Spare tire bay.. what's missing?

Hi all,

so in my efforts to access the heater core I have removed the brake cover and the spare tire holder in the front of the car, so I open the front hood (Bonnet?) and can look down to the exposed battery, heater ducting, etc.

Here is my question, when I look straight down there is no panel under the battery, there is a panel in front under the radiator and the panel under the cabin but nothing under the battery area. Is it supposed to be like that?

Second observation is that on the left side of the car between the wheel and this are there is a panel with louvers stamped in it but on the right side doesn't. Again, is something missing?

Thanks all,
Lester

 

Please post a picture


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What about my 1000 words?!

Ok, but it will be a while..

 

Hi Lester,

From below, it should look like the pic hereenclosed...
Said pic is coming from a japanese site, where there are litterally hundred of pics of our car in maintenance, only trouble is that their "opening" is slow.
Go to the "generic" menu, select "1980-89" cars, and "328", and enjoy...(the link shows rather weird due to the different characters, but it should work...)

????? 328 GTS???????? ????????? ??????????? | ?????&?????????? ?? ?????? | ????????????

Rgds
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Ok some pics… and Nero I think it does, thanks.
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There is a gap in the panelling in the RH wheelarch. There is a louvered panel which covers the aircon condenser though but towards the inside of this there is a gap.

 

Andy, the louvered panel you see is NOT the A/C panel. It is in fact on the opposite side of the car. What bothers me is that there is a louvered panel on the left side and no panel on the right side.

 

But you do indeed have a vertical louvered panel in the front right wheel arch liner, just in front of the wheel, and just behind the A/C condenser which sits in the right nose of the car?

Otherwise, as the japanese picture I posted shows, there is indeed a horizontal louvered panel just under the battery, but only on the left side of the car.

Rgds

 

Just to be sure I currently have:

Right hand wheel arch in FRONT of the tire for the A/C = louvered panel

Right hand wheel arch INBOARD of the wheel = no panel

Under battery = no panel

Left hand wheel arch INBOARD of wheel = louvered panel


So are there supposed to be ANY vertical panels, louvered or not, INBOARD of the wheel?

I ask as there have been some questionable repairs done to this car and it is conceivable that someone "noticed" a louvered panel after assembly and just "found" a place to install it.

Thanks,

Lester

.. and Nerofer, WHY would there be a louvered panel under only one side of the battery area? That seems really odd..

 

what happened to this car ?

 

Which car? The one on the lift (not mine) so I have no idea, or the one with the annotated pics, mine, and generally it received questionable service over the years. Not always, but sometimes, so that I am always finding little things that are not quite right..

Lester

 

It sounds correct but if you can take pics of the inside of the wheelarches we can be sure.

About the small louvered panel on one side underneath. I have often wondered about that. No idea why its only in that location. I thought it might be to protect the ABS pump but I see your car is not an ABS car.

Interesting to see the spare wheel well removed. That must have needed a hell of a lot of rivets drilled out! I was never sure if this could be removed at all but evidently can. Seems a bit drastic though!

 

This might help
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Yep, but it is the way it is, according to the parts manuals; Andy's suggestion is probably right...as the "série 1" cars, that could not receive ABS, do not have said panel, n° 47 :

http://www.eurospares.co.uk/userImages/059/Large/059_104.gif

(parts 47, 50, 52 for the driver's side)

Rgds

 

My, it's clean, Andy...

Rgds

 

Nerofer that pic really drives me nuts! There are THREE louvered panels ALL on the driver's side, 2 vertical, 1 horizontal under battery, and only one on passengers side.

WHY?!?

What were they thinking? What about symmetry?!!!! ;-)

Andy, you have no A/C right or is the angle such that I can't see the louvers on yours?

Thanks guys!

Lester

 

Yup.. LOTS of rivets, some that were difficult to find but nothing special, yeah it is likely overkill but I wanted to be sure that I wasn't missing anything when checking the heater core.. and it does allow for easy install of new heater ducting and likely replacement of some heater hoses too.

Lester

 

Lester,

You must always read those parts schemes WITH reference to the table that goes with each scheme, as you have to bear in mind that our car knows some variation for different markets; and therefore, each part number, once refered to the table, usually says: "not for Euro", or "Not for US", "for 1985 cars (= serie 1)" "for 1988 cars (= serie 2)" etc...
And yes there is actually no symmetry in the nose of our cars...

To recap, your car looks normal/standard to me:

- The passenger wheel well is like Andy's (on which we do not see the louvered grill that is in the wheel well liner in front of the wheel and behind the heat exchanger for the A/C); and no panel inboard of the wheel, it is open: that is normal.

- In the driver's wheel well, you have a vertical, longitudinal, louvered grill, inboard of the wheel, which is as stated by the parts manual.
The other vertical one that is in the part manual, but transversal, which goes in front of the wheel (part 52, more or less corresponding to the one that is on the pass. wheel well for the A/C) is not for our cars.

- there is the question of the horizontal louvered grill, part 47, that goes under the battery tray but only on the driver's side. I guess Andy's explanation is the right one, it very probably protects the ABS pump, and if you have a car that is not fitted with ABS, it is probable that there is no need for this grill either (I shall have a look at both my cars this week-end, both '89 but one has ABS, the other do not, as it remained an option until the end of production here)

Rgds

 

They are there, its just too dark to see them.

 

Thanks but thats actually the dirtiest part of the car

I probably dont drive it enough....

 

Yes this would make many jobs easier, including rack boot replacement (which I will need to do soon as one is about to split). Presumably you will use screws to re-fit it? Interested in how it turns out.

 

I will take a few minutes and closely examine everything I can see, as to refitting, just good old rivets should do fine and I have plenty of those. And I will need plenty of them!

Lester

 

Good news!

I had the heater core pressure tested and it's fine.

Bad news..

A lister suggested that it might not show leaks unless under operating temps and pressure

Good news!

I figured that I would install the heater core without the box just to check for leaks requiring only two hoses be connected

Bad news..

I wanted the area cleaner so I hit it with Simple Green and water and that nasty stuff is some kind of body schutz and won't com clean

Good news!

My steering rack boots are fine

Band news…

A quick glimpse shows that the rubber heater hose between the metal pipe and the bottom of the radiator is pinched badly and will need replacement ASAP!

Good news!

Someone on this list will likely have done this before and know the diameter hose that I need to purchase so that I don't have to cut this one off and wander into NAPA hoping they have the right diameter and length.. PLease.

More good news!

I will likely not have to be calling Hagerty to come and get me in the middle of nowhere TX when all of the coolant goes away because it ain't gonna happen now.

Thanks all,
Lester

 

I now know the answer !!! The reason for the asymmetrical placement of the louvered panels is that the louvers surround the air intake for the heater blower. Both blowers are on one side on my A/C car and the louvers allow lots of air in.

Lester

 

Yes you are probably right. The later 328s have one large double-ended blower and this is where its located. The panel is likely to stop mud and other crud getting in but allow air.