I have a 1996 XJS Convertible with the AJ16 engine,

I took a long drive last week from the beach with AC running the whole time (about 3 hours) and I was getting condensate dripping on my feet on the drivers side and I heard the water sloshing on the passengers side.

Clearly I have a blockage somewhere preventing the condensate from draining.

I went under the car and I found the two rubber tubes on either side of the transmission tunnel and I shoved a wire hanger up there. It goes in about 7" and dead ends. No water, no nothing. I get about as far on the other side.

I grab some flexible wire and and I try the same thing, hoping to be able to make a turn in the tubing? No luck.

I go in from the interior. I was not able to find those tubes from the inside of the car? I took the ski slope out, I removed the trim panel on the passenger side with the vent attached to it, but no luck.

I then saw that big blue rubbery elbow under the passengers side air bag and I pulled it off. I must have let 32 ounces of water pour out! There was some dirt And small twigs mixed in there!

Can someone help me figure out what to do now?

 

On my pre-facelift XJS the tubes were a few inches forward of the climate control knobs, well disguised.




I can't figure out why/how the duct would have so much water and, apparently, the evap case have none.

Others will chime in. I'm just on my first cuppa coffee and a bit blurry

Cheers
DD

 

Found tubes! Both were fine. I pulled the top of the tubes off and blindly felt around the hole. No water, not even damp.

I shoved a solid copper 16 gauge wire in the passenger side and went in easily and pulled out nothing.

Where is the rest of the water that backed up into the blue elbows? Obviously gravity only let out what was able to flow out, there should be more water trapped in there somewhere!

 

Take a length of vacuum hose long enough to reach outside the car and connect it to the uppermost part of the drain tube.
Connect an airline (or in a pinch a can of compressed air) to the vac hose and give it a few good blasts. That should clear the blockage, at least temporarily.

If there's still more water (condensate) in the evaporator, it'll drain safely outside the car when you remove the airline.

Worked on my car, good luck

Larry

 

I had this untill I removed the heater unit from the car. It had a about an 1/8" of pollen and dust and no matter how many times I poked it as soon as it got wet it would fill the drain up with mud and wash our feet when cornering, after refitting I fitted pollen filters hopefully the final solution.

 

Removing the heater unit sounds like quite the job?

Where does the fresh air enter the car? I removed the grill by the wipers but could find nothing obvious.

 

Air enters the car each side of the wiper well, poke in a mirror and you can just see an oval hatch there. This hatch is actually part of the blower unit, and should be closed when the heater unit is switched is off, open when running. It is just possible 9not likely though) that the water go into the blue tubes between the blower units and the Heater unit through these hatches, if they do not close properly. I am a bit hard put to see how the condensate water can back up so high as these tubes.
Removing the heater unit is a dash out job, and quite a sod to do.
Greg

 

I have noticed that the AC condensation drips out on top of the exhaust and steams off, if that makes sense. Not much or any may ever hit the pavement... After a long drive, I can lean under the car and hear the slow AC drips hitting the exhaust and sizzle off.