Has anyone out there ever had this, or know what it might be?

 

While driving home yesterday both me and the misses had several drops of water drip onto our feet(not a huge amount but enough to get me worried), that seemed to be coming from somewhere near the air vents (left foot drivers side and right foot passengers side).

 

It happened after having been driving for about 2 hours with the aircon on and in fairly heavy traffic and the engine temperature was totally fine if that helps.

 

Question.

 

Is it just internal condensation building up and then driping out and maybe the feeder pipes need cleaning out or re-insulating

(if they are insulated in the first place),to stop the condensation building up?

 

or

 

Does it indicate something much more serious like the air con is on it's way out?

 

Any help greatly appreciated, as apart from this i've had absolutley no problems from the car.

 

TIA

 

Nij

from where the water is coming would point to heater matrix I'm afraid. I think a way of testing it is if the water comes out when the temp is set to max, but doesn't when the temp is set to min.

 

Hopefully it isn't.......

 

Vijay

probably the little drain hose for the aircon is leaking/missing or it's not going through the firewall like it's supposed to.

Thanks for the reply's chaps,

 

It sounds more like it is outlet hose than the heater matrix, as it only happens when the aircon is pumping out cold air and has been on for a while.

 

Any ideas/suggestions how i go about trying to find/fix it?

 

Thanks,

 

Nij.

Hi Eric,

 

But would that not only drip from the left of the passangers feet, that's where my aircon drain pipe is (cos mine was not going through properly a while back)

 

Vijay

Got coolant in your cooling system?

 

Sniff it!

 

I agree with Vijay, if it was the A/C drain hose you would only have this happening passenger side only.

 

Sounds like heater matrix to me as I speak from a nastey experience!

 

 

 

------------------

"I think we should take Iraq and Iran and combine them into

one country and call it Irate. All the pissed off people live

in one place and get it over with."

Denis Leary

Almost certainly the heater matrix. I know from 4 nasty experiences If the water smells of coolant then it definitely is.

 

When replacing, check for earth leaks to ensure that you stop at the first nasty experience

Thanks for the info,this doesn't sound good.

 

I must admit whan i stuck my hand where the drips seemed to be coming from the water was dirty, but didn't seem to smell of anything.

 

Any suggestion of where i can take it to for someone to take a look (Kent/SE London area), as i'm not realy knowledgable/competant enough to do the work myself, plus any idea of cost?

 

Also is it dangerous to me or the car to carry on using it in the meantime?

 

Thanks,

 

Nij.

 

 

 

Depends how big the leak is!!! I ran for several days each time I had a leak without any adverse effect. Just keep an eye on the water level.

 

As long as you keep the climate control as cold as possible you will minimise any flow though the matrix and hopefully not leak too much

 

Expensive is the word you'll be looking for!

 

Not so much the part that costs but the labour as most people will dismantle the entire dash to get to the core.

 

Bob Ford at Arriva Nelson in Peterborough did mine and I was very lucky to get most of the labour paid for under warranty.

 

I would have thought that Darren would be the ideal candidate for you Nij if you're Kent area.

 

Vijay has used him quite a bit and will no doubt have his number.

 

If the core or the piping goes west suddenly it will dump the coolant into both footwells which is not a good scenario as the ECU etc. is under the board in the passenger footwell.

 

Also because the stock temp gauge is so annus horribilus you will overheat very, very quickly which is not good either.

 

It could just be a bad hose and not the core at fault but I would get someone to look at it asap if I were you.

 

 

 

------------------

"I think we should take Iraq and Iran and combine them into

one country and call it Irate. All the pissed off people live

in one place and get it over with."

Denis Leary

Darren moved from Kent to Watford afaik. I got rid of his number as there wasn't much point having it.................

 

Vijay

Thanks for all the advice.

 

Vijay if you wouldn't mind could you post or mail me Darrens number, it sounds like i need to see him ASAP.

 

Fingers crossed it's only a hose and i can get it sorted soon, i don't fancy having it being off the road for a while or a huge bill!

 

Nij.

While the weather is warm you can also look at bypassing the matrix as a temporary solution. This can be done without taking the dash off although it does involve a fair amount of pain as you take skin off your knuckles

Posidrive,

 

I'm going to do a bit of further investigationn at the weekend to see if i can see what the problem is.

 

I may need to bypass the system if it looks like the matrix is going, so i can take it somewhere to get fixed.

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

Any other suggestions on where to take it to that isn't too far away?

 

Anyone got SE's number?

 

Thanks,

 

NIj.

I'm near High Wycombe so my pet mechanic probably isn't for you (as well as being hideously expensive but worth it).

 

I'm not an expert on Kent, but I believe that AndyZ knows a good and reasonably priced guy in your neck of the woods. You'll probably find his details in the For Sales forum since he breaks a lot of Zs for parts. Don't be tempted to try and buy a second hand matrix though since you just don't know what state they are in internally. Although excess pressure can kill them, earth leaks attack them from the inside. I found out the hard way killing 4 in as many months.

Originally posted by NIJ:

Anyone got SE's number?

 

Thanks,

 

NIj.

 

01621 858856

 

 

 

------------------

"My mother was like a sister to me, only we didn't have sex quite so often."

Emo Philips

I've bought a couple of bits off Andy over the last few weeks and he knows his stuff so I'll give him a call tonight and see if he knows anyone that can help.

 

I don't suppose you know the Nissan part number for the matrix so i can check out the new replacement cost, I tried doing a search on the Courtesy site and could'nt find it, and my local Nissan dealer are about as much use as a chocolate kettle.

 

 

Thanks again,

 

Nij

 

as I said Nij, I got rid of his number a while back. I'm sure some of the other guys will still have his number.

 

Sorry,

 

Vijay

Don't have the part number to hand, but including the evil VAT they are £140-£150 from UK dealers

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice, you people realy are very helpfull.

 

I've now got a number for a local mechanic who knows Zeds, so fingers crossed it's not going to be a re-mortgage job.

 

I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

 

Nij.

as Timmy Turbo said, most of the labour would be taking off the dash - you might be able to save some money and do that yourself??

 

Vijay

Part number? This is all I can find:-

 

B7140-40P00 CORE ASSY - HEATER

 

HTH

 

CheerZ,

 

Andy

Thanks Andy,

 

Do you know anywhere i can look to see how it all fits together as i don't seem to be having much luck finding any 'How to' pages on the suject.

 

Ta,

 

Nij

Your best bet is to go to http://www.nissan.co.za

 

Once the page has loaded, click on owning then select parts from the drop down menu. Once that page has loaded click on Passenger Vehicles. Wait for the next page to load, select 300zx, then body electrical from the next list, then heater and blower unit.

 

 

HTH

 

CheerZ,

 

Andy

Andy,

 

Sorry to be a pain but i'm not getting any joy from that site, it's coming up as check address.

 

Thanks,

 

Nij

Hmm thats funny it works ok on mine....

 

I'll see if I can capture the picture or something....

 

CheerZ,

 

Andy