A/C

Have water/condensation in passengers foot well when A/C on, when I purchased the car last owner told me to keep the A/C on recycle to avoid the water problem but still have it on hot days, I'm in Queensland Australia so very humid. Anyone have a fix for the problem.

It could be a couple different things. It could be that the evaporator's drain hose is torn, allowing condensate/water to drain into the footwell rather than out of the car.

It could also be that the condenser tube, or the evaporator drain, is plugged with debris and the evaporator is overflowing. The debris is very probably crumbled black foam that was used inside the evaporator as a sealant. I've drilled a small hole in the side of the evaporator of my F and vacuumed out this debris.

There should be a drain port for the A/C evaporator / heater unit located within the dash, this is to allow for the condensation to drain out under the car via a tube.
This tube maybe blocked or have come away from the A/C evaporator/ heater unit, allowing to water vapour that is condensed onto the evaporator to leak into the cabin.

(Disclaimer: I’m about to recommend an alternative A/C refrigerant gas, Hychill….I have no affiliation with the manufacturer, it’s just the brand I use…… there are probably other equivalent brands)

I found the A/C in the MGF pretty useless for Oz conditions…… so…..
To get descent results from your A/C, I suggest ditching the 134a refrigerant gas and charging the system with Hychill minus 30, this refrigerant gas is much more efficient than that 134a rubbish ( of course you must have the 134a gas removed by a licensed A/C technician, as it is against the law here in Oz to just let it escape into the atmosphere……..not that just letting it rip seems to bother a lot or wreckers or mechanics…….” Oh no the gas must’ve just escaped by a leak or accident damage”)
The system only needs about a third of the charge of Hychill compared to 134a by weight so for a MGF/TF that’s @ 180g.
The Hychill runs at less pressure than 134a.
Hychill also requires less power to compress, so you’ll use less power and less fuel, though in reality you’d probably not notice.

134a is being banned in some countries (not Oz yet, but it will come) because it is environmentally shithouse, it is to be replaced by 1234yf. I’ve had no experience of this new stuff, so I can’t say if it’s of any use in an older system like ours now are.

Certainly when the switch to 134a from Freon gas happened all those years ago, we were told that the old systems that used Freon would work perfectly well with 134a……… bullshit! They became very ineffective, what’s more 134a is corrosive to copper, so if an system in a classic car had copper components they’d rot away and let the gas escape.
Now as our cars were designed to use 134a it won’t corrode our A/C system.
But who knows the true story about retro fitting 1234yf into our cars which now have older systems.

One thing I’ve noticed about A/C systems in European cars is that they’re often pretty marginal in Oz conditions…. What is deemed adequate for the conditions in their country of origin is as about as handy as a spare prick at a wedding here!
Charging marginal Euro A/C systems with Hychill brings them up to a useful standard in our conditions.

One thing to consider about Hychill is that it is flammable, mind you 134a is also flammable under the right circumstances and when you get 134a burning it produces toxic hydrogen fluoride…. Nasty shit that.
As there is such a small amount of Hychill used I’d think it highly unlikely that there’ll be any danger of a huge explosion and mushroom cloud. :hgf:

Cobber wrote:

There should be a drain port for the A/C evaporator / heater unit located within the dash, this is to allow for the condensation to drain out under the car via a tube.
This tube maybe blocked or have come away from the A/C evaporator/ heater unit, allowing to water vapour that is condensed onto the evaporator to leak into the cabin.

(Disclaimer: I’m about to recommend an alternative A/C refrigerant gas, Hychill….I have no affiliation with the manufacturer, it’s just the brand I use…… there are probably other equivalent brands)

I found the A/C in the MGF pretty useless for Oz conditions…… so…..
To get descent results from your A/C, I suggest ditching the 134a refrigerant gas and charging the system with Hychill minus 30, this refrigerant gas is much more efficient than that 134a rubbish ( of course you must have the 134a gas removed by a licensed A/C technician, as it is against the law here in Oz to just let it escape into the atmosphere……..not that just letting it rip seems to bother a lot or wreckers or mechanics…….” Oh no the gas must’ve just escaped by a leak or accident damage”)
The system only needs about a third of the charge of Hychill compared to 134a by weight so for a MGF/TF that’s @ 180g.
The Hychill runs at less pressure than 134a.
Hychill also requires less power to compress, so you’ll use less power and less fuel, though in reality you’d probably not notice.

134a is being banned in some countries (not Oz yet, but it will come) because it is environmentally shithouse, it is to be replaced by 1234yf. I’ve had no experience of this new stuff, so I can’t say if it’s of any use in an older system like ours now are.

Certainly when the switch to 134a from Freon gas happened all those years ago, we were told that the old systems that used Freon would work perfectly well with 134a……… bullshit! They became very ineffective, what’s more 134a is corrosive to copper, so if an system in a classic car had copper components they’d rot away and let the gas escape.
Now as our cars were designed to use 134a it won’t corrode our A/C system.
But who knows the true story about retro fitting 1234yf into our cars which now have older systems.

One thing I’ve noticed about A/C systems in European cars is that they’re often pretty marginal in Oz conditions…. What is deemed adequate for the conditions in their country of origin is as about as handy as a spare prick at a wedding here!
Charging marginal Euro A/C systems with Hychill brings them up to a useful standard in our conditions.

One thing to consider about Hychill is that it is flammable, mind you 134a is also flammable under the right circumstances and when you get 134a burning it produces toxic hydrogen fluoride…. Nasty shit that.
As there is such a small amount of Hychill used I’d think it highly unlikely that there’ll be any danger of a huge explosion and mushroom cloud. :hgf:

Some of the DIY air con gas top up kits sold in the UK are propane, nothing new over here. 500gms of propane are insignificant to 45 litres of petrol just behind the passenger seat. :beer:

Hychill minus 30 is a blend of propane and isobutane.
1st I replace the O ring seals with new proper green seals. And replace the drier, false economy not to as they’re pretty cheap.
Next I use a vacuum pump via a 4 way HVAC valve and gauge set, to evacuate moisture from the system, run it for @ 2hrs.
Then leave it stand under vacuum for a while ( looking for a depletion of vacuum which would indicate a leak) if there’s no loss of vacuum, then I charge the system measuring the gas by weight.
I normally can get temperature readings at the fascia vents of @-2C to -8C

You really should measure how much gas is used to recharge.
Overcharging can damage the system.

Thanks for this lot, I'm less ignorant of A/C now. In the olden days A/C made you less hot but at the cost of greater fuel usage. Last year during a corker of a hot couple of weeks I used the A/C constantly on the Mazda to create my own little temporate climate & with only a small decrease in fuel economy.
The chap across the road from me earns his crust from installing heat pumps & has explained how it all works, I was more impressed with the arm waving he used to help with his explanation than the explanation itself. And how does the cryogenic lot get temperatures down to a few degrees above absolute?
Sorry I digress!