Water in the footwells&suicidal wiperblade - jc2
Well,it is a Fiat,after all!
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Mon 22 Mar 2010 20:59
09 1.2 water in the footwells&suicidal wiperblade - darrell180

hi have you sorted leak out yet in most cases wouldnt have to remove dash i found leaks by bonnet hinges sealing this up nomally works

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Mon 8 Feb 2010 13:06
09 1.2 Water in the footwells&suicidal wiperblade - dinkydoo
i understand there there is a ford tech.service bulletin for both of these problems,tsb 12/2009 for wiper blades and tsb 93/2009 for water leak,the water leak you need to get sorted before the car is 12 months old (ford dont cover water leaks after that)
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Mon 8 Feb 2010 19:04
09 1.2 Water in the footwells&suicidal wiperblade - Englishbullterrier
....and tell 'em you want new carpet under warranty. You'll NEVER get rid of the musty smell in any other way...
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