kwarnold

This afternoon I was driving with my son and he commented that there was water puddling on the passenger front floor mat. Sure enough, there was a small amount of water on the all season mat, and when I pulled up the mats I saw the carpet underneath was wet. (See pictures) The largest amount of moisture was on the left side of the front passenger foot well, nearest the console.

It is noteworthy that my Cayenne is seldom driven and in the past 13 months has only been driven about 3,500 miles and has only once been in the rain for less than 2 minutes as I was arriving home one day last summer. (And that was only a very, very light summer rain; more of a light sprinkle.) Since I've owned it it has never seen rain or snow other than this one time and maybe one other time earlier last year. I did wash the Cayenne this morning. Just a regular hand wash, nothing out of the ordinary, to get the dust off of it. Just a regular garden hose to rinse off the suds.

Here is what the carpet looked like:

Wet area on the left side of the front passenger foot well.

This is the area straight ahead at the top of the carpet. We could see droplets of water trickling down the carpet from above.

It was warm here in Ohio today and I was running the AC for the first time since it's been fairly cool otherwise. I was thinking this could be condensation from the AC, but that is a heck of a lot of condensation if that is the case!

I've heard about drainage tubes that can get clogged. Would this be what I see if they were? Curious to get others thoughts on this and if others have experienced something similar.

Thanks for your help! Keith

deilenberger

Keith, welcome to the Cayenne forum. You are experiencing the typical plugged drains that Porsche has perfected in the Cayenne. Almost every Cayenne, unless operated only in the Mojave desert (or Death Valley) will experience this joy at some time or another.

There is a lot of knowledge tucked away very neatly for your use in the Cayenne DIY subforum. This particular topic has been documented, photographed, diagnosed, books written - and it's all there for you. I'd suggest visiting https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-diy-224/ for enlightenment.

I now clean all the drains at least annually - and that helps prevent wet tootsies. My WAG is the HVAC drain is plugged up - that's covered in the writeups - but it's certainly worth making sure ALL the drains are clear.

Good luck!

Mark7000

Directly above where the drip is - is the AC condenser drain. That is your issue. Lots of youtube videos like this one. Skip to 1 minute 15 seconds.

kwarnold

Thanks, deilenberger and Mark7000 for your responses to this. Luckily this looks like a pretty simple fix. I will probably have the shop I use clear this out, but it looks to be a pretty quick job to do.

Thanks again, Keith

avlis

It's easy to clear the drain but takes a long time to dry the carpet. I removed my carpet, which requires removing the seat and some trim panels, and brought it inside to dry in front of a fan and baseboard heater. It still took days to dry. What you don't see is several cubic inches of absorbent foam that has become saturated with water.

kwarnold

Interesting about the foam underneath and removing your carpet. I drive my Cayenne so infrequently and this was the first time I had the AC on in a while, so I think the amount of water that came out was minimal. I did pull the mats and run a fan on it for quite a few hours on Saturday and Sunday which seemed to dry it very nicely. I could not feel any moisture after that.

deilenberger

It appears most of yours was on the top of the carpeting. When the cowl drains plug up - the footwell fills up from the bottom up. I assume you've cleared the AC drain? If not, if you're pulling the hose off inside the footwell, bring a 1 quart measuring cup to catch the water sloshing around in the bottom of the HVAC case. There can be a LOT of water there.

skiahh

I'd think you'd be more likely since your AC would be on ALL the time and more likely to plug the condenser line.

It looks like it just started leaking, so I suspect his padding is just fine. Mine was when it happened to me. Fortunately, I was ready for it from reading about it here. Quickly got the shop vac out and sucked up all the water so it never got underneath the carpeting. Cleaned the drain and it's all good. Had a second bout and took it to the dealer. They also vac'd out what water was there, chased all the drains and found nothing, so they also cleaned out the A/C drain and it's been good now for a few months, even in the rainy PNW. Guess I didn't get it all cleaned when I had it apart.

deilenberger

No moisture to condense in the desert. Just hot, very dry air. I've done the Mojave about 6 times in Cayennes (and 4 times on a motorcycle) - and the AC worked flawlessly.. 110F outside, a very comfy 75F inside. Wasn't even working very hard.

skiahh

Yeah, good point. There'd need to be some moisture in the air to condense out.

None in those two places!

avlis

Probably right. My situation was different: I pulled the AC drain hose out from the firewall to check/clean it. It was dry and clear but when I reinstalled it, I couldn't get the grommet snapped into the firewall. I did the best I could but it's hard with such thick padding blocking access. It's possible I didn't even have the end of the hose through the firewall. The result was water running down the inside of the firewall onto floor and soaking the padding first.
The lesson: I wont pull the hose out from the firewall ever again. I'll just run something through the hose and push out debris. The only way I could get the grommet snapped back into the firewall was to do it before the carpet was installed.

skiahh

I got mine seated in the firewall by reaching down through the engine compartment. After a lot of scrapes and even a bit of blood, I got it fully seated. I'll pull mine if I have to, but very reluctantly!

deilenberger

I've pulled mine several times. The area it goes through the carpeting - is right at the top of the carpet. I folded down the top so I had good access to the hole. I then worked the lump on the shaft of the drain through the hole, which locks it to the firewall. If yours is really resistant - I imagine some soap on it might make it easier.