KiwiME
Well-Known Member
.. by an owner on Reddit who found an encampment on their 'cabin' filter.
Since my Kona is parked outside 24/7 I thought I better check this out. The plenum area containing the wiper mechanism and HVAC air intake does show signs that Hyundai made some effort to restrict access to anything larger than a lizard but they missed a few spots.
There is a 25mm diameter hole at each side plus an opening in the upper back corners that may as well have a "Welcome home" sign above it.
The air intake has mounting points for a grill but that seems to have been missed as well.
Based on and thanks to @hobbit's photos, and mentioning in his blog that it's 'easy' to take it apart I ripped into it yesterday. And it was easy, 10 minutes max but you'll need to allocate another 30 minutes to clean out all the debris and dirt. I used a hose and a flat kitchen pot scrubbing brush.
The two 25mm holes I plugged with rubber caps, 1" would be idea, but a piece cut from foam would be adequate. For the triangular-shaped openings I cut out some polystyrene pieces and glued them in place. The plenum cover has foam pieces intended to seal this area but they are too short.
I placed plastic mesh over the air intake, the only size I could find despite spending 2 hours rummaging around big box stores. NZ does not have the 1/4" opening galvanized mesh that @hobbit used, it's just not a thing found in residential construction here, but that size would be ideal.
Since my Kona is parked outside 24/7 I thought I better check this out. The plenum area containing the wiper mechanism and HVAC air intake does show signs that Hyundai made some effort to restrict access to anything larger than a lizard but they missed a few spots.
There is a 25mm diameter hole at each side plus an opening in the upper back corners that may as well have a "Welcome home" sign above it.
The air intake has mounting points for a grill but that seems to have been missed as well.
Based on and thanks to @hobbit's photos, and mentioning in his blog that it's 'easy' to take it apart I ripped into it yesterday. And it was easy, 10 minutes max but you'll need to allocate another 30 minutes to clean out all the debris and dirt. I used a hose and a flat kitchen pot scrubbing brush.
The two 25mm holes I plugged with rubber caps, 1" would be idea, but a piece cut from foam would be adequate. For the triangular-shaped openings I cut out some polystyrene pieces and glued them in place. The plenum cover has foam pieces intended to seal this area but they are too short.
I placed plastic mesh over the air intake, the only size I could find despite spending 2 hours rummaging around big box stores. NZ does not have the 1/4" opening galvanized mesh that @hobbit used, it's just not a thing found in residential construction here, but that size would be ideal.
