Started to fit the Southdown snorkel ..

Paul D said:

Just been to have a close look, and the area that will allow rain in is miniscule really. There's also a small lip where the tube goes into the top, and the front grille bottom is lower than the top of the tube. If a straight route is taken the water needs to travel almost horizontally to get in. Then, even if water does get in, it's unlikely to get over the lip and more likely to just dribble away. In the sort of downpour that might cause problems I doubt I'd be driving fast enough to force the water over the lip ..

If it does get bad, or branches might be a problem I can turn the top to face the windscreen and present a smooth face to the brush, looks like a good, simple, well thought through design to me.

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Experience tells me that leaving the top, face forward tends to get it snagged on tight lanes as branches ride up the stainless pipe.
Rotating it inwards and down, along the line of the windscreen seems to work the best.

Also on the 300, where the flexi pipe comes in through the inner wing, is close to the electrics for the indicator. The flexipipe vibrates on tickover and wears away the insulation on the indicator part of the loom causing a short to the indicator. you should cut the indicator wires close enough to the plug to allow then to be joined again, pull them out of the inner wing just by the airbox, re-route them though an existing hole in front of the flexipipe, back to behind the indicator housing and solder them back together.

Skyblue said:

Great post! Great timing! I think you were reading my mind!

I have just had a Southdown bought me (Well it was my birthday!)

I have one question if you don't mind......
Thought I would also get the wading kit/ breather pipes so checked out ebay but one of the kits says " contains the replacement access cover to correctly cover the timing box area" the other kits on there don't mention this and are slightly cheaper. Don't mind paying for the right bit but thought I would ask before I bought.

Mine is a 3dr 200Tdi by the way!
cover

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Honest answer is I don't know ... ask the seller, maybe? Get a picture of it and a copy of the fitting instructions so you can work out exactly what he means.

battenberg said:

Experience tells me that leaving the top, face forward tends to get it snagged on tight lanes as branches ride up the stainless pipe.
Rotating it inwards and down, along the line of the windscreen seems to work the best.

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That's roughly what I thought ..

battenberg said:

Also on the 300, where the flexi pipe comes in through the inner wing, is close to the electrics for the indicator. The flexipipe vibrates on tickover and wears away the insulation on the indicator part of the loom causing a short to the indicator. you should cut the indicator wires close enough to the plug to allow then to be joined again, pull them out of the inner wing just by the airbox, re-route them though an existing hole in front of the flexipipe, back to behind the indicator housing and solder them back together.

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I'd noticed the wiring being close and didn't think it would matter too much, but thanks for the heads-up, I'll keep an eye on it for this week and probably move it next weekend, cheers ..

Paul D said:

I'd noticed the wiring being close and didn't think it would matter too much, but thanks for the heads-up, I'll keep an eye on it for this week and probably move it next weekend, cheers ..

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No Rush... but do keep an eye on it, it took over a year to wear though on mine!

Further to this ...

Got the rivnuts, so this is a short 'how-to' fitting rivnuts to the snorkel clamp instead of self-tappers ..

The fasteners (two of them) I'm changing are the arrowed stainless self-tappers .. they're crap and one doesn't fit correctly ..



This is one of the offending buggers .. threads nackered, so in the bin. One was reasonably tight, but a bit of vibration and they would have come loose quite easily.



This is a rivnut I'm replacing it with. The rivnut is the cylinder on the end with a flat head and scores that grip the metal of the hole .. This picture shows the rivnut mounted on the 'insertion tool' .. an M6 bolt with a normal nut under the bolt head, and a drilled nut, then the rivnut at the left hanf end.



Inserting the rivnut assembly into the hole.



... and tightening it up. The nut arrowed is turned with a spanner, whilst the bolt head is held with another spanner. The rivnut shouldnot turn, if it does either apply a little sideways force with the head spanner, or glue it in place .. Araldite works well, but wasn't necessary in this instance.



This is what the finished rivnut installation looks like .. it's basically a flatheaded, captive nut and allows you to use standard bolts in blind holes.



The last picture shows there's still clearance between the Button head Allen screws I used in place of the self-tapper .. it's close, but it's enough!



Hope it helps someone ..

good fixings, av a look at my diy snorkel

You might want to cover the end to keep the rain out!!

What's it made out of etc

I very nearly did mine like that, but I wanted it to run as close to the windscreen as possible, so into the wing and along, rather than running along outside. Looks good though, mate, you ready for some puddles?



I have a mushroom top if you want, think I said £15 + postage, but £15 would do anyway, can't see it costing more than a couple of quid, just PM me an address to send it, or send my paypal account (pm me) £15 with the address ...

its got a cup on the top atm gotta get a cover, its all plastic and sikaflex adhesive sealent

Paul D said:

I very nearly did mine like that, but I wanted it to run as close to the windscreen as possible, so into the wing and along, rather than running along outside. Looks good though, mate, you ready for some puddles?



I have a mushroom top if you want, think I said £15 + postage, but £15 would do anyway, can't see it costing more than a couple of quid, just PM me an address to send it, or send my paypal account (pm me) £15 with the address ...

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im ready for some puddles lol, what diameter is this mushroom top u got?

nathan, that looks good for a DIY job, the only problem i see with it is if you bang on a tree or a bank it might crack as it comes out for quite a long way...

but... loks good and does the job!

yer, i saw the poss of that...should've maybe run it inside the wing but couldnt find any flexi pipe suitable, see how it goes that could always be plan b

you dont need flexi pipe, just run it between the inner and outer wing - see attached pic....

:doh: y dint i think of that?
got a pic with the wing on?

ere yar!.





The problem with cutting a hole, rather than a "notch" is that yu will have difficulty removing the wing without dismantling the snorkle.

that'll be me mk2 when this 1 feck up, ta for pics

yu aint far away - pop round and have a look.. :bolt:

gimme 10 mins

Take this stuff with you

these pics mite help...