I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining, wet floor ---
 

My driver side cowl drain seems to be clogged.

My car sits on a slight angle where the driver side is down a little bit , and we got a good rain lastnight.

I got in the car and started it up ... immediately noticed my Air Conditioning turned itself on!

Then I noticed the dash screen wasnt telling me the outside temperature. I got out and saw my shoe print on the ground ... my driver floor board was soaked!

I got out , popped the hood and saw that my cowl vent was full to the top with water ... only on the driver side.

The car runs good still so I took it for a 100 yard drive turning the wheel left to right to see if the water would tip out and 95% of it did!

Whats the process to unclogging that vent at the cowl? I see a bunch of star bolts, should I just get the grate off and see what is in there?

Does it sound like I blew a fuse to the A/C ... the dash buttons are inoperable , I cant even turn the A/C off now and the outside temperature shows ".--" (dot dash dash).

Its not throwing a code, would unhooking the battery and reconnecting it help reset something?

I should mention that when I would turn the car off after noticing the water, I kept hearing a slight buzz sound from around the door hinge area (not sure if it was from under the hood or under the dash). I just checked and that's not buzzing anymore either.


Thanks! ---

Re: I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining ---
 

If your courtesy lights and radio antenna also aren't working, then yes, you blew your #1 fuse.

EDIT: Actually, let me qualify that, as I just went back and re-read your post. If your HVAC display shows " - - " then you may not have blown the fuse. When I blew mine, there was no display whatsoever.

Re: I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining ---
 

My antennae definitely was going up and down still ... thanks for the reply :)

I'll head out to see if the courtesy lights are working ---

Re: I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining ---
 

I just checked and my courtesy lights are all on with the door open.

I should mention that when I would turn the car off I kept hearing a slight buzz sound from around the door hinge area (not sure if it was from under the hood or under the dash). I just checked and that's not buzzing anymore either. I tried turning the car off and back on after I noticed the issue, and that's when I noticed the buzz. It was there when I turned it off the 2nd time too and left the car.

It have my fingers crossed that if it dries up it will be fine again , but I still need to clean out the cowl vent. I see a bunch of star nuts around the cowl vent, should I just try to get the grate off and see whats underneath? ---

Re: I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining ---
 

I'm definitely no expert but it sounds like some of that water may have made its way downward into some wiring. I know that when you disconnect and reconnect the battery, the A/C always comes on, so there's some sort of reset there. Probably couldn't hurt to unhook the battery, although if it got wet and you have a short, you may cause a different problem. Hold tight, I'm sure that someone with more electrical experience will chime in.

Good luck!

Re: I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining ---
 

Thanks Chris!

I figure I should mention that the firewall carpet wasn't really wet ( behind the pedals horizontally ) ... unless that dried.

It was mainly from below the pedals to the front of the driver seat , almost like it was dropping down behind the hush panel.

Also , the electronic HVAC controls weren't even lighting up to show me that the AC was on ( usually below the button turns green I think ) ---

Re: I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining ---
 

I just went out to see how wet the floor was still, and put my key in the ignition to crack the windows ... the AC unit is fully functional again! YAY! It told me the outside temperature and let me shut it off. Floor is still damp but it will be 90 today so that will help out. ---

Re: I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining ---
 

I found the culprit!

Seems that there are only 2 udders , a main one more in the center ... and one on the far drivers side ( the one shown in the pic above ).

My MAIN one was clogged full of mud. Luckily there is a plastic "access panel" above it so you can poke through it without removing the grate ( the grate is blocked by the wiper arms anyway ). I had to push so hard with a wire clothes hanger I thought I was going to rip it off but then it broke free!

I got finger after finger full of mud out of a 3" long tube LOL.

The drivers side one was easy to find, and I just cleared it from the bottom , but it wasnt blocked.

Now to let the car dry out until tomorrow afternoon and take it for a drive.

Thanks everyone for the help! ---

Re: I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining ---
 

OK drove it today , everything is back to normal!

I tried getting into the passenger side drain just to clean it out too ... and I couldnt reach it with the grate off. I saw a small access panel to the passenger side of the grate (with two bolts) that I tried to get off but its all RTV'd shut. I dont have any black RTV to fix it if I needed to , so I will get into it if troubles come up later down the road. I'm pretty sure it was put there to get to the drain.

Supposed to rain tonight, so we'll see if its fixed ---

Re: I think my driver side cowl vent isnt draining ---
 

I had this problem with a c5 and the ac got all stanky and nasty on a low mile car

the cow udders were clogged even though this is a garage kept car which really surprised me.

probably have been since before I bought it with 30k miles

anyway, I got caught driving in the rain which is pretty rare and next thing I know the ac smells horrible.

with fresh water, I'd unplug the batter and park the car with the windows open in the hot sun and open up the hood after you get the water out

check all the wiring as the connectors can get damp and give the car fits which is what I bet happened

once it dries out you should be ok

I used to wash PC keyboards in the dishwasher and people thought I was crazy.

if there is theo power going through the electronics didn't short out a component, you should be ok