Hi everyone,

my first post today. I am looking at detailed "how-to" for cleaning A/C drains. I have the problem with "running water" sounds from the dash.
I found pics where the drains are and tried to stick a wire to the one under the car but nothing happened. No watter came out. I found the other drain on driver's side. I am in OZ and steering wheel is on the right :-)
But i am not sure how to drain this one. Do i have to dismantle the dash or what?

The pics are from this post: https://landroverforums.com/m_30114/tm.htm

Any help would much appreciated. I hope it is just the drains and not the heating. i would preffer to fix it myself rather then taking it to service.

All the best Frank

 

Its not the AC drains,, its the heater core that has air in it and when you first
start after its sets over night you here it.

You have a antifreeze leak most likely a small one find that and that should
fix the rushing water sound.

 

If your a/c drains are plugged and you have no drainage from under the truck when using the a/c, take hold of those nipples and squeeze and twist them till till she moans, n woops, wrong one, till the water flows out.
Heater can also make that noise if your coolant level is low, check, refil and bleed to make it go away.

 

Agreed, check your coolant level, you are low. Top it off and the noise should go away.

 

Thanks guys,
topped up coolant 2 times. 1st time top up and took for 5 minutes run.yesterday. Today toped it up again (about 1lt) but haven't driven it.
Also yesterday when driving the front window fogged up quite a bit and it stank which i assume was the coolant getting to hot?!?
I will run it around the block tomorrow and check coolant again.
The whole cooling system was replaced about 10000km ago. New radiator and complete hoses. I am still hoping its not the heat core.

Mike by "squeezing the nipples" you mean that little rubber hose inside the dash. You don't have to use wire or anything?

BTW, i don't use antifreeze the coldest i remember in Sydney was 5 degrees Celsius :-)

Cheers
Frank

 

Frankie- you might not need antifreeze to protect you from freezing but you still need some for the anti-corrosive protection it will give you. Why did you have to replace your radiator? Perhaps it was leaking from internal corrosion. The same thing may have happened to the heater core.

 

The nipples that Mike is talking about are under the shir...under the truck. Not inside the dash.
Crawl under the truck, but you already did that.
And Ranchrover is right, using straight water will corrode your cooling system causing it to rot from the inside out. And it doesnt lubricate the water pump bearings either.
Antifreeze has both anti-corrosion inhibitors and lubricant for the water pump. It also disipates heat better than water alone.
The windshield fogging up while driving is a classic sign of a leaking heater core. And the bad smell you got was the really hot water leaking out of the bad heater core.

 

Forgot to add, if you dont need the heater you can by-pass it buy looping the heater lines from the engine back to one another.
Just put a "U" shaped pipe in the heater lines and clamp them in good and you will be fine, until you need heat.

 

Hi guys,

i guess the news is not great. I lost some fluid again. I wen t around the block and when i came back i saw some cooling fluid on one of the pedals. (just to remind you the steering is on right side).
Where is the heating core? Inside the dash? How do you get to it? Is there a way i can fix it myself without much experience?

I don't use antifeeze but still use anticorrosive coolant. The radiator was leaking on one of the bottom corners which i found the water pump went.

I have booked service for Tuesday already so guess my wallet is to bleed again, but if i can get around it that would be great.

Anyway, i really appreciate all your time so far.

Thanks
Frank

 

Frankie - Something you may consider doing since you don't generally use the heater (which must be nice) is to put valves in you rlines going to the heater core that can be easily opened or closed if needed. One valve in the supply line to the core and another in the return line is all it takes. The coolant will still flow through the rest of the cooling system but not into the core. I drive tractor-trailers for a living and our trucks are set up like that. We close them in the summer to get maximum effectiveness from the A/C.