water drip on passenger side

[fretburnr]

Hey guys - hope someone has some experience with this.

When I run my AC on an excessively humid day, i find there is a slow but steady drip of water on the passenger footwell, from near the center console piece at the firewall. It's not coolant - i've mopped it up, and smelled, it's straight water.

I presume it to be condensation in the heater box, but is there a drain somewhere that might be blocked? I can't imagine any other reason for pure (or close enough) water to be coming from there.

Thanks!!

[rromanf]

Hello fretburner

I think you are on the right track. The moisture on the floor on the passenger side stems most likely from condensation on the condenser, Evap, sorry, had a brain fart.

The fact that you noticed this on humid days is normally a good indication that it is condensation causing this. normally all condensation runs off the condenser onto a "drip tray" and is then drained to the outside through a small rubber tube. The tube used mostly has a safety feature that keeps dirt from the outside out (the outside end looks like it is pinched) but the source for most drain clogs is bacteria and mold growing in the AC systems allong with dust that collected over time. I am not entirely sure without looking for it on the E30 where it is, but you should be looking for a small rubber hose that comes through the bottom half of the firewall I believe. It should be easy to clean out once you find it and should alleviate the problem. If you have trouble finding it and I will see exactly where it is and what it looks like.

Ruben

[bearing01]

The evaporator lives inside the dash. The condenser lives in front of your radiator inside your front bumper grill.

If you remove your center console that surrounds your gear shift you will see a little 90* bend tube. This is the drain tube from the evaporator drip pan mentioned above and where this tube drains the water to the outside. If you take the center console out then you may be able to blow out this tube with compressed air. Otherwise, if you got crap or dirt in your drip pan then you may have to remove the dash to get the evaporator out to clean everything up.

[rromanf]

The evaporator lives inside the dash. The condenser lives in front of your radiator inside your front bumper grill.


Sorry, you are correct, I guess I had too many things on mind when I wrote the post. It is the evaporator. I looked at the parts catalog and you can see the angled tube coming out of the HVAC housing. I had good luck cleaning the drain tube out with a couple of pipe cleaners from underneath the car before (different vehicle though). I aggree that you do not want to blow all the scum from inside the tube up into the housing.