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Aircon Overdrive!


mickq

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  • Member For: 20y 11m 6d

Driving back from the coast today (approx 30-something degrees), after about 40 mins of driving I saw some smoke-like stuff coming from the center console vents.

Cue the minor mid-highway heart attack.

I was doing 120 in heavy traffic and about to freak out and do a quick pull-over. I could then smell a weird smell.

Im thinking engine bay fire, massive oil leak, something bad. I looked behind me to see if there was a trail of smoke and flames behind me.

I pointed the vapour/smoke out to my 2 passengers. By miracle one of them happened to be an engineer who in the past used to design aircon-systems. He said its caused by high humidity, and water vapour is coming out the vents. The air pumped by the aircon is completely saturated with water (100% humidity). The smell is because the filters are overloaded and the water being pumped out as vapour is tainted by the filters.

It took me about 15 mins to believe him. I was still tempted to pull over and check for an engine bay bonfire!

When I got home, my front seat passenger said he noticed the floor was wet. Lots of water (~400mls) had leaked down from the very bottom of the lower glove box area and dripped onto the carpet.

I lifted the bonnet and you could see condensation around some aircon parts near the firewall.

My timely and miraculously-present air-con genius said that it can happen in high humidity, but there should be a drain pipe there (near the canister at the firewall) to drain it away not let it flow into the cabin somehow. I put newspaper in the passenger footwell while it was parked and when I came back an hour later it was soaked through. Driving it a few times caused front and back windows to be fogged over. Muchos water about!

Ive got more paper there now, and am interested to see it tomorrow morning. Luckily I happen to have it booked in early this week for a service so this will be added to the list.

Anyway, thought I would post it here in case anyone else ever seen similar. Might occur on a reasonably hot but very humid day.

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Yeah Mick have had the vapour come through the vents before but not the water on the floor.

Cramorr posted the same problem with the floor water a while back but not real sure what the problem or fix was

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  • Bloody Orange Team (BOT)
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D'oh. Yesterday I talked to a friend who works for the company that supplies ford with the aircon and piping (amongst a whole lot of other stuff and they supply Expensive Daewoo aswell) and he was asking about how my car was and what problems if any I have had. Oh well. He did say that the aircon used in the falcons is a pretty good one compared to some others.

This comment a little OT. He also said that Expensive Daewoo are prehistoric in terms of technology used when compared to the BA Falcons. He used to work for Expensive Daewoo and he said that it in one year Expensive Daewoo spent $110 million in Warrenty claims as apposed to Fords $25million for the same year. Oh and the next new Commodore (Mechanical etc changes) is scheduled for 2006. So Ford have atleast a 3 year headstart in terms of Car technology going for it ;)

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If any of you jokers know what the Devils Elbow is all about,and that section of road to Eagle On The Hill,taken at speed I got my feet wet.Drove that road on the Adelaide Cruise last weekend(it is not used much now cause of the bypass)so I figure there must be a resivior of condensation in the console with a drain pipe which works fine on level ground,but as soon as you give it sh!t through a few tight bends it splashes out WTF

I dont know if its worth wingening about to the dealer cause that's the only time its done it!

vik

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  • Weird Member
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  • Member For: 21y 1m 25d
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mickq...there is a drain pipe to drain the condensate from the a/c out of the car onto the ground. Sometimes this can get blocked with crap (leaves etc) and when it blocks the water runs out onto the carpet in the car rather than onto the ground under it. You may have noticed a pool of water under the car near the front passnegers feet, when you stop in a carpark or at a servo on a hot day, this is what should be happening.

Yes I have seen the fog streaming from the vents on the dash before...cool eh, well obviously you didnt see the funny side. :lol:

BTW is does your ventilation system put out warm air when the A/c is not on. I prefer fresh air blowing rather than cold a/c air. Even if you put the a/c on for a few minutes to cool the pipes in the dash then turn it off the air becomes warm again, its as if the heater is always on a bit.

Anyone else get that? :thumbsup:

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BTW is does your ventilation system put out warm air when the A/c is not on. I prefer fresh air blowing rather than cold a/c air. Even if you put the a/c on for a few minutes to cool the pipes in the dash then turn it off the air becomes warm again, its as if the heater is always on a bit.

Anyone else get that? :thumbsup:

I get the warm air too YCL,even when there is cold air outside,Like you said it's like the heater is on

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....seems we are well on the way to misdirecting this thread so .... :thumbsup:

As I understad it in most modern cars there is no heater tap as such and the hot water always flows. When you turn the heater on all that happens is you open a door in the airflow matrix and the air passes thru the heater core and gets heated.

So I think that a heater flap is always slightly open, but if we all get this then its just thermal conductivity thru the entire ventilation system and we are stuck with it, perhaps someone like FORDTECH would know more...

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Even in the middle of winter in Canberra when the outside temp is :thumbsup: freezing just 'straight' air coming through the vents is probably 10 degrees warmer than outside. I ahd this checked out by ford at the firsts ervice and was told it is normal.

I find we drive around using the aircon much more than on previous cars.

IIRC from earlier posts on this issue the intake vent is just near the base of the windscreen - the sheer heat coming out of the engine bay might be enough to raise the intake temp ?

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IIRC from earlier posts on this issue the intake vent is just near the base of the windscreen - the sheer heat coming out of the engine bay might be enough to raise the intake temp ?

The rear edge of the bonnet at the base of the windscreen is blocked with a rubber seal. I think the hot air and any possible fumes are directed under the car and away.

I have to run the a/c more than I need to for this reason as well....hope no one else notices we are both from Canberra, or they will blame our location... :thumbsup:

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  • Kia Sorento
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Water in footwell is from blocked A/C drain pipe.

Leaves fall down fresh air intake and the fan munchs them into small bits which block the drain pipe :thumbsup: this is a design oops.

Also hot air from engine heatsoak is sucked into fresh air intake because it is under the trailing edge of the bonnet. and we all know how hot it gets under the bonnet of a "T"

Craig

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