I have recently purchased myself a 1997 XK8, Coupe (Oct 2015), which was imported into Australia last March 2016 from the UK. It’s immaculate and I'm very pleased with my purchase. In the process of it being transported to North Queensland, it arrived with a broken handbrake. I decided to rectify this myself, as I was loath to let anyone touch my new pride and joy.
After further investigation, I found the swaged end of the forward cable had failed. This was simple enough to replace, except when I was in the process of doing this I found water under the floor (under the driver’s seat area). This was fresh water and after racking my tiny brain for many days, I concluded that this had been a problem before, due to the corrosion on the outside of the cable. Knowing that the previous owner (of six years) never used the air-con and the fresh nature of this water + the absence of any stale smells inside the car……..I turned my attention to the air-con evaporator water drains. Since purchase, the air-con has been used constantly, due to high summer temperatures.
I also noticed when servicing the car on a hoist, that there was water dripping out from behind the left heat shield, one third of the way down the car, but I couldn’t see a hose hanging down and thought this strange. After seeing the diagram below on JTIS, I was wondering should there be water dripping from the RH side too, due to the fact there is two drain hoses ?

Today, I removed the center console in the hope of gaining access to these evaporator water drain hoses. Once removed and the side tunnel carpet retraining studs too, I could see the two hoses without too much trouble. The LH appeared to be ok, but the RH had several holes in the convoluted folds. As a temporary measure, I cut the damaged fold out and then fed remaining part inside the larger end fitting, then Superglued it. This left this hose a tiny bit too short, but it fitted and will suffice till my new ones arrive from the UK.
I then ran the air-con system to check both drains, which appeared not to be leaking into the car itself. However, water was still only drpping from the LH side of the underside of the car. The amount of water dripping now seemed to have increased, but I am not sure if this is correct or not ?

Does anyone have detailed knowledge of the Air-Con water drain system and I'm wondering if I should have water dripping from both sides or just one ? I am curious to know the design of this drain system if this water is dripping onto the body or into a chamber/plenum of some sort ? Could be a rust trap if the body is exposed to this water?

I am a little paranoid about this, after finding water under the carpet initially, as living in the Tropics, with outside air temperatures of 26- 36 degrees all year round, air-con is a necessity.

Would appreciate any help, thanks in advanced

XKJoe

 

If you are confident the hose is connected in good condition and not blocked, I would not worry too much.

Water can drip out of both sides, but my experience is that the car prefers the left side. Probably has to do with the internal shape of the box around the evaporator coil + any tilt the car might have while parked.

 

I hadn't given it too much thought until Charlie pointed it out but condensate disharge from one side only is regular.

The Parts Catalogue diagram is slightly more helpful than the one in JTIS for the AC unit components:


(click on the image to enlarge it)

There have been reports of blocked drain tubes but a more regular issue is they become detached and the condensate ends up in the footwell soaking the carpet.

Graham

 

Hi Graham,
The trouble with this is that the water just sits underneath the carpet insulation, which very thick. As I said above, I found this by accident while replacing the forward hand brake cable, but if I hadn't, I could of ended up with a serious rust and rotten/smelly car. I was amazed how much water was there and I only had the car about two months, which is only driven at weekends. I do however, live in a very warm climate, with current temps up around 34 deg c and 70% humidity, so a lot of water gets produced.

A real trap though if left

Regards

Joe