A/C evaporator drain tubes

[Efraim]

Hi,

The windows of my car will get steam (inside) if I restart couple minutes after the cooling of A/C has been used. There should be a drain pipe somewhere bottom of A/C which might be blocked. Where can i find the drain and how to access it? Does somebody has experince about similar occurence?

Thanks, Efraim

 

[speedy300dturbo]

Re: Drain of A/C

The drains are on each side of the blower case, behind the footwell ducts. The grey tube on the left of the picture is the drain hose. Most of them have fallen apart by now.

 

[samiam44]

Re: Drain of A/C

Yes,

Definitely a maintenance item. MB uses a soft hose to decouple from vibrations and the down side is it has a finite life. They use traditional snap lock tubing clamps to hold them in place. Most mechs just use zipties or most ACE hardware stores have the correct style clamps in their hardware section.
It's a mild hassle to get the side panels off the tunnel to replace them.

M

 

[gsxr]

Re: Drain of A/C

Pics of the toobies below. $13.50 each MSRP, p/n 140-830-01-96. Naperville link:

https://www.mboemparts.com/oem-parts/mercedes-benz-hose-water-drain-vlr-1408300196

 

[nocfn]

Pretty lousy design. The W/C126 has similar issue. I fabricated mine using 1/2' pvc pipe and elbows (90 degree) to keep it from being crushed and deteriorating in a moldy mess... on the C126. I have not had a reason yet to review integrity on the 036 just yet.

 

[samiam44]

Life limited part designed to isolate vibration. Usually last 10-20 years depending on climate.

 

[IslandMon]

Life limited part designed to isolate vibration. Usually last 10-20 years depending on climate.

I just replaced mine at 215k. They were still intact but turned to powdery goo when touching them when replacing transmission tunnel insulation. It takes about 15-20 minutes to replace each side.

 

[Efraim]

Hi,

Thank You for guidance. I renewed the drain pipes of W124 and W126 for some time ago. Quite easy job.

The pipes should be replaced if there where any extra moisture inside car after using A/C. With old leaking pipes some of the condenced water will flow between floor insulation and floor causing corrosion. Hence highly suggested maintenance work as stated above.

Note: the spare part for W126 (A126 830 11 96, for left side) had an extra label "Restmenge, Rest Quality" on the top of package and there were no spring inside the tube. Fortunately it was easy to take spring from the old one. I assumes this indicates the part will be soon NLA.

 

[_BenzW124]

Are these drain tubes possible to be replaced from inside the car? Reason I’m asking is because I could barely get to the driver side one from underneath my E420 and the passenger side one is impossible to even locate from underneath. Mine are clogged and probably degraded by now. I tried cleaning them from below but it’s not even possible. It would be great to see a HOW-TO for replacing the tubes.

 

[IslandMon]

Are these drain tubes possible to be replaced from inside the car? Reason I’m asking is because I could barely get to the driver side one from underneath my E420 and the passenger side one is impossible to even locate from underneath. Mine are clogged and probably degraded by now. I tried cleaning them from below but it’s not even possible. It would be great to see a HOW-TO for replacing the tubes.

Yes, remove the interior paneling on either side of the transmission tunnel and you’ll see them right there

 

[_BenzW124]

I just pulled my carpeting.
Just to verify,
the hose circled in red is the drain tube, correct?

 

[nocfn]

those are them. spindly things, hard to believe they are still good. Cover that carpeting up that dirty black water that might be in there can be a beotch to clean off the carpet.

 

[_BenzW124]

Something doesn’t seem to be right.
When I first turn on the A/C both of the tubes drain pretty good and when I turn the fan speed to high they drain heavily. But after like 10 minutes of A/C being on the right side drain tube doesn’t drain and only the left one drips slowly. Couple days ago I noticed neither tubes were draining and I checked to make sure their not leaking inside the footwells, and I didn’t see any sign of condensation. The vents blow out ice cubes and A/C works great. Is it supposed to be like this?

 

[nocfn]

I would think that it is. It does not
Pour out. Think a can of cold beer on the table outside in 90f heat. It sweats, and condensation runs off when it gets heavy on the can it drips slowly. Take it i side the cool house and the condensate stops producing.

 

[jnes]

Old topic, those drain hoses are NLA now, (just confirmed by the dealer) so does anybody find alternative solution/material for those hoses? Does the hose need to be insulated&soft?

 

[gsxr]

Old topic, those drain hoses are NLA now, (just confirmed by the dealer) so does anybody find alternative solution/material for those hoses? Does the hose need to be insulated&soft?

Haven't seen anyone confirm if these W210 tubes fit 100% correctly, but you could try 210-830-03-96 as shown in this thread.

 

[nocfn]

Its been quite a long time, but I made my own replacements with rubber and PVC pipe/elbows. May take some trial and error but on the W126, it was a huge mess and smell when I noticed the rusted spring crushed against tunnel devoid of any pool noodle that should have wrapped around the spring. May be time to just get creative but out of fairness, the w124 units are a slight improvement over the W126.

 

[Sebastopol]

Here is a picture of the two type of tubes; 210-830-03-96 (still available) and 140-830-01-96 (NLA).

I have my dash off and am replacing the vacuum pods. I bought the Klima diaphragms, the quality is good. The one large difference between OEM diaphragms is the ring to secure the diaphragm in place is a much softer durometer reading or hardness on the Klima which is why they are hard to set

 

[gerryvz]

Glad to hear that the Klima stuff worked for you. I need to reconnect with the owner.

 

[Sebastopol]

Glad to hear that the Klima stuff worked for you. I need to reconnect with the owner.

For the single pod, #40 for center nozzle flap, the diaphragm replacement should be the shorter 28mm size ( not the 32mm). Klima lets you decide on the W124.