Driving While under Stimulus

Oh Hobo. Let me play my oboe
Let me drive like I was blind.
If I am distracted. A charge redacted
Then I have achieved murder without a crime.

Oh walker. I am a talker.
Let me drive my mobile cell.
If I hit right. And can take flight.
Then more notches and compacted swine.

I have a car issue.

When I start the engine, a fair amount of water suddenly drips out from underneath (say, 1/4 cup or so.) Almost underneath the driver's seat, but a little more towards the middle. It is definitely not dripping before the engine starts, and it is definitely water and not some other fluid. Over the next 30 seconds to a minute, it gradually stops. This happens every time I start the car, and only started maybe a week ago.

What's going on? And please tell me it is not an expensive thing to fix.

sounds to me like the condensation from the A/C is building up and pushed out when the engine starts. Is the A/C or fan ON when you start the car?
There is a little drain "hose" under the dash somewhere that is probably leaking because it came off or dryrotted or or or. I had it happen in my Nissan on the passenger side. It must have been accidentally kicked off at one point and cost a total of $0 to fix.

Yes, the A/C is always left on because it's a thousand degrees here. :) I knew condensation could drip, but I didn't realize it could build up in some reservoir. Is it something that really matters? Could I (make Mr. Clod) get under there and reattach an obvious hose, or is it a more internal thing?

It is probably (if this is what it is) very easy to fix and Mr. Clod should be able to do it no problem. If the male end where the hose connects is broken it could be another matter.
If the hose just got knocked off, its nothing more than slipping it back on.
I have a feeling one of my kids, when they were younger like yours, accidentally knocked it loose. Have him take a look and see where its dripping from when you start the car.

Oh and I won't do the need additional data, facts, info post yet. ;)

The cartalk guys also talk about that hose getting clogged and the reservoir overflowing.

So it's just water, right? If it leaks in the wrong place, will it even cause rust or mildew in a car in drought stricken arid Texas? You would think it would just evaporate quickly. Why fix it at all?

Keep a bottle to collect the water. You might need it later.

Good point, Pete.

I've got a car question.

Rough idle.
The car is old. After it warms up from driving around, when I stop at a light and push in the clutch, or shift out of gear, it goes into an idle where it's pretty rough. The CDs in the door pocket start to rattle against each other. The hard roof liner starts to vibrate against the roof. If I apply a little pressure to the accelerator and ever so slightly rev the engine, the vibrations and roughness go away. It does not have a rough idle when cold. (I understand the computer sends different signals to the engine when it is still cold than when it has warmed up and the fuel mixture is different then.) It is not rough when driving. This has been going on for a couple months.

How to improve? We had new spark plugs and wires (and presumably distributor cap?) replaced about 30K miles ago as part of a tune up done then, so they should still be good.

It has 115K miles now. We did that first (only) tune up at about 85K.

I could just go replacing stuff, but would like to know where a good place to start is. I was thinking fuel injectors. We've never done anything with those. Are clogged fuel injectors likely to cause symptoms only during idle?

Oh, this is a 1996 Geo Prizm LSI with the 1.6 liter engine and manual transmission. 115K miles. Starts fine. Drives fine. But idle is rough. Never stalls.

OH! OH! Is the check engine light on?

That's an unusual combination of symptoms; but, I've experienced something like it. In my case, I noticed that it initially occurred during periods of high humidity and was exacerbated by cold-wet weather. It was a minor distraction that I put off having checked out for a few months until the condition began rapidly deteriorating to nearly disabling the vehicle. It turned out to be a faulty oxygen sensor which I had replaced under warranty.

Glatt, good news! That is a super easy fix.

Look to the right of the steering wheel for one of these. Twist the knob on the Left CLOCKWISE until the sound of the rough idling disappears. If you turn it all the way clockwise and you still hear the rough idle you may need to get a new one.

that's the check engine light override knob, isn't it?

Yep. And the better ones go all the way up to 11...