Dang it, I have a 2010 XK and my vin number does not
fall in the range of the effected duck bill models, but I ended
up with a puddle in my passenger footwell today dripping
from the center of the blower motor...

Is it possible reach in from the top of the engine bay and cut this
bill with some compact scissors?

Thanks!

 

Stu, Was this done after lowering the trans?
Could you please tell me a little bit more, i'd like to try this.
I'm wondering if i can get a pair of mini scissors down there

thanks

 

When you access from the top, you don't have to lower the transmission. I found it easier to access from the right hand side of the car with my right hand (more clearance on the right hand side).
There is another thread on this forum that has pictures of homemade tools used to cut the duckbill:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...lution-149349/

 

The link on this page you need to view is AC Drain Duckbill Fix: my solution.
Follow the advice and fashion your own tool and buy or barrow the camera they suggest. I found mine at harbor freight, and I have used it for other projects.
A number of us have had success following the advice on the above link..

 

Going to try this later today, will let you know how it goes!

 

would this solution work on a jaguar x type ?

 

If you can find the lowest point of the heater box and it's accessible from the footwell, it could work on nearly any vehicle.

 

I would not do it it that way, much easier through the engine bay...

 

i hate to tell you to pull your carpet back up, but i think a hose clamp is called for on that barb down at the floor, at a minimum. good on you for realizing the exhaust is a concern, but the heat will of course also heat that fitting up and conduct it upward to the hose. really, you may as well use hose clamps on both ends purely to account for vibration over time.

 

This attempted fix seemed logical to do & I tried it myself. Unfortunately it did not work for me or the Dentist who posted these pictures. He and I later discussed what we learned from this wasted effort. What works consistently for the XK plugged duckbill is the two home made cutting tools on this thread that cut open or off the duckbill. Before drilling into your Jaguar, do all you can to find the shop manual for your X type and look into how your A/C drains the condensation & where. The pictures shown above are an attempt to drain the overflowing condensate water before it reaches the “Blower Fan” & shorting it out. It was placed on the same plane as the fan, not the lowest point (where the stuck closed duckbill is located). This failed because the large volume of accumulated water condensate sloshed beyond that small drain and still
entered into the blower fan.

 

I got the dreaded dripping in the passenger footwell this morning
I was reluctant to drill and fit a pipe so tried closing the vents with fan on max. To help it along I repeatedly opened and shut one of the vents to “surge” the pressure…. after about 10 minutes the water started dripping under the engine and stopped dripping inside the car so it certainly looks like it worked! I will keep my eye on it and repeat regularly!

 

Putting the fan on full and closing the vents seemed to work initially but only lasted a few days.

I needed a more permanent fix and read on another thread about cutting the end off the duckbill.
it seems to have permanently cured the problem…
Full details in this thread:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...7/#post2449854

 

I read your post and thought this would be my final solution when all else fails, being a car guy and new to Jaguar I bought a 2010 XK last of my vin B36433 with 51k miles on it, super clean car. I was completely amazed that an engineer would design this duck bill and have it drain at the top of the transmission tunnel with no access. I called my local Jaguar dealer and they wanted to rip out the 12 year old dash and get to it that way… $195 per hour x 12 hours to do the job…. That was not an option to fix a $5 piece of rubber….. So I started to read lots of people on this site were talking about lubricating the duck bill. I have very skinny arms I don’t see how they were able to do this. I also went and bought a borescope and I was able to see that sucker tucked in there…. So I started to think if water is to run out of this piece of rubber, and all these people are rubbing there finger with lubricant on the rubber , what if oil came out of the duck bill… Would the oil passing through pool enough to soften and lubricant this piece of rubber, and the answer is yes. I used olive oil since I didn’t want any oil smell coming out of my ac vents. I had to do it twice but it worked …. Remove the 3 screws that hold in the blower motor, no need to unplug it the wire is long enough, I took a paper cup and put about a 1/2 an inch of olive oil in the cup and cut off the rest of the cup with a scissor. You need to jack up the passenger side so the front wheel is an inch off the ground, take the cut cup with the olive oil put your hand up in the hole where your blower came out and push your hand towards the center of the car as far as you can get it and dump the cup…..let the car sit for ten minutes on the jack, put the blower motor back in and lower the jack … my first time nothing came out so I tried to close all the vents and motor on high and I got a sprinkle of water and oil, but driving around not enough to do it on its own. Parked it thinking this was not going to help, but I kept reading all these people talking about lubricating the duck bill by hand, but I can’t reach it…so I repeated my olive oil idea a second time after letting the car sit for two day but this time we I put in the oil when I took the car off the jack I had drops of oil on the floor, about a two inch circle…. I live in Florida and yesterday was 86 degrees so I took her out for a 4 hour trip and not a drop on the passenger carpet…. So this crazy idea worked…. I did change the original blower motor and relay before trying the oil trick….So my thought is maybe this needs to be done once a year to keep the duck bill soft…..

 

What a great idea, it makes a lot of sense and keeps the duckbill intact to do the job it was intended to do!

 

Glad you’re happy with your solution, but it kind of makes me cringe. Purposely creating an oil leak, to leave drips of oil in my garage, on my driveway, and worse… on friend’s driveways.
Also, that oil will collect dirt and grime on the transmission bell housing, which is currently very clean. No, not for me, but then I was successful in slicing off mine.

 

I've deleted your new thread with this same post. Let's keep all discussion on the topic in the same place.

Graham

 

This could be what I have been hoping for to get my XKR sorted. By following your brilliant steps does that mean I don't have to do anything to the duck bill fitting as mine is already blocked. If I follow your steps could I simply then just use my A/C

 

Hi Jack H.
Denver DDS and I had corresponded on this same technique after we both implemented it and found IT FAILED. Please don’t go drilling holes in your XK like we did. Take a look at the picture with the “White X marks the spot”.. Next notice that that area is FLAT. Next notice how small the whole opening is for the brass fitting. By the time the water has filled the cavity above the closed DuckBill, imagine a full bucket of water sloshing around. This is what is happening in the XK. With a good bump, or sharp turn while driving, this sloshing water flows like a flood across the flat plastic “flood plane” in the ac box. It is flooding over, past, around, and a small portion down this brass fitting & plastic tube. Most ,unfortunately, will still flow into your blower fan & motor risking not only shorting out the fan but the control module next to it. (Back when it happened to me about $150 each to replace).
For me, Slicing the DuckBill has been a permanent fix with no ill effects years later. The XKR poses a challenge vs XK due to placement of Turbo/blower but I believe the XKR owners found a way to do the same.
Good Luck!

 

See my post here for a much simpler solution:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-135630/page4/

(#61, I think)