You guys seem to know everything here, can someone help with my car trouble?
I read the other thread about the wet carpet - there's was driver side, mine is passenger side. I've had heater cores go out before and my first thought was that but - checked radiator, seems to be full and has anti-freeze. Water on the carpet is clear, no smell. Windows are not fogging up. The car is not over heating. It's a '97 Mercury Tracer. I thought maybe something was plugged. Then today when I was checking the water I noticed a sound under the hood when the car was running and then could also hear it when driving. Kind of a hissing or a squished hissing if that makes ANY kind of sense.

Any ideas or how to tell??? I know if I go to a shop I'm going to get the "Here comes the don't know anything female" and I'll be paying for a heater core job when it was really a plugged hose!

Thanks in advance for ANY help!!

Forgot to mention, heater and defroster are working fine. If it's a water pump - just thinking of water related things - how do you tell or what are the symptoms> And, if water is clear - does that mean it has to be rain water or something like that? Where else would clear water come from? Thanks again!!

If your water system is leaking then your heaters in the car will stop working, plus before long your engine will seize up.

The only water in your car is the windscreen wuper fluid and the cooling water. Empty your wiper fluid and see if it goes away.

Beyond that - you have a hole in the floor, or door seals, or you left the window down while it rained.

Do you have air conditioning? If you do, there should be a drain, for the condensed water. If it is plugged, water could accumulate. I'm not a mechanic, but it has happened to me. The water can overflow, and wind up in the carpet. Unplugging the drain should fix it.

There are also various drains throughout the car to keep rainwater from collecting. It's possible one of those is plugged up with wet leaves or something. Seems to me that Imagineer's is the more likely cause - I've heard that one come up on a lot of car forums.

I passed this question on to two great guys that know a lot about cars. (Doug G and Wildbilly) over at a website called TEAM CAMARO. This is what they had to say:


"I had a simular problem before and turned out to be a drain hole in the AC box (for condisate). In "newer" cars the AC runs when in defrost mode to dry the air. Just a guess,really hard to tell over net. "

Most likely they're both right!!

Imagineer's scenario seems most likely to me. After all, we had the same problem with my home air conditioner. The two systems operate in exactly the same fashion...compressor, condenser, etc...and the condensation needs a place to drain.

The others are one the right track with the a/c drain. If the a/c plenum is flooded, you may be able to hear it slosh around on turns and you may be able to see it spill inside the car.

The hissing sound you speak of is the a/c system. It operates when you use the defroster. It acts as a dehumidifier to help clear the windshield. The hissing is the freon pressures equalizing between the high and low sides of the system. The oriface that the freon passes through can be small enough to be measured in the thousanths of an inch. Since pressures can be 150 psi on the high side and 30 on the low side, the freon is moving through so fast is makes noise. It is normal and nothing you can do will stop it anyway.

Here's the hard part, the drain is either on the firewall pointing at the back of the engine or it is on the bottom of the engine pointing at the ground. You probably won't be able to see it. The car may have to be lifted in a shop to access the drain. Normally, all they have to do is blow air through the drain and that opens it up. I would expect a minimal charge for this, not usually free, but not much $$$.

Enjoy.


007 :cool:

Originally posted by 007
The hissing sound you speak of is the a/c system. It operates when you use the defroster. It acts as a dehumidifier to help clear the windshield. The hissing is the freon pressures equalizing between the high and low sides of the system. The oriface that the freon passes through can be small enough to be measured in the thousanths of an inch. Since pressures can be 150 psi on the high side and 30 on the low side, the freon is moving through so fast is makes noise. It is normal and nothing you can do will stop it anyway.
You're showing your age a bit. ;) They haven't used Freon in ages; the current refrigerant used in mobile situations is R134a.

Alas young one, the chemical used and it's name are indeed different, but still called freon by many. There are many types of freon.

old cars - R12
new cars - R134-A
Most home air conditioners - R22
Commercial Applications have used - AMMONIA!!
Also R522 was another.

Some of the off brand drop in replacements for R12 are really butane, isobutane or propane, nearly the same evaporative properties, except for the little problem of being flammable.



Think of the word Freon as a generic term or I could say Refrigerant and no one would know the better as to my age. Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Originally posted by 007
Think of the word Freon as a generic term or I could say Refrigerant and no one would know the better as to my age. Ha ha ha ha ha ha
I've always known Freon as a specific refrigerant. Maybe I'm the one showing my age (or lack thereof).