Odd problem with water - HELP!!

[Michigan NSX]

Under accelleration going up a hill or under mildly heavy corning water comes pouring into the interior from the airconditioning vents near my shins on BOTH sides of the console. I'm not talking a trickle - I mean about 6 ounces each time. It appears to be just water - no oil or coolant mixed with it.

It has been raining a lot here recently. Would that matter?

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Michigan NSX]

I should add that I have not noticed any weird goings on with any of the guages and the coolant level seems fine.

 

[Larry Bastanza]

If you have a rain water leak then maybe, but I would suspect you need to unclog the drain spout for the blower housing. It is probably full of condensated water from the A/C system.

You will find the rubber tube under the car just about by the steering rack on the inboard passenger side.

HTH,
LarryB

 

[Joshs]

Under accelleration going up a hill or under mildly heavy corning water comes pouring into the interior from the airconditioning vents near my shins on BOTH sides of the console. I'm not talking a trickle - I mean about 6 ounces each time. It appears to be just water - no oil or coolant mixed with it.

It has been raining a lot here recently. Would that matter?

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

The exact same thing happened to me after I had my AC retrofit.. The solution was to jack up the front a tad so you can get under the car.. Then find the little drain tube hanging down and blast some compressed air in there.. some gunk came out, followed by a lot of water.. Problem solved!

-Josh

 

[Michigan NSX]

Thanks you guys!

Unfortunately I now have a more serious problem - My Mom backed her car into my NSX while it was in the driveway yesterday. Left front fender is pretty much a write off.

 

[NSXTech]

Thanks you guys!

Unfortunately I now have a more serious problem - My Mom backed her car into my NSX while it was in the driveway yesterday. Left front fender is pretty much a write off.

OUCH. Sorry to hear it.

The rain does this make this worse. The water that comes off the evap is a result of water condensing when the hot air hits the cold core. The more moisture in the air, the more that will condense out of it.

MB

 

[NSX2398]

I've had the same problem this summer after doing the R134 retrofit. I've had the usual symptoms .. water pouring out the vent onto the passenger footwell on left turns .. even 'spitting' of water out the vents when the blower is on high. After a couple of humid hot days, I'm sure I had at least 3/4" of water in the footwell. And around the same time, my SRS light started intermittantly coming on .. and then wouldn't go off. But I haven't had the SRS light problem since I dried out the interior.

So, I've read all the posts suggesting a blocked tube and I even removed the 1" rigid plastic tube (as per the service manual) that runs under the fuse box on the passenger side behind the spare tire (it wasn't blocked) and I felt up into the hole that it plugs into and couldn't feel any obstructions. But I'm still getting a wet carpet (and I haven't been driving in any rain lately so I'm pretty sure it's not that). Any other suggestions? Am I not checking the right tube? I haven't tried the 'compressed air up the tube' routine as suggested by some but I would have thought that removing the tube was an even better approach.

Tks ..Ian

 

[D'Ecosse]

This hose here:

(Passenger footwell - speaker assembly removed)

.

 

[NSX2398]

D'Ecosse .. tks for the great picture .. exactly what I needed. That tube is well hidden by the sub enclosure .. I probably would have given up had you not attached the picture. After finding it in the footwell, I jacked up the right front side of the car but still had a little difficulty finding it underneath the car. I put a significant amount of compressed air into the hose and didn't get any water coming out (although the car was still on the jack and leaning toward the driver side) so I guess only time will tell as to whether I've fixed the problem yet.

If there's still a blockage, I'm not sure what to try next. The tube has a lot of kinks in it so it may not be possible to work a long 'test tube bristle brush' up there. And taking the dash off seems a bit extreme but may be necessary.
Anyway ... tks for the great feedback ...Ian

 

[D'Ecosse]

Hi Ian - glad the pic was helpful - hopefully you don't need to take the dash apart.
It might be good idea to just pull back your carpet & remove the sub box to get access to the hose, then just pull it off & inspect it?

 

[menuserve]

so just remove the hose inside the car, clean it out and reconnect?

once it goes through the floor it just drains? or does the tube connect to somewhere else under the car that can have the clog?

 

[MichaelS]

Had to do this to my car and thought it would help to post another pic. On a left hand drive (US) car, the hose is on the firewall on the passenger side near the center. It's easy to get to from underneath the front of the car - no need to remove carpet or anything. (Most people will need to raise the car though!)

In the picture, the firewall is at the bottom and the power steering rack is at the top. Just use compressed air to clear the hose and run the AC for about 5 minutes to ensure that water starts dripping out.

In my case, an early warning was seeing steam occasionally blow out of the interior vents with the AC on and no condensation was dripping under the car, since the evaporator wasn't draining. Luckily, I was able to clear the hose before anything got wet.