i posted up in the general technical forum and didn't get many looks in there, so i'm hoping this may.
here's my original thread:
diagram:
circle indicates a leak area, looks to be a small fold in the sheetmetal, not sure what it is.
box indicates what i believe to the the AC condenser, horizontal lines represent AC lines running along back of dash, arrow is where it's leaking from box.
i discovered some dampness in the passenger footwell as i was removing my seats and consoles to bissel the carpet. pulled the carpet up and discovered a sizable amount of water in the footwell. after some research and experiments, i discovered the water is leaking from the area of the AC condenser, when it comes in through the fresh air vents under the windshield. i cleared out the drains in the cowl area and they didnt seem terribly clogged.
i also checked the AC drains on top of the transmission tunnel, and all appear to be working fine.
my questions are these:
1) would there ever be a reason (under normal day to day conditions like rain, car wash, etc) that overflow water would go down into the HVAC system? i would assume it's all supposed to come out the drains on the side down and out of the front fenders as opposed to through the ventilation system, and there is a little wall in the cowl that looks like its supposed to stop the water from entering the cabin under normal circumstances.
2) i tested my theory out a couple times this afternoon by having a friend dump water from a bucket down into the cowl area after i snaked out the fender drains (again they never seemed like they would have initially caused a problem, there wasn't much debris in them) as i watched with a flashlight up behind the AC condenser. the water appears to be coming out of the condenser box, as it doesn't seem to seal tightly enough to direct the water to the drain in front of it, and most of the water seeps out the back and front corners. is there normally a rubber seal of some kind of something in the AC condenser box?
3) are there any other possible things i'm missing in the HVAC area that could be causing my problem, i'm fairly certain i've nailed it down, but i want to be sure i don't have to tear more apart than i have to, and i also don't want to put the car back together before i've actually fixed anything.
i've poured enough water down into the cowl now testing to see where it comes from and goes that i've now also got some in the driver's well too. ugh.
my main confusion is that it doesn't start leaking down into footwells until i've poured way more water into the cowl than would ever happen under normal circumstances.
the fender drains didn't seem clogged at all when i dug around in them...so how did this situation occur initially? there had to be standing water somewhere. help.
sorry for the novel.
here's my original thread:
diagram:
circle indicates a leak area, looks to be a small fold in the sheetmetal, not sure what it is.
box indicates what i believe to the the AC condenser, horizontal lines represent AC lines running along back of dash, arrow is where it's leaking from box.
i discovered some dampness in the passenger footwell as i was removing my seats and consoles to bissel the carpet. pulled the carpet up and discovered a sizable amount of water in the footwell. after some research and experiments, i discovered the water is leaking from the area of the AC condenser, when it comes in through the fresh air vents under the windshield. i cleared out the drains in the cowl area and they didnt seem terribly clogged.
i also checked the AC drains on top of the transmission tunnel, and all appear to be working fine.
my questions are these:
1) would there ever be a reason (under normal day to day conditions like rain, car wash, etc) that overflow water would go down into the HVAC system? i would assume it's all supposed to come out the drains on the side down and out of the front fenders as opposed to through the ventilation system, and there is a little wall in the cowl that looks like its supposed to stop the water from entering the cabin under normal circumstances.
2) i tested my theory out a couple times this afternoon by having a friend dump water from a bucket down into the cowl area after i snaked out the fender drains (again they never seemed like they would have initially caused a problem, there wasn't much debris in them) as i watched with a flashlight up behind the AC condenser. the water appears to be coming out of the condenser box, as it doesn't seem to seal tightly enough to direct the water to the drain in front of it, and most of the water seeps out the back and front corners. is there normally a rubber seal of some kind of something in the AC condenser box?
3) are there any other possible things i'm missing in the HVAC area that could be causing my problem, i'm fairly certain i've nailed it down, but i want to be sure i don't have to tear more apart than i have to, and i also don't want to put the car back together before i've actually fixed anything.
i've poured enough water down into the cowl now testing to see where it comes from and goes that i've now also got some in the driver's well too. ugh.
my main confusion is that it doesn't start leaking down into footwells until i've poured way more water into the cowl than would ever happen under normal circumstances.
the fender drains didn't seem clogged at all when i dug around in them...so how did this situation occur initially? there had to be standing water somewhere. help.
sorry for the novel.
Comment