Hi All,

My AC in my 1989 XJS is currently working really well, but...
After about 4hrs of driving I started to hear what i'd describe as a fan chopping into water....and saw a few water splashes in the passenger footwell.
I thought this would be a simple case of the AC condensate drains being blocked, so crawled under car and poked a piece of wire up both of them, but they seemed to be ok... was expecting a big flood of water as I unblocked something, but nothing....

The next day and the noise is still there so nothing drained overnight - i'm not sure how the ducting/fan is laid out exactly but I can still here what sounds like water sitting in the fan housing, getting chopped up as soon as the fan turns on.

Anyone have any ideas? This isn't an area I've looked at/taken apart previously.

 

The only experience I have is from dismantling a car a few years ago. Accessing the Delenarie 3 was the most difficult part of the entire project. You may be able to access the fan a bit easier. I suggest following the procedures in the service and parts manuals.

 

If there is water in the fan, which side is it? If there is, then somehow the condensate must be draining wrongly, but is it very hard to see how it could get to the fan housing which is above the bottom of the unit. Still, anything is possible...

The first thing you could do is to remove the shin trim and lever open the bottom fflap on the fan unit. If there is water in there you might be able to see it or feel it.

If necessary, the fan can be removed with some effort and care. Easier on the passenger side because the steering column is in the way on the driver's side.
The fan is held in my two fixings which are flat bars coming down from the top of the dash metal where the cold air intake holes are.
There is one bolt each side, two per unit in total, that go into captive nuts on the fixing rods. These can just be seen head in the footwell, looking up, shin trim removed. Unplug all th electrics and best to disconnect the battery.

Pull off the huge silicone ducting from the unit, but do your best not to remove it from the aircon unit, as it is very hard to get it back properly. This ducting is the only way condensate can get into the fan, AFAIK.

You undo the bolt each side and then, MOST IMPORTANT jam open the sprung flap at the bottom of the fan unit with a piece of wood. This allows the top flap to the outside to be in such a position that with HUGE effort and a bit of side to side effort, the thing will come out, downwards. It will be well stuck in place by the rubber seal round the opening. If the bottom flap is not opened, the unit cannot be removed.

 

There should be drain lines on either side of the trans tunnel.
Drains should run from the bottom of the heater to out of the bottom of the car.
Do NOT try to blow them out with compressed air, they will disconnect.
Use a flexible wire from underneath and rot out the lines.

 

Thanks for the replies all,

Bit of an update - I removed the interior trim panels from the shin / lower vent, and the black metalwork piece/duct for the lower vent.
The large blue silicone? tubing that goes between the LHS fan and the AC unit, I gave it a squeeze and pulled the lower pipe away from the AC unit ever so slightly (it's not clamped on, just push fit) and it absolutely poured water out. Used a wet and dry vacuum to catch it all. there was maybe 300ml of water. And one leaf...

I then saw the drain hose connection point underneath this, where there's a small black rubber bellows type angle piece that connects to the drain tube that goes underneath the car and so I pulled this off, but no more water came out...
Gave it a poke with a short piece of metal thinking it was perhaps blocked further into the unit than I could get to from under the car due to the angle of the pipe, but still nothing. I don't understand how the blue hose could be so full of water yet nothing comes out the drains.

After all this I still have water trapped in the fan housing. I'm thinking if it was sitting in the blue pipe area it must have sloshed up this pipe and into the fan when doing a sharp turn.
Greg, the flap you mention on the fan is I think the vacuum actuated recirc air flap? I tried pulling it open and feeling inside, but there's no way I can get my fingers up and down far enough to feel anything - the water is sitting in the black round metalwork of the fan, right at the bottom of it.
I don't suppose anyone has a pic of the front (towards the front of the car) of this fan housing?

Good news is that despite all this the carpet somehow seemed to still be dry - quite surprised how water tight this unit/pipes all seem to be

 

Fan housing pics:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335467751...3ABFBM0p3Zl5Nm

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156474738...Bk9SR9Sd2ZeTZg

If you have a D3 unit, the electrics are different from the D2, but the housings are the same.

I wonder if you have a jammed flap in the aircon unit, and that is causing the condensate to be unable to drop into the evap pan beneath the unit. take a look inside if you can from the silicone connector. If you look at the outline diagrams in the attached document, it might be that somehow the condensate cannot drop out below the evaporator, so the evaporator space fills up and eventually spills down the blower silicone tube.
If it is possible, I would try GENTLY probing up towards the evaporator ABOVE the condensate tray to see if there is a blockage of some sort in the condensate path FROM the evaporator unit DOWN TO the condensate tray. There must be some small passage or passages to allow the condensate to drop through to the tray. Even maybe somecompresed air through a 90° tube pointing upwards. Maybe with a mirror it might be possible to see something, but acces is very limited...

See page 6 on the second document too. It seems pretty obvious the drain out from the condensor must be blocked!

 

Thanks Greg.
I chickened out from removing the fan & housing as to be honest it looked far too difficult and I didn't want to break anything, so took a less sophisticated approach and drilled a small ~2mm hole in the very bottom of the fan housing, drained the water out, and blocked the hole up with a piece of the black sticky bitumen type stuff that Jaguar used to seal flanges and gaps and things on the Delanair unit.
All is now well. Looking at the diagram & like you say, I must have just had something blocking the drain pipe where it enters the internals of the Delanair unit - maybe that leaf I found.

I think I will just double check the drivers side drain/inside the blue hose and do my best to ensure that side isn't also unblocked and see if it happens again.
I took it on a drive yesterday to the shops and had the AC running (it's very hot right now in UK) & did notice a small condensate puddle from where I parked up which is a good sign

 

Seems like an excellent fix. Good for you.