Ford AC drain elbow installation...

[Hamfisted]

There's no cabin air filter. About the only thing that will hiss from the rear is a leak in the air suspension, if it has that. Unless you mean an interior hiss. Then it could be the rear A/C unit. Josh, spend the $20 and get the right A/C drain elbow for the job.

 

[josh1095]

I have a 2003, and anything that helps with the AC sounds like a good idea, but I'm such a massive ****** that this is probably near impossible for me to try... There's a few things I need checked in terms of AC, it seems to be slightly weaker than I'd expect, I have no idea on the status of my cabin air filter (if it exists), and there's the hissing from the rear! Perhaps next oil change I'll ask the shop to replace the air filter too, that's a common service thing, right?

The hissing? I own an 04 now (eddie bauer) and my last expy was a 99(EB as well). BOTH made that hissing sound. No ill effect on either. My 99 I sold at 255,000 miles and talked to the guy the other day. He said the only thing he's done since he bought it off me was a new set of COPs and plugs! Everything STILL works and now has 325k on it.
As far as cabin filters, i don't think it has one. I could be wrong on that.

Test your rear AC/Heat strength compared to your front. Do the vents blow hard when NOT running the ac? If so, that probably means that your drain is clogging. When enough water builds up in the coil box it seems to make my blower weaker. I turn off the ac for a few minutes, turn it back on and it's at full strength. The rear ac never has this problem. It is draining properly though.

 

[josh1095]

There's no cabin air filter. About the only thing that will hiss from the rear is a leak in the air suspension, if it has that. Unless you mean an interior hiss. Then it could be the rear A/C unit. Josh, spend the $20 and get the right A/C drain elbow for the job.

Thanks. I actually ordered it 30 minutes ago. Have a great weekend

 

[Prince_Polaris]

The hissing? I own an 04 now (eddie bauer) and my last expy was a 99(EB as well). BOTH made that hissing sound. No ill effect on either. My 99 I sold at 255,000 miles and talked to the guy the other day. He said the only thing he's done since he bought it off me was a new set of COPs and plugs! Everything STILL works and now has 325k on it.
As far as cabin filters, i don't think it has one. I could be wrong on that.

Test your rear AC/Heat strength compared to your front. Do the vents blow hard when NOT running the ac? If so, that probably means that your drain is clogging. When enough water builds up in the coil box it seems to make my blower weaker. I turn off the ac for a few minutes, turn it back on and it's at full strength. The rear ac never has this problem. It is draining properly though.

Okay, so perhaps it's normal! And damn, I'd love to make it to 300k!

My 98 explorer sport didn't have a cabin air filter either, but I've heard loads of horror stories about

Also, I seem to have the opposite of the problem the drain elbow would suggest- I remembver my AC being super cold one day when I was on the highway going 70!

But I do have a problem with the rear AC, a different one, I've noticed that the rear AC isn't anywhere near as cold as the front AC, to the point where I can't tell if it's actually cooling the air or simply blowing it around without any temperature changes.

I should note though, I'm never gonna be able to get a car without automatic climate controls again, setting it to 70 and letting it do its own thing is amazing!

 

[josh1095]

Quick update: I did this job yesterday on my 04 Eddie Bauer. It was not fun, but not as bad as expected. The little shield covering the drain pipe was a ***** but i found my 2ft long flat blade to pry it off.

I cannot stress this enough: Go get a 24" section of 1/2" copper pipe. Don't even start without it or you'll be making a trip up to the hardware store. I used dielectric grease on it. BOTH ends of the elbow. Lube the copper pipe end(the long end, by the way) so you can gently twist it out when you (eventually after many cuss words and bruises) get the damn elbow on.

You also MUST boil the elbow for a good 15 minutes. I tried after 5 or 10 and it hadn't expanded enough. It's a mad dash; you must get it on while it's still very hot. So pop it out of the boiling water, dry it real quick, slather on the grease of your choice and get your ass under the truck.

Oh and most important: the results. It worked perfectly.
*I would also suggest taking a long air hose blower attachment and blowing out the drain pipe as best you can before installing the elbow. Mine happened to be near perfectly clean but it didn't hurt to do it anyway.