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Join Date: Aug 2007
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AC leaking into passenger side
We had the same problem, and it was driving us nuts, nothing like a cold shower on the feet when the tray overflows! I actually pulled the little right-angled rubber drain tube right off of the little drain pipe sticking out of the firewall on the engine side of the firewall (underneath another conduit of some sort - it is hard to see until you know what you're looking for, try feeling around for the rubber drain tube), which helps it drain, but bits of leaves still block it sometimes so I use a big honking syringe to draw it out when necessary to get it draining. Tight squeeze for my arms but I manage. Lots of hot surfaces on the way in, so be careful.
However, all that being said, the initial problem wasn't really just the debris blocking the drain, it was the form-fitting insulating insert between the form-fitting tray the cooling unit sits in. I found a link that told me this had to come out. Nothing to it, one fellow said....30 mins tops. Well, maybe for a pro, but I think I took a few hours with the snags I encountered. Maybe 20 screws or so in total, and a couple of inter-linked underdash panels, and the top of the cooling unit under the dash. I won't kid you, it was challenging at times, but maybe my experience with it will help.
I have since lost the links, but the basic process is fairly straightforward. If I can track down the step-by-step links I had I'll post them here. They had itemized screw-removal, panel lifting, that sort of thing.
You need to remove the glove box, unloop the cable and let it drop then sort of squeeze the hinges and lift-and-slip-it-out sort of thing.
You need to remove the under-dash. Lots of screws in various places, some sneaky, you'll have to look carefully, I think there were some right up beside the door frame even. Even when you think you have them all, there's probably just one more. I was tempted to give it a hard heave more than once...but replacement parts costing what they do I restrained myself.
Now, I didn't remove it *completely* since the one source said you can squeeze your hand in and do what needs doing, but apparently I have larger hands. Next time I'll remove it completely and save the scrapes and nicks!
When you get to the AC cooling unit sort of up and behind where the glove box was, you loosen the top by removing the screws on the front and as much of the sides as possible. Now, I didn't remove it *completely* since the one source said you can squeeze your hand in and do what needs doing, but apparently I have larger hands. Next time I may remove it completely and save the scrapes and nicks!
You can't get at the back screws unless you take off the entire dash, which I had no desire to do at that time. Anyway, you'll see that it is in a nice little form-fitting tray, and the condensation collects in the tray and eventually drains out the aforementioned right-angled rubber drain tube. You should see some insulating material (mine was white, and much like the protective wrap you find on VCRs, DVD players, and other electronic equipment), which is also form-fit to the cooling unit. Apparently it eventually breaks down its form a bit and by sagging plugs or partially occludes the drain hole (which of course is at the back of the tray under the unit, totally inaccessible), which causes the tray to fill up and slosh out and freeze your feet. The water also decreases the cooling power of your AC, by the way, and when you get things going you will likely notice an improvement, I know I did. I previously had my AC recharged, but it had little effect, that's when I dug deeper.
So the other source I had told me to just slip the insulating material out. Not a chance, I still think he was on drugs. I used tweezers (as suggested) dental and shop picks, micro-clamps, bent nose pliers, you name it. All I was able to do was pull chunks and strips and probably make things worse. Not what I was hoping for at the end of the tunnel! My brain-wave was to use some very long needle nosed pliers with very long handles, slip them in on top and bottom of the insulating sheet (near the middle of the cooling unit) as far as I could, clamp down hard, and then turn the pliers so that I was wrapping the insulation around the nose. It was like magic, it rolled/wrapped around the pliers, and I pulled the astonishingly large sheet out like a corndog on a stick!
Before I put things back together I filled the tray with water to make sure it would drain. It did, but then plugged up. So there was still debris in there. I can't imagine what I would have attacked the SUV with if I had put it all back together and then had to do it all over again....
I filled the tray repeatedly and used my big syringe with a length of flexible tubing (from the fish tank air pump, actually) and eventually sucked much of the leaf debris out while it was suspended in the water. I confess I also took the garden hose and blasted it, and while I haven't had corrosion problems under the dash, I can't honestly recommend you do this, although it worked for me and gave me great satisfaction even as I drenched the car. I had to wait for things to dry, which took a while even using a portable ceramic heater....
I find that there is still an eventual build up of leaf debris, but that I can draw it out through the drain hole with the syringe. It has a big plastic end, by the way, not a needle, sort of like a turkey baster end, conical (like the drain tube itself, actually, but in reverse), and I just wedge it in the drain and draw it full and squirt it away. That usually gets the blocking material out and then the AC drains by itself. I just left the drain hose off, and haven't had any trouble for the past three years, other than periodically having an "eek" as the tray spills onto a passenger's feet now and then! Doesn't happen very often, but it's nice to have some solution! By the way, I had it in the shop three times for this leaking, and they never did figure it out!
Good luck!
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