Scuttle
A scuttle is a metal bucket, and in relation to cars, it is a metal trough in the engine compartment, welded to the bulkhead, underneath the windscreen.
This is where you find the windscreen wiper motors, some other electrical controllers, and the vent to the pollen filter. Many of the holes that go through the bulkhead to allow air vents and wires to pass from the engine compartment to the passenger compartment, are within the scuttle, in order to give them a little additional weather protection.
The scuttle often has a scuttle-plate over the top to reduce the amount of water and leaf litter getting in, and has drainage holes at the bottom, to allow water out.
This area should be cleaned fairly regularly to remove a build up of dead leaves because if the drainage holes become blocked, the scuttle can fill up with water and overflow into the cabin, usually through the pollen filter.
On convertible cars, the area that the roof folds down into can also be referred to as a back scuttle, and can suffer similar problems to the front scuttle.
Written by Danny Argent. Last updated 27/10/2023 15:10