6.0

fairly significant
Typical Repair Cost:
No data
Average Mileage:
35,000 miles
Total Complaints:
1 complaints

Most common solutions:

  1. not sure (1 reports)
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problem #1

Jul 082006

(reported on)

Forester XS 2.5L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 35,000 miles

One day after running the A/C for about an hour, I went to get something off the front passenger-side floor & it was completely soaked. Lifted up the floor mat & there was about a half-inch of standing water. Water was dripping from a rubber hose that had a 90 degree bend in it, near the front of the dash, I assume it's the condenser drain & it's plugged but don't know for sure yet.

Update from Apr 23, 2009:

Turns out the condenser hose connects to a cheap plastic plug on the left side of the passenger footwell, right at shoe level. It's a terrible design - passengers in the car are bound to knock it with their shoes. The hose had broken off with the end of the plastic plug still inside the hose.

There's no good way to glue it - I tried several times with various glues. It looks like replacing the plastic piece the hose plugs into would be a nightmare, & it would probably just break again. I'm going to try drilling out the hole back to round & putting in some sort of pipe fitting.

In the meantime, any time we use the A/C for 15+ minutes, water starts dripping out & could flood the floorboards. That would ruin the entire interior if someone wasn't careful. All because of a cheap plastic piece in a poor location.

- Mike W., South Hero, VT, US