Air Con Drain Tube

I am trying find the drain tube for the evaporator fitted to my 1997 4.6 HSE. I currently have water flodding the carpet whilst the air con is on, and as this is coming from behind the glove box area I'm assuming it's the evaporator drain tube that is blocked. Problem is, I can't see where it is. Can anyone help?

Its easy to find when you know how If you remove the passenger side centre console panel and then the foot vent thing the forward-most screw on the panel screws into it becomes a bit easier to see.

Basically, its just forward past the foot vent. If you run your hand along you should be able to feel it. Everytime I have had a problem with mine I just gave the pipe a good squeeze and that seemed to free the blockage and everything drained out underneath.

If this isnt the case for you then you may need to get underneath the vehicle and use a wire coathanger to free off the blockage (you WILL get very wet doing this though - you have been warned )

See for a picture of the drain tube from underneath - Range Rover P38/4.0/4.6 Common Problems and Fixes

-Wills

hello,
there are two of them on both sides of transmission.
and you will get wet
cheers, korkut

Hi Wills, thansk for the info. I had a prod around under the car with a coathanger to see if the pipes would clear that way. I'm getting a slight drip out of one and nothing from the other. I'll need to remove the panel as you suggest and try this. Will I need to remove any of the carpet to access the pipe at all?

jdennington said:

Hi Wills, thansk for the info. I had a prod around under the car with a coathanger to see if the pipes would clear that way. I'm getting a slight drip out of one and nothing from the other. I'll need to remove the panel as you suggest and try this. Will I need to remove any of the carpet to access the pipe at all?

Click to expand...

No, not really. You cant really access the pipe that well even when the panel and foot vent are removed. If you run your hand forward along the transmission tunnel, roughly at the same level as the bottom of the console side panel/foot vent surround you should feel the pipe. Its not a large pipe but is made of rubber and can be squeezed.

The pipe comes up from the floor and the plastic evaporator drain tube just 'sits in' the tube (it will make sense when you see it). I have read reports from people who have thought that the coming up from the floor is a little too long and because of this it forms a small kink in the tubing making the water not drain. They have fixed the problem by trimming a few mm off the top of the rubber drain tube.

I have never personally tried this and have found that as long as I give the tube a squeeze every few months everything seems to stay ok and I don't get any water in the footwell.

I would try and locate the tube inside and give it a poke and a squeeze and see if that improves the situation.

-Wills

OK Wills, thanks for the info, I think I know the pipe you mean, I took a quick look at the weekend and saw a thin black pipe which I thought was large coaxial cable but come to think of it, it wasnt shiny as insulation would be but more mat black. I will give this a good squeeze and hope for the best. I tried to look for the evaporator thinking I would see a shiny matrix but could only see lots of sealed balck plastic.

Hi Wills, as an update, followed your advice and removed the lower footwell vent. I noticed a small concertinaed rubber pipe, I was able to disconnect this from where it connected to the drian pipe on the evaporator housing and found my blockage was in the housing itself. I was able to clear this with a plastic rod, I also found I could push a plastic pipe in to the drain tube while it was disconnected and this allowed me to blow the pipe through. The water now drians as it should, rather than all over my carpet. Many thanks for your pointers with this issue