A lot of Condensation on Windscreen

[tef89]

Either way it was a bit better this morning.  Still had to give the screen and panoramic roof a good drying but not as much as previously.

I've decided not to push the car into a dis-used quarry just yet. ☠️

[Ian318]

On 12/2/2019 at 1:38 PM, Daggerit said:

Gotcha, I didn't see the 4°C bit though, but maybe just didn't look in the same place as you had been.  🙂

Hi got in car again and front and rear screens defrosted and mirrors too, i think the rear one only on for so long, i think if i did press rear demist button then mayb it overides because i think rear demister stays on longer when manually pressed according to some discussions on this forum from some years ago.

 

[Ian Lanc]

On 12/1/2019 at 3:28 PM, tef89 said:

I've just been out to the car to try and dry the windscreen and noticed the panoramic roof is literally covered as well, dripping on me as I dried it.

 

Holy crap! It's not just condensation from like wet clothes or wet shoes is it, water has got to be getting into the car, water & electrics never mix well my old Escort caught fire once, caused by water coming through the lights and when the lights was on they started to melt, strange thing is the fuss never blew so the smoldering got worse into a little fire broke out.

[tef89]

4 hours ago, Ian Lanc said:

Holy crap! It's not just condensation from like wet clothes or wet shoes is it, water has got to be getting into the car, water & electrics never mix well my old Escort caught fire once, caused by water coming through the lights and when the lights was on they started to melt, strange thing is the fuss never blew so the smoldering got worse into a little fire broke out.

Nah not really had any wet clothing / shoes to speak of.  Dried all the surfaces so I'll just keep an eye on things for now.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

Got the condensation again this morning. Car was completely (but not too thickly) iced over to start with, then cleared slowly as the sun came up. Rear of car was towards the sun, and by the time I was ready to drive off only the windscreen still had ice. The heated screen dealt with that quickly, but there was still a lot of condensation on the inside, on the passenger side, covering about 30% of the screen. That cleared fairly quickly after moving off, with max demist.

Funny thing is, I've had much thicker coatings of ice on the outside, but got no condensation on the inside - can only think the car has to be parked a certain way round relative to rising sun for it to occur.

 

[tef89]

It's strange yeah.  I've not had a problem since creating the thread.  Not been out to it today so hopefully it'll be OK tomorrow lol. 

[Ancient-owner]

Hi also havd this problem and I think I found the real culprit.  The source of the water was inside the engine bay not inside the cabin. 

I had already removed the Wiper Blades and the black plastic moulding that runs across the full width of the car and is held in with 6 spring clips. This was then cleaned off to get rid of the collected leaves and other debris. Underneath this is a horizontal strut that goes between the two suspension turrets on either side which is shaped in a slight "U" to give it strength.  This I also wiped out.

But underneath this strut there is a piece of 'sound deadening' padding that runs the width of the car and is right at the back above the air con pipes and the ABS unit.  It is held on by 5 plastic 10mm nuts.  When I noticed it, it was hanging slightly loose and away from the strut.  I gave it a squeeze with my hand and it was full of water and I could ring it out like a  sponge. 

I removed it to dry it out and hung it up in the workshop.  I put the car back together and finished the job I was doing which was swapping the heater resistor, and 3 days later I have had no sign of condensation on the inside of the window at all,

My theory about what was happening is this.  The rain from the windscreen didn't all run away from the top of this strut (it is under the plastic finishing strip under the wipers) and dripped over and soaked this padding.  Then when you switched off the car and parked up for the night the heat from the engine evaporated some of the moisture in the padding and this naturally found its way through the vent system and deposited itself on the inside of the windscreen.  It has beeen 10 days now and we've had rain and the car has had some good running and still no sign of condensation at all.

I have not put the sound deadening back yet, not sure if I will.

I have some piccies in a file but only insert is from a URL so not sure how to add them

[Ian Lanc]

6 hours ago, Ancient-owner said:

underneath this strut there is a piece of 'sound deadening' padding that runs the width of the car and is right at the back above the air con pipes and the ABS unit.  It is held on by 5 plastic 10mm nuts.  When I noticed it, it was hanging slightly loose and away from the strut.  I gave it a squeeze with my hand and it was full of water and I could ring it out like a  sponge. 

I had the same problem but only one corner of the material gets wet, I've since cut out the section which was getting wet.

[Condensation]

I have had a fiesta for approx 4months and every morning I have to wipe the front windscreen it’s a pain. Never had it before in other cars even tried the humidifier pads to no avai. The seats feel damp too. Any advice would be appreciated

[Bobr]

I've found the answer to the condensation in my car.   Although I only do a maximum of 2 miles a day under tier 4, I now press the button that turns on the max fans with air con.   Since I've done that I've had no condensation at all.

[Eng_Ahmad1986]

1 hour ago, Bobr said:

I've found the answer to the condensation in my car.   Although I only do a maximum of 2 miles a day under tier 4, I now press the button that turns on the max fans with air con.   Since I've done that I've had no condensation at all.

these days in Egypt we have alot of condensation on the windscreen specially in the morning, as soo as I get in the car , I turn the temperature knob to ( maximum defrost ) it turns the ac on and the sets the fan to the max position, with the heated air coming out from the upper vents just after the windscreen, it also turns on the rear window defogger, turns on also the exterior mirrors heaters , in 3 minutes all condensation goes away 🙂 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

Just had first drive in the car for over a week and found lots of condensation. Thought it was on the outside at first as it's raining here, but no, very wet on the inside, upper left of the screen, as before, and as the OP reported at the start of this thread.

Can't find any trace of damp elsewhere, so assuming it's a product of car being left for days on end, very heavy overnight frosts, and the area in question is the very last place to be reached by the sun (if we have any). Have left a de-humidifier (not an electric one!, one of the little tubs of absorbent material sold for a pound or so) in the car and will see if that helps.

Also as I was driving I got a warning "front camera obscured - clean screen" but the screen was clean so wondering if that had condensation also - went off as the heated screen/max defrost setting did it's stuff.

[Wino]

20 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Just had first drive in the car for over a week and found lots of condensation. Thought it was on the outside at first as it's raining here, but no, very wet on the inside, upper left of the screen, as before, and as the OP reported at the start of this thread.

Can't find any trace of damp elsewhere, so assuming it's a product of car being left for days on end, very heavy overnight frosts, and the area in question is the very last place to be reached by the sun (if we have any). Have left a de-humidifier (not an electric one!, one of the little tubs of absorbent material sold for a pound or so) in the car and will see if that helps.

Also as I was driving I got a warning "front camera obscured - clean screen" but the screen was clean so wondering if that had condensation also - went off as the heated screen/max defrost setting did it's stuff.

I had this in the Mk3 Focus and have it In the Mk4 too.

It doesn't tend to be first thing in the morning though. I find its covered the whole of the inside of the windscreen when I come to the car after work.

Not sure why tbh. It could be because I have the heaters on in the morning for a short trip ( 3-4 miles) then the car is left all day buy it only seems to happen on cold evenings when the temperature starts to drop.

I did buy one of those humidifier bags that you place on the dashboard and it worked for a few days but very hit and miss lately.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

6 minutes ago, Wino said:

I did buy one of those humidifier bags that you place on the dashboard and it worked for a few days but very hit and miss lately.

Yeah, I've got a couple of those in my Mrs's car. Looks like I might need to get a couple more!

Still, winter+lockdown can't last forever!😃

 

[TomsFocus]

I wonder if the external vent flap stays open on these.  On the Golf I can hear it close a minute or so after switching off the car...  I can only assume that's to try and prevent moisture building up inside?

[Wino]

Although the amount of condensation is quite a lot the car doesn't smell or feel damp.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

1 minute ago, Wino said:

Although the amount of condensation is quite a lot the car doesn't smell or feel damp.

Yes, same here.

[Wino]

Thinking back to last year I had a haze/ fog across the passenger side of the windscreen in the warmer months and became a pain to get rid of it.

 

[quaffa]

Hi,

I'm not sure if my Fiesta is a Mk.8, but it was new in December 2018 and the dealer keeps referring to it as a 'New Fiesta'.

Prior to this Fiesta we had a 2013 Fiesta, and we never had any problem with condensation. The 'Max' button dealt with whatever small amount of mist formed on the inside of the screen, blowing air and powering up the heated screen to clear internal mist and external frost in a couple of minutes.

But this 2018 Fiesta is a right bugger. It always seems to be steamed up on the inside of the screen when I first get into it, and even more so in this cold weather. The condensate isn't just a mist on the screen; there are big blobs of water on there too! (See attached photo, taken this morning after an overnight frost which had thawed by the time I took it. None of those water droplets are on the outside.)

The condensate covers pretty much the entire screen, but there doesn't seem to be anything damp in the interior of the car, which makes me wonder whether humidity is rising up through the vents. It took over ten minutes with the 'Max' button pressed in today before I could see clearly through the screen.

[Bobr]

9 minutes ago, quaffa said:

Hi,

I'm not sure if my Fiesta is a Mk.8, but it was new in December 2018 and the dealer keeps referring to it as a 'New Fiesta'.

Prior to this Fiesta we had a 2013 Fiesta, and we never had any problem with condensation. The 'Max' button dealt with whatever small amount of mist formed on the inside of the screen, blowing air and powering up the heated screen to clear internal mist and external frost in a couple of minutes.

But this 2018 Fiesta is a right bugger. It always seems to be steamed up on the inside of the screen when I first get into it, and even more so in this cold weather. The condensate isn't just a mist on the screen; there are big blobs of water on there too! (See attached photo, taken this morning after an overnight frost which had thawed by the time I took it. None of those water droplets are on the outside.)

The condensate covers pretty much the entire screen, but there doesn't seem to be anything damp in the interior of the car, which makes me wonder whether humidity is rising up through the vents. It took over ten minutes with the 'Max' button pressed in today before I could see clearly through the screen.

I have a similar problem in a 2017 model.   I now keep a chamois leather in the car but this morning it was frozen solid.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

1 hour ago, quaffa said:

(See attached photo, taken this morning after an overnight frost which had thawed by the time I took it. None of those water droplets are on the outside.)

Yes, that's just like mine, but I get it on the left side only. Looks like raindrops - but on the inside! Bit weird - I've obviously seen condensation in cars over the years, but like a mist, nothing like this.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

1 hour ago, quaffa said:

I'm not sure if my Fiesta is a Mk.8, but it was new in December 2018 and the dealer keeps referring to it as a 'New Fiesta'.

Yes, it is, btw!😃

[Mavroz]

Wow, the amount of moisture on the inside if those screens is bad.

This is also something we haven't suffered from.

Our cars were not used over the Christmas period for about 10 days to 2 weeks.

Other than that they are used daily, mine goes out around 5am ,5 to 6 days a week. I have had lots of frost and ice in a morning but not the amount of condensate some have.

[Mike Jacob]

I have a mk6 recently bought. I notice same problems with condensation then I went to check pollen filter and there was nothing at all.  Maybe previous owner removed it.

Sometimes even in summer during night you can have condensation if it's a bad or old pollen filter.

[Paulkp]

I'm not sure what causes the condensation, it was not a problem in Mk1 Escorts or Capris that I can remember !

I do wonder if it is the damp that is present in the A/C condenser - designed to dry the air when car is running but the condenser remains wet when you switch off and park - is this the source of the damp air ?  (We will have all seen the puddles under the car from the A/C drain or suffered with a wet carpet - Puma owners !)

We use the "Max" button in both the Fiesta and Fusion when starting out, but we have also got into the (recommended by "Honest John") habit of turning the A/C off before we get home to dry out the condenser.  This is recommended to stop the mould build up, so perhaps that may help ?

As for Pollen filters, I once removed a dripping wet one from a '95 Mondeo !