(MK2) Common water ingress points? (Found a couple already)

[Ripp]

So far leaving one of the windows open 10mm or so after parking it up seems to be keeping the condensation at bay for now. Noticed a layer of ice on the inside of the roof in back this morning though so there's definitely moisture in the van somewhere but having the window open a bit to equalise the inside/outside temps is stopping it from condensating all over the windows. It's obviously not a permanent fix but it'll have to do until I can figure out how to get the floor up in the front to look for leaks.

[Ripp]

I have an update that may explain the condensation if I'm lucky. I took it to have the A/C system cleaned and demisted this morning to rule that out as a cause but when they hooked it up to draw a vacuum within 2 mins the machine reported that the A/C system has a leak. Obviously it's not leaking into the cabin and causing condensation itself but the lack of a functioning A/C system 'may' be responsible for the condensation as it's not drawing moisture out of the air in the cabin when it's supposed to. I'll get it booked in somewhere to be repaired and maybe I'll get lucky and that will solve it, but if not at least it'll rule it out as being the cause.

[metalworker0]

well if its the unit under the dash ..then it will be a big job.
also ..be a shame to find out its the heater matrix after that sort of a repair.

so tell em to check both items - or you may be paying for big job twice .

To give you an idea ..taking the dash out and reinstalling could be a 10 hour job ..times that by £75 and hour plus vat ..and that is what you are looking at.

Garages charge high labour charges these days and often do things the long way round.
example: last week or so, friend said she needed fuel pump on a Volvo estate.

So i looked it up ..about £20 - £30 for new pump
looked up how to replace ..most cut hole in floor under back seat.
No ..she took it to Volvo garage ...price of repair was £960 !!!!

be careful you don't write your van off because of cost of fixing a bit of condensate !
all the best...mark

[Ripp]

well if its the unit under the dash ..then it will be a big job.
also ..be a shame to find out its the heater matrix after that sort of a repair.

so tell em to check both items - or you may be paying for big job twice .

To give you an idea ..taking the dash out and reinstalling could be a 10 hour job ..times that by £75 and hour plus vat ..and that is what you are looking at.

Garages charge high labour charges these days and often do things the long way round.
example: last week or so, friend said she needed fuel pump on a Volvo estate.

So i looked it up ..about £20 - £30 for new pump
looked up how to replace ..most cut hole in floor under back seat.
No ..she took it to Volvo garage ...price of repair was £960 !!!!

be careful you don't write your van off because of cost of fixing a bit of condensate !
all the best...mark

Well hopefully it's just an o-ring or pipe connector or something under the bonnet.

[Ripp]

Van is having the AC leak tested this afternoon and I was feeling fairly positive about it because recently the condensation has been very light so was thinking that maybe yes the lack of a functioning AC system could be leaving just enough moisture in the cabin to create a light mist but... I gave it a quick jet wash yesterday afternoon while the temp was about 3-4°C and as soon as I got in the van to move it after I was done washing it all the windows fogged up instantly, no heating or anything at all, just me in the van for 1 min. So now I'm back to thinking that water is getting in somewhere as it's too much of a coincidence that right after I wash it and introduce a tiny bit of heat by getting in the van that the windows fog up. The weather has been pretty dry but cold here for a week or so and the condensation has been almost non existent as I've been leaving the window open 10mm for an hour after parking it up and that's kept it at bay up until I washed it of course which seemed to bring the issue back.

I can't see anything at all getting in around the front doors and can't see any water anywhere in the cargo area so I'm still at a loss with the location of the ingress point if that is what's happening. Depending on how much the AC repair is going to cost I'll get it done anyway and see if a functioning AC system is enough to keep the cabin moisture free and if not then I need to either do some serious water leak testing (which I've done before on another car so know exactly how difficult and time consuming and frustrating it can be).

Failing that it goes on eBay but I don't really want to put the issue on a new owner and also if I buy another one I could be buying one with the exact same issue so I'm no further forward. Also it's a nice van, it's a nice blue colour and it's the Limited version with 120PS, 3 seats, AC, body coloured bumpers and all that and also has the sat nav with the larger screen and reversing camera and all so it's fairly well specced from what I can see by browsing online for similar Connects and strangely I got real lucky with it it seems because it's ULEZ compliant but doesn't need adblue and still has the 120ps engine in it lol

I hate just throwing money at things and prefer to fix things myself but I wish there was somewhere I could take it just say "here, find and fix the water leak" but the labour costs and time involved in getting someone else to do it could be ridiculous.

[metalworker0]

Heater air intake is another place it can get in, but you'll have to remove the grills where the wiper arms are to find out ...could be full of decomposing leaves, blocking the drains in that area underneath.

all the best.mark

[Ripp]

Heater air intake is another place it can get in, but you'll have to remove the grills where the wiper arms are to find out ...could be full of decomposing leaves, blocking the drains in that area underneath.

all the best.mark

I need to get all that plastic cowling off and the wipers off anyway because apparently there is a bodywork seam under there that can have gaps from the factory that can let water in so need sealing up so as and when I get in there I'll clear out any debris that may be in there. Thanks Fingers crossed for a quick, cheap and easy AC leak diagnosis this afternoon, as if I'm that lucky lol

[Ripp]

The AC condenser is shot were the words they used lol, heavily corroded and leaking from the bottom also possible leaks from connecting hoses. So it's going back in just over a week for a new condenser, new seals, new Schrader valves and obviously new gas etc. They also said they'll add some anti corrosion coating to it as well to help stop the issue coming back. Total cost for the repair will be £460 and the leak test cost me £72 so although not ideal it's not horrendous. They said they have to take the front bumper off to do it so I assume it's accessible without having to have the dash out. Obviously it needs repairing anyway but hopefully it'll solve my condensation issue. I've not been under this van yet so I have no idea where the condenser is but if it's somewhat accessible then a good coating in ACF50 every year before the winter sounds like a good idea for anyone with the same van because it sounds like it was simply corrosion that's buggered mine.

[metalworker0]

well the condenser is in front of the radiator ,..so bumper will have to come off ..which is a ten min job.......the part under the dash is the evaporator. not a ten min job.
all the best.mark

[Ripp]

well the condenser is in front of the radiator ,..so bumper will have to come off ..which is a ten min job.......the part under the dash is the evaporator. not a ten min job.
all the best.mark

Cool, well at least it's the condenser and not the evaporator then!

[Ripp]

I have an update on this today.

It was suppossed to go in for a new A/C evaporator this morning but the garage cancelled on me last minute so rather than waste the day off work I decided to get eyes on the A/C condenser drain hose that is apparently a common cause of water getting into the cabin. So, lower center console out along with a few trim pieces around the sil and I could pull the floor up enough to see what I needed to see without having to take any seats out.

All around the drain hose is dry, I ran the heaters and A/C for a while with some baby powder around the area just to make sure but it is definitely dry. Also checked all the insulation under the heater matrix and A/C evaporator and that is all dry too.

But after pulling the carpet up a bit more I found a damp area, not soaked but fairly damp.

Green area around the drain hose is all dry:


Green area dry, red area damp:


It's just the drivers side as far as I can see and it's not actually at the lowest point of the floor becasue I beleive the floor is a bit lower under the drivers seat and from what I could see by shoving my hand down there as far as I can it's dry at the lowest point. Also the insulation higher up in the footwell around the pedals and bulkhead is dry too so it does not look like any water is getting in at a higher point and settling down at the bottom.

So I'm now completely baffled as this damp area seems completely isolatated from anywhere that water might run down to it from. From what I can see all the grommets and clips in the floor in that area are in place and there is even some dirt/dust in the area that is dry but the floor insulation is damp.

I covered the area in baby powder and got a water hose all under the van in that area but nothing showed up in the powder so for now I've shoved a load more powder in there and I guess I'll have to pull out all the trim and have another look after I've driven it the rain or something and see if there is any taces in the powder.

The only thing I can think of is that the small water leak that I found in the drivers door a few weeks ago had been there for a significant time and soaked the insulation over that time and I'm now dealing with the residue water that's left over and is slowly drying up, that's the case the once the A/C is fixed i'll run it as much as I can to help take the moisture out and see if the condensation gets better over time as a result. By that time of course it'll probably be Spring time and the issue won't appear until next Winter What I should have done but completely din't think about it before I put it all back together was to wring the water out the insulation and mop it up but alas I forgot and it was a mission getting all that trim out to access it. At least I now have an idea of how damp the insulation is today so I'll try to pick a dry day after a couple of real wet days to get access under there again and see how wet it is, if it's worse I know I still have water getting in somewhere and if it's drier then I know it might be on the mend itself and possibly was the leak in the drivers door that I repaired a couple of weeks ago, after all, the leak was on the drivers door and it is the drivers footwell that is damp so you never know.

I'm pretty confidenet that I've ruled out the A/C evaporator drain hose, heater matrix, A/C evaporator and any leaks higher up like windscreen, bulkhead and door seals etc as the carpet is all dry up high and I'm also pretty sure it's just the drivers side that is damp so I guess that's some progress.

If all else fails I'll just cut an access flap in the rubber floor under the removable floor mats and just keep pouring baby powder down there in the winter months to trap and hold the moisture to stop in condensating anywhere

[metalworker0]

THE evaporator will only makes condensate when certain conditions are met...that would be air flowing across it is high in humidity...is at a temperature were it does not freeze on the evaporator. ..plus the bigger the difference is between incoming air temp and evaporator temp, the more likelihood that condensate will happen

its like a fizzy drinks can brought out of the fridge, high summer they will be soaked with condensate in a matter of seconds ..winter its just cold with no condensate.

all the best..mark

[Ripp]

THE evaporator will only makes condensate when certain conditions are met...that would be air flowing across it is high in humidity...is at a temperature were it does not freeze on the evaporator. ..plus the bigger the difference is between incoming air temp and evaporator temp, the more likelihood that condensate will happen

its like a fizzy drinks can brought out of the fridge, high summer they will be soaked with condensate in a matter of seconds ..winter its just cold with no condensate.

all the best..mark

Yes I totally get that, it's more likely to create moisture when it's hot outside and the AC is on full blast, but this time of year that probably won't happen so that and the fact the insulation around the evaporator and drain hose is dry leads me to believe that it is not causing the problem. It's kind of ruled itself out because this time of year the conditions for it to condensate won't be met, but there is moisture on the floor as described above. If you see what I mean?

[Ripp]

Apparently the drain hose actually becomes dislodged and disassembles and leaks through a gap but it all looks like it's not dislodged or disassembled.

[Ripp]

I may be missing something because obviously I'm no expert. How would I go about diagnosing a faulty evaporator? I'll ask the AC specialist anyway when they call me to rebook the van in for the condenser replacement.

The way I was looking at it was that if the evaporator wouldn't have condensation all over it and/or be chucking water out of the drain hose this time of year because it's too cold outside then surely that's not what's causing the damp under my floor? Because it wouldn't be creating any moisture this time of year?

I'm not discounting anything anyone says because I'm all ears to get this problem solved.