Need help, water dripping from behind glovebox:

[DRC]

Okay, I am driving to work this morning and while stopped at a light I notice a trickling water sound like I had a water fountain running in my car. What the? It rained a little bit last night and was lightly misting during my drive but not enough to explain trickling water. I turned off the radio and looked at all my windows and my sunroof. Nothing. I turned off the AC and the noise stopped. As I looked around I see about 1/4 cup of water sitting on my passenger side floor liner. I turn the AC back on and looked again and now I am seeing water dripping from behind the glovebox onto the floor liner.

It seems that the blower motor box, or whatever it’s called, that’s behind the glovebox has filled up with water and when the AC or fan is running is dripping onto the floor. I turned off the AC but by the time I got to work this morning I had about 1/2 cup water on my floor liner.

I did a search of the board and only found two posts:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/34950-could-someone-help-me-pull-up-tsb.html

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/20753-fixed-c-condenser-blockage.html

One has a TSB for ice buildup and the other talks about a clogged drain line on a 3rd gen. I don’t think I fall into the ice buildup issue as I have a 2008 Limited and the TSB covers thru 2007. I may have a clogged drain line, I will need to check this.

Questions:
Has anyone else had this problem and is it a know issue on the 4th gens?

Water was dripping when just the fan was running, no AC. Could this just be a lot of water built up splashing out?

I will check the drain line tonight when I get home, can anyone tell me where exactly it’s located? Not sure how / why this would get clogged however.

Other then the drain line, is there anything else I should check? Do I need to replace any seals or anything like this?

 

[DRC]

Okay, I need some help with this one.

When I left work today, while sitting in the parking lot I turned on the fan to see if I could still hear water splashing around. Yeap, after about 30 second of running the fan water started dripping onto my floor liner. Okay, I expected to get home and check the drain tube and find a clog or something. Nope, nothing, the dam thing was clear and dripping some water. I did not run the AC or fan on the drive home so I don’t know why it was dripping water.

Since the line was clear I then removed the trim panel under the glovebox and found that the insulation was sopping wet and the computer control units that are mounted there were also wet. After removing the glovebox I pulled the drain tube and sucked and blew through it and it is clear. No blockage.

Since most of the insulation was wet under the fan motor I removed the fan motor and found some water. There were a few drops that came out with the screws and a little more sitting inside the fan motor itself. Also when I removed the floor mat it was hot and wet on the back side. This seems like the exact same problem we had on our Sienna with the AC leaking.
So basically I am at a lost as to where the water is coming from. Short of removing the dash to get access to the entire unit I don’t know what else to do.

Help please!

 

[ramoine]

I had the same thing happen to me . you need to check your front passenger side drain tube for your sunroof .

Open up the sunroof and stick your head up thru it and you'll see the drain channels , if you have an air compressor just blow some air thru the holes and that should fix the problem .

I ride around alot with the sun roof open and it is possible to get debris in there enough to cause a blockage .

 

[DRC]

I had the same thing happen to me . you need to check your front passenger side drain tube for your sunroof .

Open up the sunroof and stick your head up thru it and you'll see the drain channels , if you have an air compressor just blow some air thru the holes and that should fix the problem .

I ride around alot with the sun roof open and it is possible to get debris in there enough to cause a blockage .

How was the water getting from the sunroof to inside the fan motor?

I will definitely give this a try, but I can’t even remember the last time I opened my sunroof. I have had it opened maybe 1 time this year, if that. Tomorrow I will have a look and post back. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[ramoine]

How was the water getting from the sunroof to inside the fan motor?

I will definitely give this a try, but I can’t even remember the last time I opened my sunroof. I have had it opened maybe 1 time this year, if that. Tomorrow I will have a look and post back. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm thinking that side of the sun roof drain shares the drain tube with ac , because I had a ton of water on my footwell after a rain and could not see anywhere for the water to come from . Then I remebered I'd had the same problem 20 yrs ago in a chevy that I owned and it was a clogged sunroof drain tube .

So after blowing air in the drain hole and 1" rain storm 2 days later I've never had any more water in there .

 

[diamondplate]

I would recommend a relatively low PSI for hooking up a compressor to the drain tube to start. You would not want to explode any of the plastic components. It may be a two person operation - one to use the air nozzle and another to feel if the air is coming through; with or without debris.
Good luck!

 

[DRC]

Latest info:

Checked the sunroof drain tubes. They are clean and clear. I pushed about 5 feet of weed whacker line through the two front holes till it stopped at the frame where it drains. I then dumped a cup of water on each side and watched the water run out the bottom. I could not find any rear drain lines so I was only able to check the front 2. So the sunroof does not seem to be the source of the water. Plus it was pretty dry and clean in there.

I removed more of the interior and the trim panel on the side below the glovebox so I could roll the carpet back. The underside matting of the carpet was sopping wet. Most of the carpet pad is soaked. I have it lifted with a fan running trying to try it out before it starts to mold up.

I rechecked the AC drain line with the weed whacker line and, again, clear. No blockage.

I removed the computer control units from the trim panel that finish the underside of the glovebox so I could dry it. When I took off the computer control units the pad that is attached to the trim was sopping wet under the units. I have removed this and have it drying in front of a fan.

I checked, the best that I could, inside the ventilation ducts and blower housing for any water or AC condensation but could not find anything. The reservoir that connects to the AC drain line is also empty. I opened the outside vent and put my hand up there as well but did not find anything wet inside.

To recap:
It has not rained in my area for about 1 week and has been hot and humid. So I have been running the AC every day to / from work so about 2 1/2 hours a day if not more. The night before I noticed the dripping it rained a little bit. Just a light rain for a few hours so no major rain. The day after the light rain, was the first time I have ever heard the water trickling sound when the AC or fan were running. When either the AC or fan was on, water would start to drip from under the glovebox nearest the center console. When I turned of the AC / fan the water would stop dripping. Turning either back on and water would start dripping again.

The sunroof drain tubes and the AC drip lines are all clear so I cannot find the source of the water. Short of pulling the cowl off and checking the windsheld seal I do not know what else to check.

Okay, now I have to ***** a little. This sort of problem makes my point that Toyota’s quality is gone. I posted a few weeks back:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/general-discussions/69841-where-has-toyota-s-quality-gone.html

My 4runner is but 2 1/2 years old. A 2008 with 41,000 miles. We have nothing but problems with our Toyota Sienna and I have been having more and more problems with the 4runner. The dam thing leaks. Carpet soaked, dripping water, etc. WTF!!!!!!!!:gun4:

Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

Please help. Need advise.

 

[DRC]

Well I finally got the carpet dried out. The carpet pad they use stays wet forever. I rolled back the passenger carpet and had a fan blowing on it for about 6 hours before it dried out. The padding under the blower housing was soaking wet also so I took this piece and placed it in front of a fan. Here is a pic of the trim panel:



The padding on this panel was soaking wet. This is what was dripping. When the fan or AC was running water was dripping from the padding in the upper left corner. I saw a few drips from the right side also, but just a few. My guess is that once this padding got wet enough it started dripping where I could see it.

So how did it get wet? This panel is mounted below the motor housing and above the drain line. See pic:



The AC drain line runs below this panel so the evaporator tank would have to fill up with enough water to back up into the motor and then spill out around the motor to get the panel wet. When I pulled this apart I did not find any water inside. Also, see the 4x4 controller sitting on my carpet, the top of this unit was wet and this is on the far right side away from the evaporator tank. My AC drain line was clear so I pulled it out and took a look inside the evaporator tank.



You can’t see via the pic, but the only thing in there was 1 dead fly. It was clean and had no water build up. When I reconnected the line and ran the fan, I could feel air blowing out the drain line so I have rule this out as a possible cause.

So where does this leave me? I have two working theories. Not the best theories, mind you, but they are the best that I can come up with. The source of the water either came from the sunroof or from the cowl.

My theories hinge on the fact that exactly 7 days ago I took my trunk to a new carwash. I recall sitting there watching the washer go back and forth and I was thinking this is the best carwash I have ever seen. It had something like six of these propeller like spinners each with 3 high pressure water jets that moved around the truck. These things were really high pressure and went back and forth about 4 times dumping buckets of water everywhere. It was really a nice wash.

Theory 1:
The high pressure from the carwash forced more water through the sunroof then the drain tubes could carry away and during the 7 days since the carwash it worked its way down into the dash and soaked the padding under the blower motor and then started leaking out.

Yeah this one is kind of a stretch. 7 days for the water to leak? No water on the headliner. This does not explain why water would start dripping when the fan was running or how water got into the blower motor itself.



I found water around the lip and in the air intake (the thing sticking out the left side).

Theory 2:
This one is more plausible. Instead of water getting in via the sunroof, water was forced into the cowl and directly into the blower housing. If you open the vent to allow outside are into the truck it’s a direct passage to the engine compartment. The only thing covering this is the plastic trim (cowl) that covers the bottom of the windshield. The pressure and amount of water from the carwash was forced into this opening and directly into the blower housing.

This could explain why water would drip only when the fan was running. Assuming water was somehow stuck in the motor or around the motor and it could not make its way down to the evaporator tank and out the drain line. Each time I ran the fan some of this “trapped” water would get pushed around and drip out onto the padding under the motor. After several days the padding was soaked and started dripping. This would also explain the trickling water sound I was hearing when the fan was running.

This seems, to me, to be the most likely cause. But this theory has a few problems. First, can water get into the cowl? Second it looks like the design of the motor housing is such that any water that did get in there would drain down into the evaporator area and then out the drain line. Third any water would have to pass through the cabin air filter and it did not look like it had gotten wet, but it could have dried. Forth, there does not seem to be enough space for water to get “trapped”. There is a few pockets inside the housing but nothing that would “trap” water in the quantity that would be need to soak the padding and then out and under the carpet.

But this is the best I can come up with. I will leave the dash apart of a few days and see if anything new happens.

Can anyone offer other suggestions?

 

[Johnny4runner]

I had some dripping from under by glove box that I think was caused by the bad AC relay problem that a lot of people have on the 4th Gens. Instead of failing to close the circuit, the relay got stuck closed and the AC kept running for no need. This caused excessive consencation and dripping under the glove box. Later the relay burned out and the problem disappeared. Since then I have replaced the relay with the improved relay (fix is posted here somewhere). Since then no dripping. But I don't think I ever had the volume of water that you are experiencing.

- JB

 

[mcflavin]

First of all, thanks for this thread. I love these forums as they are now my first stop for fixing all problems and even before doing routine maintenance. I followed this thread and it helped me quickly rule out the sunroof drain. I hope what I add here helps the next person as much as the previous thread helped me.

I got as far as this thread went but I had one interesting ending. First, I jacked up the drivers side front of the car to force water to that corner (as I had heard all sorts of sloshing around when I made sharp left turns.) Upon jacking up the car I saw lots of water running down the outside of the black tube that comes from the center of the car and then exits through a hole in the middle of the passenger footwell. It is clearly the AC evaporator drain line. I grabbed that line and wiggled and squeezed it -- suddenly a large amount of water gushed out through the AC evaporator drain line to the floor. I can only assume that I somehow unclogged that line (even though it had always been dripping so I assumed not clogged).

 

[jakenc]

For several weeks I have noticed that my passenger side rubber floor mat has been wet from water drips from behind the glove box. With help from this forum, I believed the condensate drain must be plugged. I found the drain line slowly dripping. Nevertheless, I ran a weed trimmer line up the hose to make sure it wasn't plugged. It didn't change the flow much, so I assumed the line was clear.

I assumed I had a greater problem involving the evaporator coil. The drips were excessive when the A/C was on high. Also, sharp left turns caused a sloshing/hissing noise and lots of water dripped in sharp left turns. I did this several times on purpose both right and left turns to verify that drips and noise primarily happened on left turns.

Today, I took a close look at the components under the glove box with the A/C on high. The drips were slow and coming from all areas under the blower. I could not isolate a specific location for the drips. I ran the weed trimmer line up the tube again. I squeezed the drain line under the dash from end to end and I did not feel any pluggage. The drain line still slowly dripped condensate and I decided to do some more research later to help diagnose the problem.

I got my wet vacuum to vacuum the carpet when I decided to vacuum the condensate drain line. I admit that seemed ridiculous at first because the vacuum hose was much larger than the drain hose. However, I was able to close the gap with my hand and fingers and get good suction. I felt water sucking through the vacuum hose for a about a minute. I was amazed to see the quantity of water in the vacuum. I decided to measure the quantity and I measured 41 oz of water from the vacuum.

With the A/C still on high and on coldest temp setting, I then noticed that the condensate drain hose would almost steadily stream condensate. So, I'm not sure how much of the 41 oz was contained in the system because the system was producing condensate rapidly as the vacuum was running.

Lessons learned- use a vacuum to help clear pluggage and expect a nearly steady stream of condensate with the A/C on high and coldest setting (not just a drip every couple seconds). I took a test drive and I could not reproduce the noise or drips on the floor mat. I hope this can help other experiencing the same type of problem.

 

[keakar]

For several weeks I have noticed that my passenger side rubber floor mat has been wet from water drips from behind the glove box. With help from this forum, I believed the condensate drain must be plugged. I found the drain line slowly dripping. Nevertheless, I ran a weed trimmer line up the hose to make sure it wasn't plugged. It didn't change the flow much, so I assumed the line was clear.

I assumed I had a greater problem involving the evaporator coil. The drips were excessive when the A/C was on high. Also, sharp left turns caused a sloshing/hissing noise and lots of water dripped in sharp left turns. I did this several times on purpose both right and left turns to verify that drips and noise primarily happened on left turns.

Today, I took a close look at the components under the glove box with the A/C on high. The drips were slow and coming from all areas under the blower. I could not isolate a specific location for the drips. I ran the weed trimmer line up the tube again. I squeezed the drain line under the dash from end to end and I did not feel any pluggage. The drain line still slowly dripped condensate and I decided to do some more research later to help diagnose the problem.

I got my wet vacuum to vacuum the carpet when I decided to vacuum the condensate drain line. I admit that seemed ridiculous at first because the vacuum hose was much larger than the drain hose. However, I was able to close the gap with my hand and fingers and get good suction. I felt water sucking through the vacuum hose for a about a minute. I was amazed to see the quantity of water in the vacuum. I decided to measure the quantity and I measured 41 oz of water from the vacuum.

With the A/C still on high and on coldest temp setting, I then noticed that the condensate drain hose would almost steadily stream condensate. So, I'm not sure how much of the 41 oz was contained in the system because the system was producing condensate rapidly as the vacuum was running.

Lessons learned- use a vacuum to help clear pluggage and expect a nearly steady stream of condensate with the A/C on high and coldest setting (not just a drip every couple seconds). I took a test drive and I could not reproduce the noise or drips on the floor mat. I hope this can help other experiencing the same type of problem.

this is the correct way to do it, glad you stumbled onto it by a lucky guess but water sits and literally turns into a disgusting weird colored jelly slime (sometimes orange, black, or even purple) that thickens and pushing something in the line just moves it out of the way and it will clog again. the only sure way to fix it "long term" is to suck it out with wet vac. the jelly gets sucked out and is gone so it cant block the drain any more. often these problems come along with a funky mildew smell. running fan on high with cabin filter out and spray lysol into the fan opening can help kill some of that mold funk. you definitely never want to cut the restrictor plug out of the line or it wont drain properly anymore because wind force holds the water from draining while at highway speed

 

[BlackWorksInc]

It's the humidity, I imagine regularly evaporator cleaning services out there are mandatory. Toyota makes a "AC Refresh" kit that basically foams up the evaporator box to kill stuff and clean it out (the slime is quite probably mold, algae, ect. forming).

In humid climates you can get a ton of water out of those boxes when the A/C is running.

 

[4runnerlexky]

Thank you guys so much!!!! This is the wooshung sound I've been trying to diagnose for over two weeks. I dried the carpet by heating it and vacuumed the floor. What do you know a day later back to it again. I will tell you this. I used a ziptied and ran through the hose and lots of water came out but apparently there is still a clog. I will be trying the vacuuming idea on the drain line then I will pull the eval box.

 

[importman]

Thank you guys so much!!!! This is the wooshung sound I've been trying to diagnose for over two weeks. I dried the carpet by heating it and vacuumed the floor. What do you know a day later back to it again. I will tell you this. I used a ziptied and ran through the hose and lots of water came out but apparently there is still a clog. I will be trying the vacuuming idea on the drain line then I will pull the eval box.

I hope you can get it unclogged just by going through the drain. Pulling the evaporator is not like it was on earlier Toyotas. It's now located in the center behind the radio area and requires you to remove the whole dash.