That's a rhetorical question. On my drive back from Missouri yesterday I learned that the A/C is leaking into the passenger footwell. I know it's a common problem and I wasn't the least bit worried when buckets of water sloshed out from under the glove box whenever I would floor it. After getting two hours of sleep, I went out this morning to dry it out. I was very surprised that there wasn't more water. Then I found this:





One of the prior owners DRILLED A DRAIN HOLE THROUGH THE FLOOR!!! It goes through the frame underneath, too.

In other words, there's a bare metal hole exposed to the elements on the underside of the car. Fortunately the only corrosion I can see is isolated right there at the hole. I have a borescope but it's not small enough to fit into the hole. The car came from southern California and Texas, so it's not likely that it was exposed to road salt.

I'm open to suggestions on how to fix this. First I'm thinking about emptying a can of WD-40 into the hole, from both sides. Then I need to seal it with some sort of sealant that will stick to metal that has been drenched with WD-40. But I don't know if such a product exists.

 

I just tapped on it with a hammer from the top and the bottom. Both sides seem rock-solid. I'm guessing this was done by the last owner. The vehicle was repossessed from him, so I'm guessing he wasn't very responsible with the vehicle.

 

A duckbill problem on a 2010??? Weird.

You're going to have to do a mod on it, don't know if you got an early 2010 or by some stroke of bad luck your improved drain got stuck.
Other than fixing the floor (not a problem as you know what's up. I'd probably use JB weld both sides after I cleaned it), slicing the drain is either easy or hard.
At least one guy went through the heater box from the inside to modify the drain, and that's the way I'd have done it. Most others have either forced their scrawny arm down the firewall or went up from below, to varying degrees of success.

Being East Coast, I'm sure you'll get a lot of water saved up this summer if not remedied. I'm West, so no humidity to worry about anyway.

Hey! That could be your first video!

 

I wouldn't worry about the hole as long as the carpet doesn't get wet when driven in the rain. it it does, peel up the carpet and put a dob of silicone on the metal.

My suggestion going forward is to just create one resurrection / project thread and keep updating that during your saga. Otherwise these threads are already starting to sound like Youtube clickbait...

 

Sorry, I didn't realize that this forum had too much activity. I'll try not to post so much.

Personally I prefer threads that stick to one topic with a good, descriptive title. It makes it easier to find answers to questions without having to ask the entire group questions like "how do I do a hard reset?" By the way, I searched the thread titles looking for an answer to that very question, but I couldn't find it. The answer is probably discussed deep in some multi-topic thread.

 

Here's a link to the most discussed thread on Duckbill;

AARRGGHHH!!!! I'M DROWNING IN CONDENSATE!

I say, post all ya want wherever ya want. Of course SOME people post comments six times in a row with the same subject in the same thread. I think they are just trying to add to their post count. Really quite annoying. Good thing there is an "Ignore" option that I use.

 

Youtube click bait with no videos that's impressive...........

Take off the negative battery cable and touch it to the positive one or just leave it disconnected for half an hour.

 

I took off the positive and touched it to negative. Electrically that's the same thing, correct? It didn't clear the E-Diff issue.

 

Have you charged the battery yet? It's seriously the first thing to check when ANYTHING happens, including Flat Tires!

 

I drove 1100 miles in one day. If that doesn't charge it then nothing will.

The battery seems fine. I haven't done a load test on it, but it starts the car instantly. It doesn't bog down even slightly when I crank it.

I happen to have some employees that have to load test batteries for a living. They do other stuff, too, but load testing batteries is a part of their job. Tomorrow I'll borrow one of their load testers and check it. But I don't think that's the issue.

 

Sam, you really do need to have the duck bill removed or replaced. The condenser water will slosh around in the pan and ruin the blower motor and/or short out the resistor. You have a //R so the work must be done from the bottom. See if you can find a trusted indie that will do the work at a reasonable price.

 

Reverend Sam,

I'm in the Winston-Salem, NC area. My shop in Mocksville, NC was able to cut off the duck bill for a permanent repair. I think the total cost was $250-300. They accessed it from underneath by lowering the transmission and cutting the duckbill from there. I have the duckbill as a souvenir. I don't know where in NC you are, but the shop is HBi Auto...located between Winston-Salem and Statesville.

I hope you'll join the Carolina Jaguar Club. Check it out online and on facebook.

 

I've been reading all of the threads about this. Another thread said that dropping the tranny doesn't work with the supercharged cars because there's something for the supercharger that can get damaged.

I have a flexible borescope. I'm thinking about rolling the car up on some ramps to see if I can find the duckbill from below. If I can see it with the borescope there has to be a way to rig up a tool that can reach it. It's plastic, right? A coat hanger with some nichrome wire tied to a 12 volt battery should be able to melt it off. It would help if I knew exactly where to look.

 

I think it is rubber.

 

I couldn't see it on mine from below. I could barely see a stain on the trans case where it's dripped over the years. There's a heat shield for the exhaust in the way with a 2 finger gap to access the area. My thoughts were at best a 9-12" bendable 1/4" steel dowel rod should be able to get up there and push the lip around until it "unsticks". Luckily I haven't had that problem yet.

 

Wait. Don't you have a 2010? Could this be the first report of a 2010+ duckbill clog?

 

No, in another thread it was stated that the duckbill design changed part way through the 2010 model year. A 2010 owner found that the hole is covered but there was a seam that he was able to pull back the insulation to get in. The hole is dead center over the transmission, 5-6 inches back from the front of the firewall.

 

Just to clarify, from the other thread, it stated that the duckbill design changed at VIN B34500, so if your VIN is earlier, you have the old clog-able duckbill design.

 

Are we fairly certain about the VIN B34500 and later being acurate with the new and improved redesigned duckbill? My VIN is over B38000 and I would like to feel confident there is one less issue ahead of me to worry about. It's bad enough my water pump is the original one, I don't need other issues haunting me! lol

 

From the other thread: