Condensation in the car

dellas1979

Hi guys,
Have terrible condensation in the car the last few days - for example, when I got in the car this morning, it was literally dripping off the inside of the windscreen.
Can I do anything to prevent it?

patrickc

could be that pollen filter needs changing, helped alot with the same issue in a previous car of mine.

johnayo

Have a good look around to see if you have any water leaks. Check the carpets to see if they are wet. Condensation is usually caused by this.

E39MSport

Whats the make/model?

Some types have common ingress problems.

From experience: -
W202 for example lets wter in though the bulk head when the drains fill.
E11 Corolla lets water in through the rear lens etc etc
MGB is like a focking sieve ;-)

Max_Damage

Either get a few packs of silica gel (eBay has plenty of them) or buy a bag of baking soda, put it into an open container, and put it on the floor inside the car. It will soak up all the moisture. It worked a treat for me.

si_guru

Switch the AirCon on if you have it.

zziplex

My guess is also that a new pollen filter would help.

_Nuno_

I have had that as well these past two days. My car is new so I doubt it's a filter, but it's definitely weird as none of the other cars parked beside mine had it.

Rowley Birkin QC

Not sure as to prevention but a cure is to run a dehumidifier inside the car for a few hours.

Worked a treat for me over christmas when about a pint of water got spilled inside the car.

neonitrix

what make is it - have seen a few seat / vw's with good bit of condensation lately.

Stealthirl

theres also those out there the use the rec fuction and this will cause condatsation if left on aswell.best to use fresh air from outside

Do you see the pic below and the red arrow.do you have a selection like that? That shows an arrow with air only moving on the inside of the car? With only one button on this model, if the light is off, then it is pulling outside air in. If the button is selected, the light is on and it is only circulating inside air. Some cars have two buttons. One button has a pic like this and the other button has a pic of outside air coming into the vehicle. You need to switch to outside air so that you are pulling outside air into the car.

dnme

Yeah my beloved Corolla was soaked on all inside windows today (Monday) aswell. I had not driven it since Friday.

Bear in mind that over the weekend, we had massive rain and prior to that for the past few months we have had low humidity high pressure weather apart from the days it snowed.

Just dry as much as you can with a towel, take it for a spin and blast it with warm air and leave a window down a little. Make sure there is no sitting water on the floor or in front foot wells etc. Check your filters particularly your pollen filter. Give the car a good bit of use over the next few days.

Gitb1

My car is giving me problems with condensation. Its only a few months old so I dont think its the pollen filter or an a/c problem.

I think its from during the snow when it was getting on the car mats and seats and the moisture is still trapped inside. I went out one particularly cold morning and my windscreen was frozen inside and out :mad:

slave1

This is a coincidence, I had the car serviced on Saturday (07 Avensis) and since then there are two things I've noticed.
The condensation is unbelievable, water everywhere, all windows and heavy.
My dips have a very short throw (say two car lengths), I never drove with full beams on but have to now (not to do with that light adjuster dial).
I'll give the garage a call on this later in the morning (closed yesterday), any advice in particular?

E39MSport

dnme wrote: »

Yeah my beloved Corolla was soaked on all inside windows today (Monday) aswell. I had not driven it since Friday.

Bear in mind that over the weekend, we had massive rain and prior to that for the past few months we have had low humidity high pressure weather apart from the days it snowed.

Just dry as much as you can with a towel, take it for a spin and blast it with warm air and leave a window down a little. Make sure there is no sitting water on the floor or in front foot wells etc. Check your filters particularly your pollen filter. Give the car a good bit of use over the next few days.

I applied a fix to a common problem with my 98 Corolla over the weekend. They let water in through the rear light clusters. Cheap fix is to remove the cluster and apply silicon sealant around the housing and reapply while filling any gaps with the sealant.
Dry as a bone now.
Check for moisture under the carpets in the boot on either side over the wheel arch (in the cubby hole).

My pollen filter was also blocked so I binned it - massive difference with air flow now.

Dry as a bone now. It had been doing this for a while and it was starting to affect relays etc it was that damp.

For the OP, it could simply have got wet from wet feet or a good splash of rain while a door was open. If its a one off I wouldn't worry - run a dehumidifier in it on full tilt over night.

slave1

This is a coincidence, I had the car serviced on Saturday (07 Avensis) and since then there are two things I've noticed.
The condensation is unbelievable, water everywhere, all windows and heavy.

Dropped car back to garage yesterday, they said a bottle of water was spilled behind the back seat and that moisture is causing the condensation, well it was fine before my service so ye must have spilled something, anyhow they vac'd the car, when I picked it up it was like a glasshouse inside, very hot, condensation problem fixed however...

Lord Derpington

dont mean to hijack

Gitb1 wrote: »

I went out one particularly cold morning and my windscreen was frozen inside and out :mad:

The last two mornings my windscreen has been frozen inside and out, even when i poured temped water on it mixed with washer fluid it froze onto the window instead of clearing it off, even with the wipers on!

Had to scrape inside and out of the car and all windows.. getting very tired of doing it... might have a look at he baking soda/silica gel and filters ideas.

btw mine is a Mk4 golf

dnme

E39MSport wrote: »

I applied a fix to a common problem with my 98 Corolla over the weekend. They let water in through the rear light clusters. Cheap fix is to remove the cluster and apply silicon sealant around the housing and reapply while filling any gaps with the sealant.
Dry as a bone now.
Check for moisture under the carpets in the boot on either side over the wheel arch (in the cubby hole).

My pollen filter was also blocked so I binned it - massive difference with air flow now.

Dry as a bone now. It had been doing this for a while and it was starting to affect relays etc it was that damp.

For the OP, it could simply have got wet from wet feet or a good splash of rain while a door was open. If its a one off I wouldn't worry - run a dehumidifier in it on full tilt over night.

Tell me, how can you tell if the rear lights are leaking?

langdang

Lidl has silica gel type dehumidifiers on special since last week. €7 euro for 3 sachets suitable for 35m2 room.

My current banger was the same - dripping off windscreen etc, impossible to see out of the windows, impossible to keep them clear.
I've chucked in one of the dehumidiers awhile, until I can get out the silicone gun to the leak.

mp3kid

langdang wrote: »

Lidl has silica gel type dehumidifiers on special since last week. €7 euro for 3 sachets suitable for 35m2 room.

My current banger was the same - dripping off windscreen etc, impossible to see out of the windows, impossible to keep them clear.
I've chucked in one of the dehumidiers awhile, until I can get out the silicone gun to the leak.

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20117030.p.Room_Dehumidifier

E39MSport

dnme wrote: »

Tell me, how can you tell if the rear lights are leaking?

Got the hose to it with the boot door open to see where the water was coming from. Ran the water down the lip where the seal sits and over the light clusters. It was pi55ing in from behind the light.

E39MSport

slave1 wrote: »

Dropped car back to garage yesterday, they said a bottle of water was spilled behind the back seat and that moisture is causing the condensation, well it was fine before my service so ye must have spilled something, anyhow they vac'd the car, when I picked it up it was like a glasshouse inside, very hot, condensation problem fixed however...

Sounds odd. Unless there was a bottle on the ground with its contents missing then I wonder how they managed to come to that conclusion?

If they had just serviced it I reckon they left it out in the wet weather with the window(s) open.

You get your lights fixed?

I had similar problem with the Corolla - had to take the adjuster switch apart. The metal brush had come off. Easy fix.

bonzodog2

On a morning when its not cold enough to freeze the condensation on the inside of the windscreen, soak it up with paper towels and remove them from the car.Do this a few days in succession, and there's not some kind of on-going leak problem, the condensation should disappear. If you get a bit of warm dry weather, drive fast with windows down for a few minutes.

langdang

bonzodog2 wrote: »

soak it up with paper towels and remove them from the car..

Good point - Also, if your demister pad or whatever you use holds a lot of water, bring that out of the car when it's parked up.

My demister chamois block was sopping wet when I had bad condensation, leaving it in the car just allows all that water to evaporate back onto your windows. I brought mine into work and put it on near a rad to dry out.

slave1

E39MSport wrote: »

Sounds odd. Unless there was a bottle on the ground with its contents missing then I wonder how they managed to come to that conclusion?

If they had just serviced it I reckon they left it out in the wet weather with the window(s) open.

You get your lights fixed?

I had similar problem with the Corolla - had to take the adjuster switch apart. The metal brush had come off. Easy fix.

It was Saturday and I can't remember whether it was raining or not during the service, whatever the case it got wet during the service and it's okay now.
On the lights, I queried yesterday and yes they did adjust them very short but apparantly that is the way they need to be for the NCT (which it passed earlier today) so I'm kinda thinking that I should leave them as is (I may have inadvertantly been 'blinding' oncoming traffic).

cadaliac

langdang wrote: »

Good point - Also, if your demister pad or whatever you use holds a lot of water, bring that out of the car when it's parked up.

My demister chamois block was sopping wet when I had bad condensation, leaving it in the car just allows all that water to evaporate back onto your windows. I brought mine into work and put it on near a rad to dry out.

I must do that !
My car is full of condenstaion too.

dnme

E39MSport wrote: »

Got the hose to it with the boot door open to see where the water was coming from. Ran the water down the lip where the seal sits and over the light clusters. It was pi55ing in from behind the light.

Are you talking about the lights marked in pic? Is your car the same tiltback model (97-99, pre facelift) ?

E39MSport

Nah - I have the saloon. But yes, I'm on about the rear light clusters. They come off very easily. 3 nuts each.

MetzgerMeister

A good way to minimise condensation is to keep all windows spotlessly clean inside the car. The more dirt on them, the more water can stick to them. To get rid of condensation in the mornings, put on the blower fan (not a/c) and wait for it to get warm. While it's on full blast, use an old, rough cloth to wipe the windscreen dry. It'll be gone in no time.

Another thing I'm looking into I saw in a thread on here a while back. It's a long snake type bag of silica beads/gel that you place along the dash and parcel shelf. They soak up all moisture and leave your windscreens clear.

If anyone has a link to this product, please post!

Dades

FWIW, I noticed the same major build up of condensation about last Tuesday. It was just after the last big rains.

Had never had that before either.

My cars terrible for this too. Last year it was particularly bad, dripping wet condensation on the inside and frozen solid inside on the colder nights. This year hasn't been too bad, only frozen inside once all winter, but the past few mornings I've had really bad condensation again...proper pain when you're in a rush.

I tried the silica gel thing last winter, we get absolultely loads of them wee sachets in work so I gathered up a shed load of them, stuck them in a box and stuck it on the dash over night. Didn't work the greatest tbh. It was soaking up some moisture because some of them became a bit soggy, but it just really didn't have much of an effect if anything on the condensation levels.

I did find a little thing in a shop last year, think it was just some silica type stuff in a fancy container, claimed to remove moisture from the air in an enitre room for figured for a couple of quid I'd pick it up anyways! I did notice I had considerably less condensation when I left it in the car but it had an immense overpowering smell to it and I couldn't handle it being in the car for any longer!

I've heard raving in the past about something you can get quite cheap apparently that should do the trick, all I know is it's a penguin whatever it was?! Anybody know what it is and if it's any good??

Orando Broom

Where is the pollen filter on the '99 accord?

woody33

Of course if you wipe the water off the glass and keep the cloth in the car, you're keeping all the water in the car too...I suggest a couple of clothes pegs in the aerial and dry the screen cloth as you drive.

Lex Luthor

had frozen w/screen this morning inside aswell.

Think I just need to clean off all the windows and get them dry and run the heater for a bit.

I'm guilty of leaving wet cloths in the car which I dont think is helping and wet jackets in the boot

Rowley Birkin QC

Lex Luthor wrote: »

had frozen w/screen this morning inside aswell.

Think I just need to clean off all the windows and get them dry and run the heater for a bit.

I'm guilty of leaving wet cloths in the car which I dont think is helping and wet jackets in the boot

If you can get access to a dehumidifier and have a secure place to leave the car overnight I can't recommend it highly enough. You'll be amazed at the amount of water that will come out of the car.

MetzgerMeister

woody33 wrote: »

Of course if you wipe the water off the glass and keep the cloth in the car, you're keeping all the water in the car too...I suggest a couple of clothes pegs in the aerial and dry the screen cloth as you drive.

What if your aerial is built in to the rear windscreen??

Lex Luthor

Rowley Birkin QC wrote: »

If you can get access to a dehumidifier and have a secure place to leave the car overnight I can't recommend it highly enough. You'll be amazed at the amount of water that will come out of the car.

will do if it gets bad again but I removed the wet rag and wiped down the windscreen inside with IPA wipes and its fine since

illdoit2morrow

Same Same, i've got a VW Bora, had really bad condensation for ages, still not gone away, ut a lot better than it was.

The problem was the pollen filter cover, it turns out it was cracked, so water was dripping on to the pollen filter. I don't know the cause for sure, but i think it was when i got my windscreen changed, they broke the cover when putting it back in...it's a semi tricky procedure to put it back in.

Take a look at that if it's a VW Golf or Bora...hope this helps.

dnme

E39MSport wrote: »

Nah - I have the saloon. But yes, I'm on about the rear light clusters. They come off very easily. 3 nuts each.

Hi E39, I had the condensation issue on the back window again today so decided to investigate. I took off the rear light units. See images below.

I dont know if your lights were the same as mine but...in the second image you can see what I am dealing with. There is an inner seal made of foam I think (A). AFAICT there is no outer seal at (B). The inner foam was very wet. I cleaned everything, applied spray silicon and refitted the light units.

So. Is this what you did? or did you add a seal to the outer area (B) ?

Many thanks

E39MSport

Hi.

It's pretty straight forward as you will have found out.

I read somewhere that there's an outer seal missing with the earlier E11 corollas and they let water in through that area.

So, like you, I dried everything out BUT also applied a thick seal of silicon around the outer back of the lens where it would sit flush against the bodywork. I then wiped the excess away after reinstalling the cluster.

Looks neat enough but I used blue gasket sealant coz I dont give a crap about aesthetics - I will get a pic up tomorrow.

The water was getting into my car at the area where the black mark is on yours - under the hole where the cluster fits. There seems to be a gap (in the saloon at least) in the seam there.

You should see moisture in the boot cavity if you lift the carpets. If not then its probably not your problem. Run a hose down the outside off the boot seal so that water is running over your re-attached lens. You will see it coming in just under the lens.

Let me know how you get on with the test.

Cheers,

dnme

Thanks E39

I am reluctant to add a bead of silicon or any other sealer to the outside of the unit as I would definitely mess it up, it would then look awful and next time I go to change a bulb I would have to break it open.

Looking out at my car just now, it's been sitting in a storm all night with driving rain and wind, and it looks perfect inside. No condensation. I reckon the tightening of the light units together with the silicon spray may be working.

E39MSport

Nice one.

Don't forget though that you can get to the bulbs from the inside.

I'll post a pic anyways for you to see my 'handywork'.

Hope its sorted for you.

Cheers,

billbond4

Orando Broom wrote: »

Where is the pollen filter on the '99 accord?

If it likes the >03 Accords ,it behind the glove box.
The manual tells you how to gain access to it

dnme

E39MSport wrote: »

I'll post a pic anyways for you to see my 'handywork'

Definitely do please, I'd really like to see that

E39MSport

Bloody car has gone to the airport for the weekend - will have to wait 'til Sunday.

My fix has worked however - car is bone dry now.