AC Condensate Drain

[cyberman]

I turned on the AC for the first time today and after a half hour my wife got a few water drips on her foot (passenger side). I was relieved the system worked, but figure I better fix this before mold builds up. I did an advanced search here on the word "condensate" for both titles and body. It only got seven pages and no further back than 2013 or so (why?). So, none of the threads were relevant as I was looking for the drain location(s). A wider search found someone posted a thread on another forum, to which Vintage42 gave this reference: https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/m.../#post-7837014

I decided to download some of the pictures since that forum may go some day and it's good to have redundancy. The poster said he found two trains on either side of transmission and blew them out with a can of Kool-it to disinfect and remove the smell. So, I'm wondering if just compressed air may work to clear the lines if there is no smell. He said the drains were at 2 O'clock and 10 O'clock when looking towards the back of the car (would they not be the same if looking to the front?). Anyway, here are his pictures:

Looking back.jpgDrain.jpgDrain with tube.jpg

To locate these, he said:

Next I had to locate the evaporator drain locations under the car. There are a lot of references to the location, but I was not able to find any pictures. To find the location, I put the car up on jack stands and ran the AC on max for about 15 minutes with the roof down. There are two drain holes on either side of the transmission.

He mentioned there may be some sort of flapper valves in the drain (referenced elsewhere) so, he:

pushed the tube in as far as it would go and still allow me to hold the can upright. Per the instructions I injected the entire can. The foam pushed water from the evaporator out the other drain tube. Once This step was completed I lowered the car so the evaporator would drain correctly.
I took the second can and injected it down each of the vents.

[amancuso]

https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/c...n-a-z3.717559/

[cyberman]

https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/c...n-a-z3.717559/

Thanks for that thread, but after reading it, I'll try to clear from underneath first. There is pain both ways so I'll try the path of least resistance. It looks like the bad assumption in this thread is that one cannot access the drain tubes from the bottom without removing the transmission. The thread I referenced showed that one can. I have a clutch job planned so if I can't clear the tubes I'll wait for that.

In the meantime, it's hot here, too hot for me to be motivated to do anything. We went from a mostly cold spring with temps 15 degrees below normal to a hot summer-like 15 degrees above normal.

[amancuso]

You're welcome. I know what you mean about the heat, it's dang hot here in Georgia as well.

[delvec]

https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/c...n-a-z3.717559/

Don't confuse cowl drains with the AC condensate drains. Cowl drains are for draining rain water from the cowl area and can be cleaned out after removing the plastic cowl with a coat hanger. AC drains are in the center of the vehicle on both sides of the transmission as shown on Cyberman's photo.

[BimmerBreaker]

Yeah I'd make sure they are even there first. When I had my car all apart I took those out and if I didn't put em back in, it woulda dripped inside the cabin when running

[cyberman]

Don't confuse cowl drains with the AC condensate drains. Cowl drains are for draining rain water from the cowl area and can be cleaned out after removing the plastic cowl with a coat hanger. AC drains are in the center of the vehicle on both sides of the transmission as shown on Cyberman's photo.

Thanks, I don't think I have a cowl drain issue, although I'd love to get in there and clean it out. My immediate concern is the AC drip, albeit minor now, as we know all things just get worse with time.