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Water in Passenger Footwell


jdanhires

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The dealer told me spiders can clog the lines too, I suppose with their webbing and eggs from the inside.

 

Someone mentioned their's a fitting that can be uncapped and connected to a compressor, for a nice blast of declogging air.

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Crud (small bits of organic debris that falls from trees etc.) gets into the fresh air intake in front of the windshield and makes its way down into the HVAC system and plugs up the drain tube for the A/C evaporator. The condensate (water) cannot drain and thus overflows into the interior. The drain line goes from the HVAC system down past the inboard side of the ECU in the passenger footwell and exits the floorpan slightly behind the front wheel and about 1 to 1.5 feet inboard of the right front wheel. If you park outside under trees regularly, you should have this line blown out regularly (compressed air is introduced into the drain line from under the car). The drain line is a black molded rubber hose about 1 inch in outside diameter.

 

After seeing this post I tore apart my passenger footwell to see if my drain line was kinked or pinched like others have mentioned. Looked fine to me (build date 11/05). By the way, I came across a build date sticker (white with black print) on the underside of the trunk lid after removing the liner when trying to replace a license plate mounting grommet (couldn't get to it...damn).

It is still ugly.
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Every car with A/C that I have looked at is like this, not just Subarus. The evaporator is in the cabin. That is the part that gets cold that the air flows over. Moisture is removed when the air cools and it condenses on the evaporator and has to drain somewhere. Look at your home A/C...same way.
It is still ugly.
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Why so many peopel getting flodded cars. This seems like a recall issue to me. Does anyone know if things were fixed or changed for 2006. I haven't seen anyone post a 2006 flood problem. I I ever step into my car and land in a puddle of water I'll know what to do.

 

Lastly, if this was such a common problem you would think they might incldue blowing out the drain line as regular maintenance.

 

Thanks

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Took mine to the dealer last week, he just blew out the line with some compressed air. No fix as of yet from Subaru, I guess it's something we'll have to deal with. I don't think that it's a problem specific to Subaru's, common on a lot of vehicle's with A/C. Most of the time the culprit happens to be spiders crawling up the line and spinning a web. If it happens again I'll thake care of it myself.

Rick

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Many folks with 2006 models haven't had a spring/fall cycle yet with their cars, their needs to be organic matter flying around in the air before things get clogged. I'd say if it were going to happen with 2006 models, folks who bought early 2006 models might be having the problem around now. Got my car in the fall and it was late spring when problems happened.
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Got the car back after one day with a loaner...the dealer wanted to make sure everything was dried out. They disassembled the dash under the glove box, blew everything out, and put what was blown out in a zip lock bag for me to see...about 1/4 cup of birdseed that had started to grow in the moist environment and about 1/4 cup of dog hair from my black lab. Seems a mouse had built a nest last winter while the car was in the garage...Good dealer...covered it all under warranty.

 

Two days later, after driving around town for awhile, I parked the LGT in the driveway. A few hours later I returned to the car to drive it into the garage. When I got in, I noticed a crack in the extreme lower passenger side corner of the windshield that was not there the last time I was in the car. a few hours before. Last August I had the windshield replaced after a rock chip turned into a crack halfway across the windshield. I didn't remember anything hitting the windshield this time.

 

Took the car to the dealer again today to get an estimate on the windshield. They looked at the crack and said there was no impact evidence...said it looked like a stress fracture caused by a faulty replacement windshield and made an appointment to again replace the windshield at no cost to me or my insurance company.

 

It's great to have a dealer like this, especially after all the dealer horror stories I've read on this site...but in any case, when I commented that Subaru glass sucks...the dealer body shop people agreed with me.

 

In a previous post I mentioned the wavy rubber molding problem I had with the first windshield repacement and that the dealer was aware of the problem and had reported it to SOA. They tell me now that SOA has a new supplier/part# for this and the problem shouldn't reappear this time. I'll report the results after I have this second windshield replacement...In fact, the service manager mentioned this to me when I had the car in for the AC problem and asked me to make an appointment to get the windshield molding repaced...that was two days before before the windshield decided to crack and I had to get the windshield and molding relaced anyway.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another occurence here in my car. Had about a half inch of standing water under the all weather mats when I went to investigate what the fan/water sound was coming from.

 

I think this is more an A/C condenser drain issue than a heavy rain issue, though I guess others have said the two drain out together and both are possible. It's been humid here lately and the A/C has been on almost nonstop. When I shut it off, no more leaks problems. One more thing for the dealer to fix when I bring her in...

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Well, got my car back from the dealer (Clay Subaru in Norwood) and they didn't so much as shampoo the carpet, despite the fact that I told them it was ruined and had been sitting in essentially standing water for a week. I put my hand on the carpet and it's still wet, and now my hand smells like mildew. So I called the service manager today and he says that they don't change the carpet, but maybe the insulation got damaged so I need to drrop it off again for them to "take a look." Thanks alot - another 30 miles out of my way for them to maybe/maybe not do anything about it.

 

Oh, and they did me the favor of flushing out my new Mobil1 with 2k miles on it and replacing it with the stock crap. Again, service manager sounds annoyed and says that they don't check it before they change it.

 

So a big **** you out to Clay Subaru - thanks for nothing. Oh - and if you're reading this - tell your secretary not to tell the customers that the car was also cleaned inside and out - it makes things disappointing when they show up to pick it up and the car is as dirty as it was when I brought it in and my gas light is now on. Jerks.

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I doubt the install pinched the hose. The drain hose clogging is a common problem with Subaru’s especially in the NE.

You have to tell them to replace the carpet if it is ruined don’t be shy, it was caused buy a warranted item, though I would let them treat it first to see if that helps? They have to take a lot of stuff off to pull it out and it never goes back the same when they do it…oh and the carpet and insulation is all one piece.

 

good luck!

 

 

I just read your last post again and you should probably find another dealer to go to as well sound like those guys are Mickey Mouse. A further drive may be worth it to save your self from further aggravation?

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Oh, and they did me the favor of flushing out my new Mobil1 with 2k miles on it and replacing it with the stock crap. Again, service manager sounds annoyed and says that they don't check it before they change it.

 

So they just do oil changes willy-nilly without asking or being told to do it?

It is still ugly.
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  • 2 months later...
just wondering when you have a clogged A/C line, did your car fog up easily? I havent checked mine but I've been noticing that even in a slight varying temperature inside and outside my car it fogs up and then when I check to it in the morning the air inside the car is all moist and damp and there's condensation on all my windows...
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  • 4 weeks later...

I am the latest victim of this. Just today, going around turns I noticed a strange sound that turned out to be the HVAC fan hitting water (I think). I then noticed drips down into the passenger footwell, and most of the footwell is wet. Ugh. Time to call the dealership tomorrow.

 

EDIT:

 

I called my dealer at 7:30 this morning when they opened and said I'd like to get this taken care of as quickly as possible since that might minimize mold and mildew. They were able to take me this morning and give me a free loaner (07 Forester). I just got a call that they found the A/C drain line kinked. They rerouted it and checked that it is flowing properly now. They will be replacing the carpeting tomorrow. They have already performed this exact same procedure on other cars. They seem to think this will not reoccur after the rerouting. They said something about the line was routed behind something that could pinch it.

 

I must give my dealer, Village Subaru in Acton, praise. They took me rapidly and gave me a loaner without advance scheduling. They are replacing the carpeting without my having to push at all. I did have to deal with them a LOT last winter/spring when I was fighting a sticking throttle plate that was causing stalling, and they treated me well then too. Too often we hear about horror stories, so I figured it is good to share the positive stories when possible. I purchased the car from them, which could have some impact.

 

--Lee

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  • 1 month later...

now it would seem that I am the latest to be affected by this fiasco...

and from what it looks like...the first '06...hurray for me!

we got alot of rain last week and are due to get more this week. can anyone recommend a dealership to handle this in the NE NJ area... I am in Bergen County, and I would like to have it handled properly the first time. I appreciate the help in advance...Thx all!

 

Build date = ?

Purchase date = december 05

opitons =

sunroof = yes

cabin filter = no

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