While I was taking pictures for the towbar electrics thread, I noticed a damp patch on the floor halfway along my octy. Looking underneath showed a slow drip of what appears to be plain water coming from what I assume is the exhaust heatshield. Any ideas where water could come from in order to spring out there?

I've added a picture to show what I mean - you can see a drip just forming on the bump just right of centre.

No idea where the aircon condensate exits on these cars, but that's usually the culprit when people spot a clean water 'leak'.

the aircon drain is in the bulkhead roughly in the centre low down and is a rubber flap, and its possible when driving the water is forced back under the car and onto the exhaust/heatshield area as its in the right area!

Ahh, that's an intriguing thought - it hadn't occurred to me that the aircon drained that far back, and I was running it a lot today (after a period of not really using it much) because of the extra heat. I was surprised that there could be any standing water that far back near the exhaust, especially sitting on a hot heatshield - it must be more effective than I thought

Now I think about it there was also a slightly damp spot almost precisely where you mentioned the drain is, which I'd presumed was from the same place but just left over from the motion of parking. The water was definitely clean and odourless so I think you might both have nailed it - virtual pints all round

if its clean and odourless then it pretty much must be your aircon water as all other water in the car is mixed with other fluids.

I know from bittersweet experience with mine where the drain is, so its almost certainly that rom what you say.......at least yours wasnt dumping itself inside the bulkhead under the carpet!!!!

Still i got a nice new anthracite carpet as a result:>

There is quite a bit that comes out, i notice it after i drive, park up then move the car to park on my drive, it then seems to dump it out at that point!

Glad could help!

That's a good point - I'll check the footwells tomorrow just in case I think it probably dumped about 100ml or so of water over ten minutes after parking, so enough to get your tootsies wet

Just out of interest - does that suggest that the drain might be obstructed, or are they just prone to dripping wherever they feel like it?

hi mate,

how do you mean, dripping wherever?

i doubt its obstructed, sounds like your aircon is working well if anything!!!

Heh, sorry - I realise now that wasn't at all clear

What I meant was does the aircon have a tendency to drain out in places other than the intended one? I was thinking that the drain might be blocked causing water to well up elsewhere and then run off, but if they have a tendency to drip from a number of places anyway for no obvious reason then it's not worth hunting down blockages

The car was in for its MOT today (new road spring, then it sailed it) and the guy at the garage came to exactly the same conclusion as you, and referred me onto a very good aircon guy in case I wanted to get it checked out further. I was planning on having it regassed anyway so I might be able to get the drain prodded a bit at the same time just in case there's a blockage or anything.

Seem to have this happening on mine at the moment, the water is dripping down off of the dogbone mount, I'm pretty sure it's air con water as it's clear and odourless. Never really noticed it before though so like you Interphase I'm wondering if the amount of water is normal? Do other vRS owners have this problem?

That would be just about the same place as the smaller drip I noted, so quite probably. When mine had finished there was a damp spot about 6"x10" on the pavement. The bloke at the garage the other day was saying that such drips on these are usually down to debris or bacterial fogging up the holes, nothing that a good aircon bloke isn't used to sorting out.

It also proves your air conditioning is working......