Wet Feet

John Ratcliff wrote:

I'm having some water in my SIII 86 Sovereign. We've had dry and warm weather, so it probably isn't a leak. The water seems to be seeping from the bottom where the side of the centre console meets the floor on the passenger side, or a bit above that (behind the carpeting). I seem to remember someone mentioning the AC vents could get clogged. I would be grateful if someone could explain precisely where these are, and/or provide other clues.

This does sound like the AC drains. There is one on either side of the transmission tunnel, toward the front of the car. They are easy to clear, but given that the clogging agent might be the disentegrating foam used to gasket the flaps, you may have to do this more than once.

The easiest way (I think) to do this, is to drive the car onto ramps. Unbend a wire coat-hanger, bend a handle onto one end and cut the other end so that you have a straight section. Bend about 1/4" of the straight end completely over, so that you have a blunt end that is about 3/16" across.

From beneath the car, look up into the trans tunnel on either side of the transmission. Toward the top of the tunnel, on either side, are short lengths of 3/8" diameter poly tubing poking out of rubber seals. These are the drains.

** Ideally, you've had the AC running for awhile, so there's lots of water up there. This is unpleasant, as 1) the exhaust and engine are quite hot, and 2) the water is going to come pouring out of the drain when you clear it, but the benefit is that the water will carry the foreign material out, wheras if you do this dry, you merely move it around. Thread the hanger up the tube about 6" and twist - you should be presented with all that water that you don't want on your floor. Good luck!

Have you checked the drain pipes on the air conditioner? One of mine fell out (through the bottom of the car!) and caused the problem you describe.

You can get to the pipes by removing the two screws holding the air vents in place in the footwell. You will then find that the trim comes away by pulling it toward the front of the car.

The pipes connect to rubber boots which protrude from the underneath of the evap coil housing. I found the pipe totally missing on one side, so I simply cut a piece of fuel hose to length and inserted one end into the boot, and poked the other end thru the hole in the trans tunnel.

To ensure the same thing didn't happen again, I put a cable-tie on the boot.