SonnyakaPig

Hi everyone,

Yesterday, it was raining, so the streets were wet in some places. When I got home, I pulled into my driveway and noticed that the plastic along the center console was wet and cold. It wasn't raining when I got home. I took some pics and noticed there was water accumulation inside my car. I had not turned my car off yet, and after I took the pics, I drove slowly into my garage. As I was moving forward I heard a very loud pop/bang type of noise. Just one noise--very loud. Scared me actually. So, got out and thought maybe I ran over something or maybe something fell on my car (from where I don't know?). There was nothing.

I parked my car and looked underneath it and noticed there was water dripping on the ground from the bottom of my transmission area. It produced two pretty good puddles. That was probably from the rain collecting under the underside of the car. I don't know.

Earlier in the day, I had two new rear tires (Pilot Super Sports) installed. Just throwing that in there to show all the variables. I don't know why this matters, but my car was on the lift, so that may be relevant. The wheels bolts were torqued to spec as I watched them install the tires.

Here are some pics of the center console area, front and rear. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I am taking the car in on Tuesday for inspection.

OCJeff

Is the car stock, any other mod's to be aware of? Anything installed that required a hole be used/drilled to get into the car?

Mort

That is pretty weird looking. If your rear A/C is leaking cold air under the console and making the sides cold maybe humidity from the air is condensing on it. How else would moisture get on the outside?

SonnyakaPig

Car is stock aside from the C/F hood. I've driven in very hard rain before with the C/F hood and never experienced water come into the cabin.

SonnyakaPig

It was very humid here the last couple of days.

shades

Just some quick points....,the water under the car is probably the ac leaking water, its typical on all cars in the summer. The loud pop might, just might have been a tire seating that didnt seat properly at the shop. Believe me it happens more than most people know. A lot of techs dont even notice this on the back of the wheel. If you dont see anything out of the ordinary on the car. Especially in a garage where the sound is amplified. The wet spots are weird, i dont have anything for that other than spilling my coffee or water and it sometimes makes a mess in that same spot in the pic. For piece if mind, take it to a dealer to get it checked over

SonnyakaPig

Thanks, @shades. I appreciate the feedback. You may be right about the tire finally seating and making that loud noise. I should know more next week.

JimmyR

Sunroof open/tilted up when it was raining, as you enter drive ie presume up a slope the water has spilled over off the roof of the car?

bhamg

I'm definitely no expert but I see two possibilities - water penetration from the exterior - or some leakage off the evaporator core.

2012C63AMG

Sit in the car and have someone hose it down with H20.

ZephyrAMG

If you have no water on foot area carpet or ceiling then you DEF have A/C precipitation...no way any water would flow in the form of rain up and out the sides through any holes from the undercarriage...especially evenly as in yours on both sides. Best is to take a look underneath for any damage just for reassurance. Let us know...

You will have tons of A/C precip. falling off the tube outlets if it is very humid and you are blowing your A/C at full blast...

SonnyakaPig

Sunroof was closed at all times.

SonnyakaPig

I don't know what the evaporator core is, but that possibility is more likely -- I think -- than water penetration from the exterior.

SonnyakaPig

Thanks, Zephyr. I think you're definitely on to something. When I take the car in on Tuesday, I will mention what you said.

alrasheed1991

Humid with AC is on and windows open i think this will cause it

bhamg

Not my explanation:

In a mobile A/C system, cold, low-pressure liquid refrigerant enters the evaporator. Warm air from the interior of the vehicle passes through the evaporator by action of the blower fan. Since it’s a fact of nature that heat always travels from a warmer area to a cooler area, the cooler refrigerant flowing inside the evaporator’s absorbs heat from the warm air. At the same time, humidity in the air condenses on the cool evaporator’s surface, then eventually drips out of a drain tube to outside the vehicle (think of how moisture forms on a cold bottle of soda pop on a humid day and forms a puddle on your kitchen counter). This is why you see water dripping underneath a car while the air conditioner is on. After the (now slightly warmer) refrigerant has completed its path through the evaporator, it moves on to the compressor.

So, as you can see, air conditioning does not actually cool the interior of the vehicle. What it really does is remove heat and humidity from it.

The evaporator can be somewhat compared to a heater core working in reverse:

Both are located inside the passenger compartment, often in very close proximity, or even inside the same housing under the dashboard.

OCJeff

I will say after reading your post I've been checking the temperature of the center console while driving around recently -- it was surprising cold. Likely from the tubing that runs the air back to the rear A/C vents. I'm pretty sure this is what may be causing the condensation that goes all the way to the back of the center console.

Maybe try closing those (so no air is being passed to the back) and it will decrease the issue??

Just an idea.

SonnyakaPig

Yes, it's interesting that this event coincided with hot temps and high humidity. We only get this type of humidiy a couple times a year. Usually, right around this time.

SonnyakaPig

Thanks for sharing that explanation. Seems very applicable; especially the part about the condensed air/moisture that's supposed to be expelled through a drain to outside the vehicle. Maybe the drain isn't working correctly in my case. I'll for sure mention this to the technician at the dealership.

SonnyakaPig

Good idea. It couldn't hurt to try your suggestion as a troubleshooting measure.

khmergod

The pop sound could be the tire seating or slipping on the rim, like someone said. You should not accelerate hard until around 24 hours for the lubricant dries.

SonnyakaPig

You guys are probably right about the tire seating and causing the noise. Wish I would have known about the waiting-24-hrs-before-hard-acceleration rule. I took it for a nice little drive on my way home from work (on some back roads). No peeling out, but definitely some hard acceleration from a roll. The car drove great, so if a tire wasn't fully seated, it didn't affect the ride.

Mort

If the tire does spin on the rim from hard acceleration or braking it might through the balance off. You will know if you have a problem if you get a tire vibration in the steering or seat bottom.

jl9j

Are only the sides of the center arm rest wet or the top as well? If it was the sunroof that didn't close properly, there might have been a leak...water could have flowed down to the armrest area but that would mean the top side of it would have been wet as well. The loud popping might have been the sunroof finally popping into the right position? Also, I had a friend who would leave the sunroof cracked open which caused the water to pool under the sunroof. Even when closed, the water would spill into the cabin when he moved.

Just a thought...

SonnyakaPig

Update:

I took the car in yesterday. I spoke with a very knowledgeable tech before they started to inspect my car. He told me that he's never seen this happen to a car on the West coast, although, he said he's heard of it happening to cars on the East coast. He said it happened to his grandmothers car. But, that's not really the feedback I was looking for.

They pulled back some carpet to look under the console and found the evaporation drains were functioning and not leaking.

So, there is nothing they could do at this point. My concern is mold. Moisture + heat + darkness = mold. At least, that's my limited understanding.

I have another issue with the car that's been happening since I purchased it. The digital oil temp readout in the DIC jumps around as much as 40-50*F. So, it doesn't read accurately when you press on the throttle. I brought it in once before for this issue. They changed the engine oil temp sensor. That didn't work. I told them I would like this issue to be fixed because it's not normal.

They ran a diagnostic for my car and sent the file to AMG, so we'll see what they say.