My ride's excellent record has come to an end apparently. I drove it last night while barefoot and realized that cold water was dripping down very slowly onto my throttle foot (a drop every 10 sec or so or when I went around a right-hand corner). Ugh...obviously from the running air cond. system as it wasn't raining. I remembered that the area under the carpet where the gas pedal bolts to the floor has always looked as if it has been exposed to water, but was never wet whenever I happened to look in that area. This is a left-hand drive car of course. '89 S4 auto.
What's the bad news? Tearing the interior completely apart to replace the evaporator? The system does drain beneath the car, but I've never been able to actually see the drain itself, even while working under tha car. I guess it could be partially clogged. Any advice would be welcome. TIA. Off I go to Greg Nichol's.

 

Ron-

Sounds like your condensation drain tube is clogged. It comes out just above the Cat's.

hth-

 

Thanks, I've got to change the oil tomorrow and that will be a good time to check the air cond. drain (if I can find it).

 

I don't think you can get at that drain without taking stuff apart. A kind of common reason for the water dripping down by the gas pedal is the plastic housing that the evaporator is in. I guess it's two pieces that are put together, or a molded piece with a seam in in it, or something like that. Anyway, that seam/joint kind of comes apart, and that's where the water leaks out.

Someone once posted that he was having his replaced due to the leaking. He said that everything between the seats and firewall had to come out. If it were me, I'd make sure the drain wasn't plugged. Then I'd look up under the dash for the leak, and put some silicone sealer or epoxy on there to try and seal it up as well as I could.

 

You're right, no way I'm going to gut my car for this minor a problem (and maybe creating half a dozen more). I couldn't be satisfied knowing the leak was there though, so I would probably sell the car after informing potential buyers about it.

Maybe the drain IS stopped up. Now that I think about it, I haven't noticed the puddles underneath recently.