We moved to FL last year and the AC gets quite a bit of use, now it appears the drain to the AC is blocked and water is getting into the car on the passenger's side. Does anyone know where the drain tube is and what is the easiest way to clear the blockage. The car is a 96 Accord SE Coupe 4cyl 5sp.
A very common problem! If you crawl under the car on the passenger side, just aft of the firewall you should see the end if a plastic tube, about 1/4 inch diameter. That would be the evaporator drain tube. Simply fishing in there with a couple feet of wire will probably break up the blockage, but not really clean it out. An alternate approach is to fill a turkey baster with rubbing alcohol or isopropyl alcohol (shellac thinner) and use that to reverse flush the tube. The up side is that the alcohol will reduce the mold that is undoubtedly growing in the evaporator drain pan, the down side is that it is messy, both where you are trying to fit the tube and baster together and inside the car where an overflow is guaranteed.
Mike
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'Curly'
I haven't done much work on vehicles, but yesterday I did tackle some of the A/C system yesterday in a 94 - same generation.
The fan motor and three screws approach will remove the fan blower motor and fan itself. This is all part of the A/C, but not part of the evaporator and I doubt will be the source of the leaks.
Climbing under the car and shoving a wire up from there may solve the problem, but it was suggested to me that you tackle the problem right at the evaporator. What I saw yesterday is this:
Climb under the glovebox and the evaporator is part of the black plastic housing you see underneath. The evaporator has a rubber tube running from it into the firewall. You really have to get low - I did it by kneeling on the ground outside and looking up in. Look to the left-middle and you should see it there. You can remove the tube from the evaporator. I used a small-blade screw driver and carefully peeled it back until I could pull it off by hand. The tube apparently does not disconnect from the firewall, but goes through it.
Once disconnected, you can try (with a paper clip or whatever) to see if there is a clearable blockage right in the tube or evaporator right there where the meet.
That's what I know. Please feel free to correct me.
John
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Sounds like you've got the better idea, John. I know that guys (including me) have used the 'drop the fan' method to get a clear view up thru the heater into the windshield cowl (CR-V) to check for the source of water leaks and obstructions (nests).
It's just so easy it's hard to resist. :-)
'Curly'
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