2003 L200 Leak problem

[aprilflower]

Hi all! I have a mystery for anyone brave enough to try. I just purchased this car used from a Kia dealership 3 days ago. We test drove it, no problem. I drove it to work Thursday and Friday, no problem(5 miles each day). Drove 150 miles to a wedding today, and on the way back noticed that my front floorboards were wet (both sides). DH nosed around inside with a flashlight, popped off the panel to the center console, and found the below pics taken from the passenger side floorboard. There is a sponge wedged directly underneath whatever is leaking/sweating, and there was a (now sopping wet) towel shoved into the space as well.

My suspicious side is thinking that the dealership did this, as the towel is very white and clean and does not smell of mold or old water (as I would suspect it would if it had been there long term). I'm thinking they put it there to sop up the water for the test drive and for several days after, hoping we wouldn't notice until it was too late. Why *would* we think to check there on the test drive, if there was no reason to? LOL!

We just hung up with our salesman, who assured us that it would be fixed at THEIR expense (we did get a 60d/2k mile 50/50 warranty, but as far as I'm concerned this was gross negligence and/or purposefully misleading). So now that I *really* don't trust them, I'm hoping someone knows what this is, so that I can make sure they fix the correct thing and are telling me the truth about what they are fixing.

Any takers??


Thanks in advance!
april

[PEBLUM]

I have had an HVAC drain problem in a much older car. The person who turned your car into the dealer probably did it! A dealer would be foolish to do it if he knew he would have to repair it on a future return. Get it fixed soon the water will just continue to soak the area. Drying up the area is difficult if it is really soaked. Good luck.

[fdryer]

Welcome to Saturnfans!

Ready?

Guessing from your descriptions of the white towel soaked with apparently clear water without any odor emanating from it, can we assume you're running the air conditioner? Unless you're driving in a part of the country that has the lowest humidity and the dealer decided supplementing the a/c with a home brew humidifier would make you feel comfortable, that soaked towel is condensation being pulled out of the air that's very humid. What hasn't been determined is the reason for stuffing the HVAC box when there should be an outlet drain expressly designed for this purpose. Perhaps the drain is plugged and finding it, near the bottom of the firewall, to stick a pencil or something small into the rubber valve may free it of debris build up preventing drainage of evaporator condensation.

[aprilflower]

Originally Posted by PEBLUM

I have had an HVAC drain problem in a much older car. The person who turned your car into the dealer probably did it! A dealer would be foolish to do it if he knew he would have to repair it on a future return. Get it fixed soon the water will just continue to soak the area. Drying up the area is difficult if it is really soaked. Good luck.

Thanks for the reply, Peblum. I'm really hoping it wasn't the dealer, but I'm glad either way that they are stepping up and fixing it. I'll be sure to post back what was wrong with it. I'm also going to see if they'll spring for a good carpet shampooing, but I'm not very optimistic on that one, lol.

Originally Posted by fdryer

Welcome to Saturnfans!

Ready?

Guessing from your descriptions of the white towel soaked with apparently clear water without any odor emanating from it, can we assume you're running the air conditioner? Unless you're driving in a part of the country that has the lowest humidity and the dealer decided supplementing the a/c with a home brew humidifier would make you feel comfortable, that soaked towel is condensation being pulled out of the air that's very humid. What hasn't been determined is the reason for stuffing the HVAC box when there should be an outlet drain expressly designed for this purpose. Perhaps the drain is plugged and finding it, near the bottom of the firewall, to stick a pencil or something small into the rubber valve may free it of debris build up preventing drainage of evaporator condensation.

That makes so much sense, fdryer, and thanks for the welcome, btw :-}

We live in Florida, and I don't think I know of a more humid climate, and since I haven't quite figured out the automatic climate control (lol I swear I'm not blonde) I have been running the a/c at pretty much a nice chilly blast. I'm going to google for a schematic of the HVAC box, unless you or someone else here has a link for me. Thanks so much for the advice!

april

[fdryer]

I'm no blonde and it took me over a year to understand my climate control system!? And that's with the owner's manual! I've found, for me anyway, that I use manual control and dial in the amount of heat as I need (we're wintering here in NYC), adjusting the fan speed manually, for best effect. Leaving the fan knob at the 12 o'clock (extreme ccw position until it clicks) and dialing in the temperature you desire may work for you as the fan speed is adjusted (automatically) according to the difference from the desired temps and inside temps. The greater the difference, the greater the fan speed until the temps are reached. At highway speeds I like quiet with music on and no fan noises; this seems to work best while cooling very well.

As I posted before, I believe there's a blocked drain valve that just needs a little TLC crawling around under the car by the firewall. The rubber valve resembles a duck bill and is usually clogged requiring nothing more than poking it open to allow any debris/water to drain harmlessly to the ground. Any good mechanic told to look for it can easily find it since it must be near
the bottom of the HVAC box and have a way for gravity to drain out.

[aprilflower]

Just wanted to post an update, it was EXACTLY as you said, fdryer!

Thankfully, they did not charge me to fix the problem, but sadly they did NOT vacuum up any of the water - I no longer have that "new car smell", lol! But I do have some damp-rid curing in there overnight (it's kind of a staple here in FL), so by morning all should be right with the world.

Thanks again to the 2 of you that answered, it certainly helped me to feel at least a little knowledgeable while talking to the service dept. I'd bake ya'll cookies if I could!

april

[fdryer]

You bake 'em, and I'll eat 'em! Awwright, I'll share 'em with some of the guys I work with..............

[PEBLUM]

Pressing newspapers into the wet area will help it dry. Moisture transfers to the newspaper and then just throw away.