MACS Monthly Newsletter - 2020 - AUG7

There are few jobs that technicians dislike more than
clearing evaporator drains, because the underbody access often is limited, blocked by the transmission and/
or steering rack. Additionally, some cars have more than
one drain, some cars as many as four of them, with the
plugged one often the one you can't reach or don't know
the location.
The 2013 Volvo XC90 is an interesting example. There's
only one, but where is it? The shop's conclusion was that
it was on the passenger's side, but the drains the technician saw were apparently for the body and heater. After
some inquiries, they learned the evaporator drain was
on the driver's side and after some work with the HVAC
case, they found it and used a siphon-blow gun to draw
out debris to clear it (Figure 9).
Fortunately, in most cars the drain is at least minimally
accessible, there's only one drain, the location should be
semi-obvious based on the location of the evaporator, and
a job is a job. The customer may not be happy if you have
to remove, or at least be able to move, part of the HVAC
case for access, or working underbody, have to lower the
transmission or rack for access. But if condensate is leak-

Milton Industries

the hole inside the case (he thought it was too small), he
cut the gasket and it leaked, so he had to do the job again.
In some geographical areas, insects may build a nest inside the hose end and some technicians who encountered
this have, after cleaning out a nest, trimmed and enlarged
the hole in an attempt to prevent a recurrence.
Bad move. As we noted, this may increase entry of road
film.
The only fix we're aware of for this issue, aside from
just clearing out the nest carefully, was released by Toyota/Lexus for its full product line. But it may be a cure
worse than the disease. It's an insect-repellent tip for the
drain hose, made by a Japanese company and distributed
through Toyota and Lexus dealers in the U.S. by Nix of
America. Called Arinix, it's a plastic (polyethylene) impregnated with an insect repellent.
The idea is to install an Arinix tip on the end of the drain
hose. It doesn't fit all sizes of hoses, so for the exceptions,
Toyota provides a new hose that does, in some cases a
grommet too. The Arinix tip is available for models going back to 2006. See
Figure 10.
Although slipping
on a tip or even a
new hose may not
sound like a big deal,
the insecticide impregnation is toxic,
and Toyota specifies
that the technician
wear
waterproof,
chemical-resistant
gloves and PPE
(personal protection
equipment),
and
Figure 10: Arinix biological-resisyes, that sounds
tant tip was released by Toyota to
like what medical
stop insect nesting in evaporator
personnel have to
drains. However, it requires suitwear when treating
able gloves and protective clothing
virus-afflicted pato install safely.
tients.
When the technician is done with the installation, he must remove the
PPE (and keep it separate from regular shop laundry),
then wash the exterior of the gloves before removing and
then his hands. Sounds like the kind of job we'd farm
out to the car dealer, unless the customer is willing to be
satisfied without the Arinix tip, just clearing out the hose
end (and doing the job again, if the issue recurs). n

Figure 9: Siphon/blow gun, such as this one from Milton, can be used to clear a plugged evaporator drain.
ing onto the passenger compartment floor, he knows he
can't ignore it, and you do what you have to, find out
what's blocking the drain and remove it.
If it's a piece of airborne debris (leaf, etc.) check the air
intake, and if it needs a screen to prevent a recurrence,
take the extra time to add one.
But just clean the drain. Don't enlarge it or make any
other modifications. The shape of the hose and the size
of the opening are engineered and validated together. An
enlarged hole or otherwise cut end of the hose can allow road debris to enter and plug it. Or as one technician
working on a 2009 Chevy HHR found out, who enlarged

August 2020

MACS Service Reports

techninfo.toyota.com

EVAPORATOR DRAINS

https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/appmanager/t3/ti?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=ti_home_page&contextType=external&username=string&password=secure_string&challenge_url=https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/login/techinfo&request_id=2163583898514989699&authn_try_count=0&locale=es_ES&resource_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechinfo.toyota.com%2F

MACS Monthly Newsletter - 2020

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