Land Rover Repair: air conditoning, cold gas, air conditoning

Question
whewn i turn on the ac, i get a puddle of hot water in front of the passenger seat. i also have steam coming through the vents. what is going on here? I have a 96 Discovery

Answer
HI Eric:

your disco sounds like it has trouble with the HIgh side of your pressurized AC system.  The compressed R134 gas becomes super hot, or high-pressured gas. This hot gas runs through a set of coils to dissipate the heat, which condenses into a liquid.

The R134a liquid runs through an expansion valve and in the process evaporates to become very cold gas.  This cold gas (low side)runs through a set of coils that allow the gas to absorb heat and cool down the air inside your Disco...normally.  A blower does the rest.

In your case, there may be a leak in the expansion area (high side) of your system.  The hot liquid is dripping into your pass. footwell.  You can either go to a AC specialist and hope they can service this OR take your Disco to the local LR dealer for service.  It may not be that expensive...compressors are the real pigs ($1000+).  It might be a simple valve or gasket.  

Caution:  Have it fixed before you burn out your compressor or you'll know what $$$ service pain is all about.  Once AC's start to fail...cha-ching$$ the dealers start to smile!

Best of luck,

JohnMc