air con pipes moist with condensation in engine bay normal?

[omodos]

Hello all, well not sure how many of you have a habit of feeling around the engine bay after a long drive on hot hot summer day ? i did, and found that the alloy pipe no.3 that must be the refrigerant pipe was damp with condensation , bearing in mind i had the air con on, is this normal? and another thing is at what temp must the radiator fan come on? had the car for 5 years and not heard the fan come on once??? and temps do get real hot out here, i even left it in park for 5mins bit still no fan kicked in....i uess it must work at some point otherwise i would have toasted the engine by now...thanks

[alecu]

The radiator fan should kick in most of the time when the AC is on. You can try also pushing the MAX button on the climate control to see if that will start the fan.
Are you having any kind of AC problems with the car sitting at idle? Aka..warmer air instead of cold?

I'm not sure about the sweaty pipes though. Maybe somebody else can chip in with that part.

[X5SND]

It's akin to a glass of iced tea outside on a warm summer day. What happens? Moisture condenses on the outside of the glass from the temperature differential. Normally the pipes should be insulated, but other than that I don't think you have an issue.

[powers1]

Yep!Mine are "sweaty" too and the outside temperature is 40 degrees but that AC fan should be on

[omodos]

Originally Posted by powers1

Yep!Mine are "sweaty" too and the outside temperature is 40 degrees but that AC fan should be on

thanks for all the replies, nope not having any kind of problem, just wondering when the fan should kick in? and coime to think of it when the air con is on and come to a standstill and switch off i can hear what must be the fan, so will take a look whilst air con is on too.....the sweaty pipes yup you gusy are right, we have 50% humidity on the day and i suppose the iced glass in a hot day analogy is what happened, thanks again