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Tin Top Aircon - help......
pewe - 24/5/10 at 10:29 AM

Did a few hundred miles in the tintop this weekend and had the aircon going full blast.
After a couple of hours running the rear seat passengers complained about water in the footwells.
Sceptical about their bleating (kidults don't you just love'em?) it turned out they were correct. Footwells under the rubber mats were positively sloshing around with water.
Most likely it's come through the under front seat air con vents.
So question is does anyone know a likely cause?
It could be that the car hasn't had a long run in a while (but lots of short ones) and the condensation has built up in the pipework or there's a blocked vent somewhere (the scuttle one still seems to be chucking out water under the engine bay).
Any suggestions gratefully received.
BTW it's a SAAB 95 SE Estate my2000.
Cheers, Pewe


D Beddows - 24/5/10 at 10:34 AM

yeah, I had that on my 1st 95 - the AC drain tubes under the car will be blocked with leaves or petals. My advice is unblock them NOW - there is a control box under the passenger seat and if that gets waterlogged it can cause all kinds of expensive problems........ cost me £1100 to get everything fixed because I didn't notice the water in time


pewe - 24/5/10 at 10:51 AM

DB - shock , horror - can you give me a few more details as to exact location etc. etc. please.
Thanks, Pewe


D Beddows - 24/5/10 at 01:59 PM

As I recall (and the Haynes manual seems to agree with my memory) there is a filter housing on the right hand side of the passenger footwell, you take that off, fold down the carpet eitherside of the centre consol (and any sound insulation you find) and you'll see there is a drain hose each side of the heater. The ideal is to remove those and use an airline to blow through any blockage.

It's a pretty common problem on 95s and as I mentioned can be eye wateringly expensive, I needed a complete new set of central locking motors, new electric window motors, new control box for under the passenger seat etc etc Would have written off the car nowadays with the price they fetch!


mark chandler - 24/5/10 at 08:32 PM

On my jaguars you had to stick on a ramp, look under the transmisson tunnel around where the heater lives and you can see a couple of drain pipes.

On one occasion I was able to probe and dislodge the goo, use a cable tie not a coat hanger so as not to damage anything, another time called for more drastic action, I pulled off the footwell air feeds and scouped out the gunge and washed through with a hose!!!

It made the car smell much nicer as well.

On a porche I cleaned via the heater motor, again hosed it inside. You could see the expansion radiator, it was balck with filth half an hour later on all nice and clean, dirty puddle under the car and the aircon had never been so good.

Once throughly cleaned out never had to repeat, worth spending a day over this I recon.

Regards Mark


pewe - 25/5/10 at 08:25 AM

Thanks guys, both pretty spot-on.
Took a marathon yesterday afternoon and evening (front seats out, carpets, trunking, drain tubes, glove box etc. etc. to locate the fault.
This actually lies in not replacing the pollen filter as per service schedule (every 15k or 1 year!).
Leads to blocking up of drain pipes so condensation (won't tell you where that comes from when there's no fresh air coming into the car) builds up to epic proportions, especially five up on a long, hot weekend.
Removed about 3-4 litres of water from the distribution pipe-work (besides what had soaked into the carpets).
Hopefully sorted and avoided a write-off.
Cheers, Pewe


Ninehigh - 26/5/10 at 06:54 AM

Our aircon stinks after using it, what is it I'm looking for in the manual then drain tubes?