Hi ppl

Noticed that after any drive, I hear some drops of water falling on a hot surface and evaporating coming from the engine bay of the car.

Finally traced it to what appears to be water (not oil) falling somewhere near the firewall / transmission tunnel on the exhaust side direct onto the twin pipe exhaust section which runs sidelong the gearbox.

I suspect the water is probably from the air-con ... but I would have thought that any water coming from this would be diverted elsewhere other than over the exhaust itself.

I'm thinking it's either a leak or blocked pipe somewhere for the water - has anyone come across this before?

I'll try to organize some pics soon if possible.

Just wondering if anyone had any initial impressions / thoughts?

Looks like this would be a Sunday task on the car. :confused

Is it a problem? Not for the exhaust. Could it be indicative of some other problem? Sure. The water drain holes are further back than the firewall, at least a foot IIRC. On my 535 there's an overflow hose on the passenger's side of the expansion tank, I don't know if your car has that or not, but I'd look for it.

Thanks for the suggestion - looks like I'll have to do the hard yards and just trace where the water trial is coming from ... without burning myself on the exhaust ... :rolleyes

I did take some pics of the affected area ... but once again, it probably doesn't tell as much.

http://users.tpg.com.au/adsl6ii7/bmpipe1.JPG
http://users.tpg.com.au/adsl6ii7/bmpipe2.JPG
http://users.tpg.com.au/adsl6ii7/bmpipe3.JPG

If you are running your air con, yes water will drip onto the exhaust when you park it. Nothing to worry about.

If you are leaking coolant from that area at a rate fast enough to hear a drip, pshhh, drop pshhh after you park it, you would have already noticed low coolant level. The only exception would be if you didn't use your heat at all and the heater core was leaking. But even when my heater core was leaking pretty bad, I never saw any coolant on the floor of my garage. The water part of the coolant evaporated and the coolant portion kinda just hung around in the drain box.

Ok, has it been raining a lot near you? Does that make any difference? Are the floors of your car wet? Is it clear water, or green? The area you pointed at with the camera, the passenger's side rear of the head, can you point the camera up at that corner to take a pic and see if your head is leaking coolant externally? I don't think there's any coolant passages there on the 525 M20 cars, looks like either an hvac issue or maybe clogged sunroof drains.

Sorry to respond late to this thread ... at the time I raised this, it was during recent rains so I thought I'd take my time and evaluate things when things got dry again.

Well ... it is still leaking without rain however it seems not to be at the firewall where I first thought but it appears to be actually on the other side and the water is hitting the exhaust somewhere along where the auto box is.

As Alan mentioned, the rate fast enough to hear a drip, pshhh, drop pshhh after you park it. I am using the air-con too but would find it strange that they would not divert any of this residual water away from the exhaust.

The liquid appears to be clear and my coolant levels appear okay ... it drops a bit each week but I top it up again. Nothing major but it does seem to drop.

Hard to describe but as I am unable to jack the car up more, this pic is the best I can do for now:

http://users.tpg.com.au/adsl6ii7/bmpipe5.JPG

Hopefully I will have a chance to get it on a lift when I drop by my mechanic's place sometime soon.

Any chance of collecting a few drops to see what it is? Also, are you using coolant or straight water? (yes, some people do this, don't flame me I'm not advocating it) The drains for the HVAC box are right about there under the car, it's possible it's just AC condensation under there.