I have a central air conditioning unit for downstairs and a separate one for upstairs. The upstairs one is a horizontal York split-system AC/furnace system that sits in the attic. A couple of days ago, when the AC was on upstairs, I noticed some water dripping down from the ceiling. When I went up to the attic to check, I saw that the water was coming from the external drainage pan, which had a hole in it. This is a (36 x 8 1/4 x 1 1/2) galvanized tray attached to the underside of the supply duct and has a drain pipe connected to it at one end. When I took off the pan, I saw that it was all rusted and corroded and had a couple of holes at the bottom. I thought all I had to do was replace the pan, but when I called an AC dealer/service firm, the person I talked told me that a central air unit has two drainage pans--the primary one is inside the unit and the secondary on is outside and serves mainly as a fail-safe device. He said that if the outside pan is all rusted and corroded, that means either the condensate drain inside is clogged or the primary pan is leaking. If it is the latter, the whole system has to be replaced because they don't make spare parts for the primary drain pan. He said he has seen many cases like this in systems that are 15 or 16 years old. But my system is only 10 years old! We bought the house new 10 years ago. I don't mean to be distrustful, but I don't know much about central air conditioning units and I don't to change out the whole unit if all I need is to change the drainage pan. Please advice. We have visitors coming in a couple of weeks to stay with us for a few days and the temperature shoots up and the AC is not working, it will be a disaster. If we have to replace the whole unit, how much are we talking about, ball-park figure, for the equipment and the labor?

About a month or two ago our AC failed after a power restart during a storm. The next day I reset the breakers and the unit and we were good to go, a few days later the same issue. After poking around it looked like the AC unit fan was weak, after a push start it was up and we were good to go again. A few days after that, it stopped and started. So we got a new fan and installed it worked like a charm, wired it just like the old one. It's worked for two weeks just fine. We come home one day and it stops working. Try turning it on and I notice the fan does not kick on or anything, not even the buzzing/humming noise it usually made to start up. So my smart idea was...lets reset the breaker again and see what happens. So I do so, and turn it on, and it was working! Fired up, was running full speed, then I noted it slowed down...was running at half speed for about 15 seconds...THEN BOOM! :madhell: It made a very loud sound, started smoking and sparking. I immediately shut it off and ran out of the way. It stopped smoking after a short while and it made a hissing noise...like a tired leaking air. At this point its in a professionals hands. But what could have done this? It was running TWO weeks no problems. I'm starting to think someone's messing with my unit. The only thing different from before is I noted the air was blowing down into the unit and out the side. I thought this was wrong, as usually you want to blow the air through the sides and out the top. That's why I thought a two year old AC unit motor fan died. Did I mess up and the unit over-heated and blew up? Should the air go through the coils on the side and up and OUT of the unit? What does this sound like...and does anyone have experience with AC unit warranties? This is my mother in law's home and she bought it less than two years ago, but had it installed by someone she knew. Do you need it installed by a manufacturer to receive any warranty work? Thank you for ANY help and guidance.