Footwell Water on Carpet Is300h

[matt8]

Hi All

Happy new year!

My Is300h has some water in the passenger footwell.

It sounds like the air conditioning condensate pipe is blocked and backed up, but I understand there are some drains that might be blocked too. 

Anyone got any ideas and diagrams to help me work out the matter please? I am worried it will begin to cause issues with the electronics!

[IS300FSPORT]

Happy New Year 

The AC drain pipe is situated just above the CVT transmission oil pan I tried taking a looking & couldnt reach it on the last oil change. Its a buggar to get to! Unless you have thin & skinny long hands you may be able to reach it. Be careful if the exhaust is hot!

Your right if it builds up enough of a puddle it can cause issues with electronics potentially causing a short circuit, directly under the seats are airbag connectors & heated/cooled/movement cables. 

Not to worry you but I'd suggest not to leave it unattended if you cant do it yourselt get it booked in. For now just place a thick towel to absorb any water from travelling around the car to minimise any damage & keep an eye on it, & suction out the water perhaps with a carpet machine if you  have one to minimise any funky damp smells & to avoid windows misting up.

Thats assuming its the AC pipe check rubber door seal, ac condenser usually near where the cabin filter lives. Remove any blocked leafs from under the wiper section panel any blockage? Look for water bottle accidentally left under seat etc

This may help from the University of youtube  getting to the AC drain. If you dont mind keep us posted pls I'm always looking to learn a thing or two with these fixes im sure most owners will face this at some point during (long term ownership)

 

[wharfhouse]

1 hour ago, matt8 said:

Hi All

Happy new year!

My Is300h has some water in the passenger footwell.

It sounds like the air conditioning condensate pipe is blocked and backed up, but I understand there are some drains that might be blocked too. 

Anyone got any ideas and diagrams to help me work out the matter please? I am worried it will begin to cause issues with the electronics!

Just a thought -have you had a windscreen changed lately - I had a leak after a change of windscreen into the passenger footwell - took me a number of weeks to work out what it was - water was coming from the top of the windscreen and down the edge of the dash and dripping into the footwell. 

[matt8]

Thanks for the comments, especially on new year’s day. 

I have had the car somewhat disassembled this morning but there’s not much I can see. The passenger footwell under tray (which the footwell light is mounted to) had quite a bit of water on it when removed. It’s not been possible to see where it is coming from. Cabin filter entirely dry.

No windscreen change recently, I did look at a previous comment of yours @wharfhouseand saw you mentioned this, but not so. Thanks anyway.

I recently had my condenser cleaned (bad smell) and the condensate pipe was presumably therefore flushed so it surprised me that this wet carpet appeared. However, since that cleaning, I’ve kept the AC on all the time.

Perhaps it’s just the sheer amount of windy rain we’ve had all over the country (I am in the Midlands and it hasn’t been anywhere near as bad as further north). But windy it was, still. Has that just caused water to get in somewhere unusual?

Off to a specialist sometime soon to look and resolve. Will keep an eye on it in the meantime. Will keep you all posted. 

[ColinBarber]

Do you have a sunroof?

[Duggie B]

8 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

Do you have a sunroof?

+1 ....our Mondeo had an issue with blocked sunroof drain tubes some time ago, it took ages to dry car mats out even with dehumidifier constantly on in the car (fortunately my mother didn't drive much and we have secure off road parking) lifting the carpets aided the drying out process to allow air circulate.

[matt8]

31 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

Do you have a sunroof?

No sunroof on mine. I had read about drainage being blocked on those with sunroofs, but I assume mine will have no such drainage. 

Is there a diagram for where all drainage holes / runs are? I’d happily check all those. No immediate blockage under the windscreen, I keep on top of it but I’ve no idea where that water runs to.

I failed to say, I park my car on a slope. But I park it sideways (so passenger side is lower than driver side) so as not to put pressure on the hand brake. But in my years of doing this, it’s always been bone dry inside. Again, the windy rain and this position may simply have been a bad combo. But we’ve had similar or slightly worst before, but no water inside.

I suppose it’s hard to rule this out unless one firstly knows where water can enter and drain from the car. 

[matt8]

Still more water leaking today. 

But I’ve not driven today and so the air con has not been running. It’s also rained a lot today. So I’m thinking it’s more rain and not so much the condensate pipe.

Does anybody know where rain water drains and how it might be getting to the passenger footwell?

[ColinBarber]

Potential sources of Ingress are the door seal, door bottom drains blocked, door mirror, door membrane if the door card has been taken off at some point, windscreen not bonded or actually coming through the air intake.

[IS300FSPORT]

Try this

 

[matt8]

44 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

Potential sources of Ingress are the door seal, door bottom drains blocked, door mirror, door membrane if the door card has been taken off at some point, windscreen not bonded or actually coming through the air intake.

Thank you Colin.

The water seems to be dropping from further up toward the firewall, so it’s not looking like a seal.

Will check the scuttle panel for water blockage. Once it collects there, do you know where the water drains?

[IS300FSPORT]

Sorry replied on the other thread, I think that drain hole is routing water down the wheel arch.

[matt8]

Updates as promised.

Early this morning, I was having another look around and found the water coming off the blower motor. So, first step was to remove that.

I took it out from the passenger footwell area. Just unplug one cable, and then 3 screws.

There was not a lot of water in there, but it was definitely wet. With that off, I threw a large mixing bowl of water over the windscreen and it all ran off into the passenger archway (thanks @IS300FSPORT). I left it a while and no water was appearing in the passenger footwell with the motor off, even with this huge amount of water. Tissue in situ to try and catch where it was appearing from.

So, it seems more likely to be water from the air conditioning system. Perhaps water was just slowly dripping out of the motor, hence the leak.

I hope I have reseated the blower motor properly. It seems there is a black spongey seal around the edge and in one place that was glued down, but for most of it, it was loose. Maybe a new gasket can be purchased, if needed. I am keeping an eye on this.

There is a short rubber hose attached to the blower motor mounting frame, and connecting to some plastic that runs behind the centre console. I assume this is the pipe that runs to the underside of the car, to let out any AC condensate. See photo below, can anyone concur? I pulled one side off and it was mostly dry, certainly not full of liquid at all. But as noted, my car is parked at an angle, sidewards, with the passenger side the lower point, so whatever water was in there may very well have drained into the blower motor and therefore the leak.

If this is the condensate pipe (seems like it, this page has part 88539C or 88839 30010 at the top, and a Google shows me it is called the "cooler unit drain"), my efforts should be focused on how I can get this cleared. Perhaps poking and running through a long rigid something into this pipe will clear it, but who knows how long the pipe is. Any thoughts or advice appreciated. Maybe this is the best and easiest way for us DIYers to clear this out, as the pipe under the car is very difficult to get to, even if you have a ramp.

Lots of garages with a backlog of work, so I am troubleshooting all I can till I can get someone to look at it.