Air Conditioner - Water is leaking into the foot wells on both sides of the vehicle
sonicboom wrote ...
Water is leaking into the foot wells on both sides of the vehicle and leaching under the carpets. The AC is functioning as normal.
I contacted my Citroen repair centre and described the symptoms. He reckons that the drain tubes from the drip tray under the condenser or matrix have become detached or blocked.
Can anyone elaborate on this and perhaps inform me as to where these tubes are positioned and where they exit the vehicle.
O.K... I fixed my problem here's what was wrong and how to do it. The job should take about half an hour, although it took me longer 'cos I didn't know what I was looking for.
You need a size 20 torx bit, a long flat blade screw driver, a pair of long nose pliers, a right angle bit driver or ring spanner to fit the torx bit and a small tie wrap. You need to remove the trim above the pedals on the drivers side by pulling the centres out of the 3 plastic rivets and then remove the rivets. The trim should now come away easily.
Next you need to remove the drivers side centre console kick panel. This is held in place by 2 torx screws one is easily removed as it at the exit of the heating duct. The other is hidden behind the rest of the centre console. You can just about get to it by gently pulling the centre console away and sliding the torx bit in the right angle bit holder into place, but it is fiddly and I'm not going to replace this screw when I put it back together. The final thing is to locate the retaining clip up by the bulkhead beside the clutch pedal and pull the kick panel towards the pedal.
The kick panel can now be slid out. Using a torch you can now see the drain pipe. It's inset just to left of the clutch pedal. If you turn on the engine and set the air con to lo and override the fan to full you will clearly see where the leak is as the condenser removes so much moisture from the atmosphere it starts dripping straight away. You can now remove the pipe and check for blockage. Be careful there is a small fastener integral to the pipe that needs to be uncapped from the condenser housing in order to fully remove the pipe.
The other end where the pipe exits the car is simply pushed into a huge rubber grommet and can be pulled out easily. Check this for blockage as well, you can use a piece of wire or your finger. Reverse the procedure to re assemble. On first attempt I found that there was still a leak this is due the fact that the retaining clip that is integral to the drain pipe has a small gusset that rubs on the condenser body and has very slightly deformed the pipe.
This is a design fault in my opinion and is probably the cause of many of these leaks after a few years in service.
This is where the tie wrap comes in. Remove the pipe again and place the tie wrap around the end where it connects to the condenser body. Don't tighten it fully at this stage. Replace the pipe and push the tie wrap into place using the screwdriver. Make sure it's over the connecting pipe by gently squeezing the drain pipe until you can feel the housing mate. Now using the long nose pliers to tighten up the tie wrap. Finally re fix the rubber clip you'll need to force it on using the screw driver again.
Run the air con as before and the leak should have gone. You can look under the car and there should be water dripping from the middle just behind the engine bay cover. That's it replace the kick panel and trim. I have left mine off so I can keep an eye on it for a few days.
Hope this helps!!!
sambo__86 wrote ...
I Followed this threads good instructions to get access to the drain
Photo list in order: 1) Found the pipe not in the drain grommet!
2) Checked that the box end of the pipe was ok.
3) Removed the pipe anyway to check it wasn't blocked & curiosity.
4) View of box with pipe removed (Bossed outlet from the aircon box)
5) I put the drain in the floor grommet & connected it to the box with a precautionary cable tie & snapped in the rubber clip also!
Thanks again for the help of the forum!
Sammy
There is an alternative possibility:
gnosallhills wrote ...
My first post, but thought I would contribute as I found the other information on here very helpful.
I too had the same problem with water leaking into the drivers footwell, (57 C4 Picasso 1.6 diesel) sloshing noise on turning corners and for good measure occasionally making a noise in the fan.
My solution was to take drivers side front wheel off and take off the inside plastic wheelarch. As soon as mine came away water poured out of a roughly 6 inches long rubber tube which comes down from the scuttle.
Cleared out the rubber tube with a wire coat hanger, blocked with leaves and general [%*^#@!], reassembled wheelarch, wheel back on and problem solved. Checked tube on passenger side for good measure but not blocked.
I think the problemn is that if the scuttle drainage is blocked then it overflows into a very strange panel which is behind the engine sound insulation - did not get a chance for further investigation as it was getting dark and freezing cold.
Anyway, try this option first before going hunting in the central console and checking the aircon overflow which involved taking off lots of panels and was tricky to find with little result.
It is simple to do and worked for me.
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Created: 12 August 2008 Last Updated: 24 July 2013