water ingress 156

[poohbah]

Cheers Bazz, will do it again with a cable when I get a chance. 

9am Update: No drips this morning after 1 hour in heavy freeway traffic with AC going.

[poohbah]

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that its still leaking after about 45 min of AC operating.

I gather that the rubber opening I can get my fingers into is merely a flange and that the actual pipe outlet is higher up, projecting horizontally out from the firewall? I've tried wire and long cable ties to get into it with no luck.

Of course I am trying from above - is it easier to do from underneath?

My jack doesn't lift enough to get axle stands under the at high enough extension for me to try from below the engine.

It's bloody frustrating.

[bonno]

Hi Poohbah
Are you able to view and inspect the drain hose/s from inside the car by lifting up the carpet enough around the back of the firewall.   

[poohbah]

I've pulled the carpet on the firewall back but it only extends up about two thirds of the height of the footwell, and the water is coming in from quite a bit higher than that and runs down onto the fan casing. Above the carpet limit, the firewall is entirely hidden by various electrical wires, connections, panels and gubbins. Judging by the location of the outer drain, the interior side must be roughly level with the floor of the glovebox, but just to the left of the centre console. I really can't see how to get in there without disassembling the entire console and everything behind it. Given my past experience, that is not something I want to risk.

I think my best option is to try and raise the car and attack it from underneath - there appears to be a clear line of sight.

Unfortunately I don't have the right gear to do that. My trolley jack doesn't have enough reach to get sufficiently tall axle stands under the jacking points. My wheel ramps are also too short and steep to fit under the nose (my car is lowered) so at the very least I need to get hold of some planking/beams to use to provide more gradual incline onto my ramps. Or maybe borrow ramps with a less steep angle of attack.

[poohbah]

Just wanted to close out the loop.

My final efforts at clearing the drain (poking a length of flexible plastic into the flange on firewall) worked apparently.

I've been driving around for the last month using AC most of the time - no more leaking into the footwell, and I usually spot a small puddle on ground when I switch off.

[bazzbazz]

As we used to say in the RAAF, "If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer!"

(Or in this case, longer plastic strip)