I thought i would post this up as others MUST have had the same problem.

Ive owned my stilo since new and the aircon has been a thorn in my side the whole time. In the summer months after a day of use the unit throws out water all inside the car soaking everything and misting up the windows. It had been back to the dealers 7 times during warrenty each time they "said" they had fixed it but within a couple of days it was back.

What i done was took off the drivers side centre panel and located the drain pipe, the pipe is plastic and has a rubber 90degree bend on the bottom to atmosphere (ps this was clear). I pulled the pipe off and with a normal plastic straw i inserted it into the top hole (into the aircon unit), about a gallon of water flowed out. This is basically what i think the dealer was doing, but as soon as the aircon was running again it seemed to vaccum up and stop flowing out again, this time i done the same trick and left the straw in it hoping it would break any vaccum that occurs. Its been two months now and i have clear windows and dry carpets, all for the cost of 10mins and an normal drinking straw.

I hope this helps out another member that may have the same problem, yet another poorly designed component on the stilo, but i still love her lol
roy

That's a good "get around" trick
I'm thinking there's something moving about like an old leaf and blocking the drain entry point as there's no vaccuum to speak of there. Similar to the windscreen washer, if there's a blockage at the nozzle and you push it back into the system it just comes back again

It should just pour out the drain and it's quite a bit too. I've had people come up and say "Do you know you've got a leak under your car" when my aircon is on full blast

Very good Roy well done .. I also fixed my aircon only in a different way to you ..I found that a pipe was broken and not wanting to pay the dealer ridiculous amount of money just for a bit of cold air I decide to remove the whole system lol ..so far I have progressed to the stage of removing the belt that drives the generator ..if anyone needs a generator your quite welcome to have mine

Nice fix there! Personally my version of air con is the ol wind the windows down!

Roy
When you next take out the pollen filter, I would see if you can clean the area out and poke a wire down through the drain from the condensation collection tray

Pollen filter

Condensation collection tray. Shown with car completely removed

Nice one mate, i will have a look over the weekend, ive got the wheels to change, investigate the bloody spring creek and couple of areas to T-cut so i will add this to the list. I was chewing over taking the pollen filter out but thinking about it if the thing removed then this sort of fault could occur more often.
cheers
roy

Yes if you leave the pollen filter out (and it's surprising how badly contaminated the thing gets in a short time) then there's nothing to stop the air con evaporator fins clogging up and the air con then will become very inefficient. Replace the pollen filter often as it will really slow down the air flow to the heater as well as the air con. I'd say no more than 20k miles tops.

Look in the Stilo Guides for replacing the Pollen filter if you haven't done one yet as there's a screw right at the very bottom of the filter access cover

LOL so 53k is a little ott.
cheers mate, looks dead easy i will have to get out there over the weekend and do this, i just hope that amc chelmsford hold these in stock.
thanks
roy

Anyone had condensing water blowing out the face vents as I had this the other day during the middle of a long fast run.

It's quite alarming when it happens as it looks like steam but the odd thing is it clears all by itself after about 10 minutes :chin:

Nope, never had that
Do you have climate control?
Had you just turned the face vents on?
Can you remember where you'd set the hot/cold control?
Used to get it a lot on aircraft with system icing up, a real fog it was too. I've heard of other cars doing it but haven't seen it happen in a Stilo.
Could be fun on a motorway and the interior suddenly turns in to dense fog
You might even get legionnaire's disease although you'd need to be wearing sandals and a Roman helmet

This is on standard A/C and as I say several hours into a journey.

Had me quite worried when it happened and I think it's been mentioned before (although as 'steam' )

well i think my air con is pants don't exactly blow that cold is there any reason for this not very well up on air con as it first car i had with it fitted.Will it need regassing or should i change pollen filter all help grateful.cheers

The most common reason for inefficient A/C and poor airflow is a blocked pollen filter (assuming the A/C is still working)

Just done all my filters, the pollen filter was a pain in the a$$. The screw wasnt a screw on mine but an 5.5mm bolt / screw (insted of an philips head screw), i realised this after pratting around for 10mins lol.

Anyways, the old filter was knackard with a capital K, it was full of leaves etc and black.
I tried to see if i could get to the top of the drain but the matrix heater / cooler was in the way so it looks like my fix will have to stand the test of time as there is no way im removing the thing whilst its still working.

The airflow is around 60% better than before, i also treated her to a can of aircon cleaner and now she smells LOVELY....
Now to another 5years of hopefully happy motoring LMAO...
roy