Help please! Major condensation in Clio

campers

My 99 Clio took on board about 3 litres of water into the driver's side footwells during heavy rain about two weeks ago.

(Windows were up, doors were closed, seats bone-dry, no sunroof... )

I tried bailing out as much as I could (3 litres!) but it's still soggy under the carpets. Plus the car now stinks to high heaven.

Obviously because of all the moisture in the car, I now have a killer condensation problem on the winter mornings. In fact, there's so much water on the inside of the windscreen, it'll probably freeze on the inside when the frost comes!

What can I do about this? I would need to remove the seats to take the carpets up. Plus, I never found the source of the original leak.

Will a valet job dry-out/dehumidify the car ??

Thanks

peasant

Obviously you need to find and plug the leak (blocked drain on underside of windscreen is a good candidate) first.

as for drying:

-Try and get hold of a wet hoover and hoover out as much moisture as you can.

-Get a cheapo dehumidifier (a tray of salt crystals which sucks the water out of the air and collects it in a tray ...you can get in in Halfords where the camping stuff is for less than a tenner)

- While your driving, heat the car up to full blast ...once it is hot open as many windows as you can, repeat.

crosstownk

campers wrote:

What can I do about this? I would need to remove the seats to take the carpets up. Plus, I never found the source of the original leak.


Thanks

This may well be what is required. If you took out 3 litres of water, the chances are that there are another 3 litres of water still soaked into the foam beneath the carpet.

I had this problem with a 99 Passat a while back and had to remove the front seats and use a heater to blow warm air at the underneath of the carpet which I propped up on a stick. It took a few days to dry properly.

A decent valetor should be able to cure the problem, but finding the source of the leak is obviously the first thing to do.

A recent thread on condensation here

r3nu4l

Sorry to hear about that,

Only other thing I have to add is to make sure that your air vent is taking in air and not re-circulating the air in the car.

Kazzer00

Is it coming from the interior light by any chance - this happened in my 00 clio lately. The leak for in around hte aeriel and came in through the light. If so you need to remove the light casing and the aeriel and use a silicone sealant to stick back on the aeriel. This should solve the problem of how the water is getting in - if in fact that's where its getting in.

campers

Kazzer00 wrote:

Is it coming from the interior light by any chance - this happened in my 00 clio lately.

AFAIK, it's not the aerial hole/internal light.
After hours of Googling, it looks like water could be building up around the heater box because of a blocked duct. I'm going to have to remove the wipers and the plastic guards between bonnet and windscreen to have a goo down the holes.

The only other possibility I can think of is that the seal around my driver's door is slightly out of place. But there's no way in hell it would let in 3 litres of water!! (plus the door panelling was dry after the incident anyway).

Thank to other posters for tips on drying.

I dream about selling the f***** thing. There's 100k on the clock now, and the exhaust is starting to rattle like a banger when she's cold.