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Buick LeSabre Heating / Cooling

263 messages,  Last post on Feb 14, 2013 at 7:33 PM

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What is this discussion about? Buick LeSabre, Heating / Cooling

Messages Page 16 of 27

#148 of 263 Re: air conditioning water leak [imidazol97] by deamer1

Jul 26, 2010 (6:23 pm)

Replying to: imidazol97 (Jul 26, 2010 1:55 pm)
Hey! Hey! imidazol97,
I really appreciate you and your input to my problem. It may sound like nothing to others, but your input helped me solve my problem and I want to share it with others. This is a situation which I'm sure will be experienced by others. It's easy to fix once you have good information about the problem. You have helped me and I'd like to provide some input for others.
     I jacked the car up using a floor jack. I blocked the rear wheels, and put jack stands under the frame in the front end. Your input helped me locate the A.C. drain, but it took several attempts for me to find the drain hose.
     The A.C. drain is located almost in the center of the car, high in the dash. I'll describe the location from the underneath of the car as that is where you'll have to unplug the drain hose.
     The A. C. drain hose on my 2005 Buick LeSabre is located high above the point where the manifold meets the catalitic converter. These cars are so low to the ground that I wouldn't have found it without jacking the car up and putting it on Jack Stands and crawling under it.
     Above the catalitic converter is a small drain hose coming out of the dash. It's approximately a 1/2 inch line. It extends out of the dash approximately two inches, then bends down in a 90 degree bend for approximately three inches. the end of my drain hose is like the neck of a balloon. Coming out of the dash it is a round hose, but at the end where the water comes out...it has flat sides that go together. I found some sort of gunky matter in the outlet end of the hose. The water coming out was only a drop once in a while, nothing like it should have been. The blockage caused the water to back up inside the car and spill into the passenger side of the floor board.
     I took a 5/32 inch copper rod approximately 25 inches long and used it to open the drain hose. A couple of flicks of the rod and splash! I got wet. The drain was open, then I had to address the moisture inside under the floor carpet.
     Wishing everyone well and hoping your problems are small.
 
Deamer1

#149 of 263 Re: air conditioning water leak [deamer1] by imidazol97

Jul 26, 2010 (6:44 pm)

Replying to: deamer1 (Jul 26, 2010 6:23 pm)
Thanks for reporting back. That will help others.
 
Be aware there's a rubber like pad under the carpet that holds the moisture underneath. You might want to try lifting it at edges to blow air under if you park car in a garage in some way to dry it. Or lift it at edges with wood pieces and park in the hot sun with windows cracked enough to give airflow on breezy days.
 
Is there water pooling in the area under the front seats especially on the driver side? If so, there's a connector of 4 tan wires that corrodes and you lose communication between the driver door module and the three other door modules.
 
Bonneville owners have had lots more problems with leaks and water from sunroofs and door liner leaks along with an occasional windshield leak. Add in wheel hump leaks in the trunk along with some others. Some of them take the seats and everything out to hang the carpet and mats up to dry.

#150 of 263 Re: air conditioning water leak [imidazol97] by deamer1

Jul 28, 2010 (7:26 pm)

Replying to: imidazol97 (Jul 26, 2010 6:44 pm)
Hi imidazol97,
The amount of moisture in my car was more than I thought. Originally I thought there was a little moisture under the passenger side carpet near the top where the carpet goes up into the dash area. The water had actually saturated the entire carpet padded area under the passenger side and went completely to the rear floor board section on the passenger side.
 I took out the back seat, disconnected the battery, pulled the rear passenger carpet up as much as I could (wasn't enough) When I put my hand under the carpet it was saturated with a lot more to spare.
     I took five shop towels and packed them under the carpet. When they were saturated I pulled them out, rung them out and put them back under the carpet. I did this maybe ten times. I still had the car up on jack stands so water was running slowly from the front passenger side under the carpet to the rear. There was a lot of water in there and still some in the carpet padding, but not as bad as it was.
     I need to remove the plastic trim holding the edges of the carpet along the door frames bottom, but don't know how these come loose. Do they pop out?
     The weather here was in the 100+ heat index so I parked the car outside, disconnected the battery and opened all the doors. I wedged some small 2x4 pieces under the front carpet near the dash and the rear carpet just at the back seat. I left the car like this all day. I has dried some more, but I really need to remove some of the trim to raise the carpet better to dry it out. Would you know how to remove the plastic trim along the bottom of the doors which hold the carpet in place?
     That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Still working on drying it out.
Deamer1

#151 of 263 Re: air conditioning water leak [deamer1] by imidazol97

Jul 28, 2010 (8:00 pm)

Replying to: deamer1 (Jul 28, 2010 7:26 pm)
The carpet retainers that are the door sills snap in. There are three snaps shown along the bottom and one snap at the end that is raised upward--that one looked like a rear door retainer.
 
The factory manual says you can use a fan pointed at the wet area. They don't mention the under layment. Maybe that's only behind the rear seat or under the front floorboard.

#152 of 263 Re: air conditioning water leak [imidazol97] by deamer1

Jul 31, 2010 (8:39 am)

Replying to: imidazol97 (Jul 28, 2010 8:00 pm)
I removed the trim using a inexpensive tool from Harbor Freight. They have a set of five (5) trim tools under $10.00 The wide trim tool lifted the plastic trim with ease.
     I lifted the carpets in the front and rear floor board area as much as I could...blocked them up with a short piece of 2 x 4, placed the car outside as we had two days of 100+ degree days. I disconnected the battery, opened all doors, placed a box fan on a stand for each area and let it blow air under the carpet area for two days. It is drying, but isn't completely dry as of today. I will do this until it is dry.
Another thing I tried is to blow my shop vac into the areas using the exhaust heat from the electric motor. It works, but is best with a smaller amount of moisture, not like what I experienced. The most difficult to dry is the rubber padding attached to the carpet back which is located under the front seat without removing the seat. Wicking this area and using a fan is working, so I will continue.
Deamer1

#153 of 263 Re: air conditioning water leak [deamer1] by imidazol97

Jul 31, 2010 (10:28 am)

Replying to: deamer1 (Jul 31, 2010 8:39 am)
Sounds like you are working it out yourself just fine.
 
Does the car have drain down protection on the battery? I believe LeSabres do--maybe a Custom might not. But if you leave the headlights turned on or the doors open, the power is turned off after about 10 minutes. Same for trunk and overhead lights.
 
You might not have to disconnect the battery is my point.
 
If you are in an area of the country where you get dry humidity days, I always used those where the hot sun was shining into the car and I leave the windows down an inch on one side of the car to suck air through the AC unit to dry out the accumulated moisture that stays in the drain. You might get even more drying on those days than on high humidity days.

#154 of 263 2000 Buick A.T.C. Problem by tvalerio

Aug 12, 2010 (7:30 am)

There is no control of the temp by the A.T.C. I opened a door in the heater box ass. to allow A.C. to operate. I now have A.C. but no control of the temp. I think it may be the control unit. Where is it located under the dash ? What does it look like ? Is there an interchange with other G.M. vehicles ? Or should I be looking elsewhere ?
 
Tony

#155 of 263 Re: 2000 Buick A.T.C. Problem [tvalerio] by imidazol97

Aug 12, 2010 (7:44 am)

Replying to: tvalerio (Aug 12, 2010 7:30 am)
Do you have the digital readout AC or the standard AC?
 
Do the lights on the buttons work in the control unit?
 
Does the temperature go full hot when you turn the temp way UP? After the engine is hot of course.
Does the temperature go down to cold?
 
If you have dual controls, does the passenger side modulate the temperatures?
 
Are you sure the AC compressor is working? I'm assuming that you are in the US and most of us are needing cooling and not heating.
 
Open the hood with the motor running and touch the metal line toward the dash after the metal line does an upside down "U" to go over the accumulator? Then touch the big metal line going back toward the accumulator from the dash. Both should be cold.

#156 of 263 Re: 2000 Buick A.T.C. Problem [imidazol97] by tvalerio

Aug 12, 2010 (4:19 pm)

Replying to: imidazol97 (Aug 12, 2010 7:44 am)
A.C. compressor is a new Reman unit. System is fully charged Blows ice cold. Standard Ac readout. All the lights work. Fan switch works fine. System switch,s from floor to mid level to defrost so I know that I have vacuum to controls. What doesn,t work is the thermostat. Setting could be 60 or 90. All I have is Ac. It does switch to vent when asked to. Pass. side switch is NG. I need to replace that.

#157 of 263 Re: 2000 Buick A.T.C. Problem [tvalerio] by imidazol97

Aug 12, 2010 (4:34 pm)

Replying to: tvalerio (Aug 12, 2010 4:19 pm)
Thank you for the information. That would have helped to included the info in your first post.
 
How do you know the passenger switch is "no good"?
 
>I opened a door in the heater box ass. to allow A.C. to operate. I now have A.C. but no control of the temp.
 
What does this mean? How did you open a door?

Messages Page 16 of 27

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