Car windows misting up constantly?

[oakdale]

Is there a good amount of air coming out of the vents? If not, fit a new pollen filter.

[ShadownINja]

porcupineprince said:

DrTre said:

This is a serious respons; do you have a shower before you get in the car?
Is your hair dry?

I dont specifically have a shower for the purpose of driving my car, yes it is my pride and joy, but honestly, that's pushing it too far

I'm always thoroughly dry before going to work, i see what you are getting at, just about

When "detailing" goes too far... you "detail" yourself before taking your "detailed" car for a drive?

[DrTre]

ShadownINja said:

When "detailing" goes too far... you "detail" yourself before taking your "detailed" car for a drive?

Oh no, guvnor. Not me.

Shower, working through all the crevices, nooks and crannies with the SuperBuff4000, then chamois myself down before drying myself off with a leaf blower.

That's not detailing. It's just cleanliness.

Edited by DrTre on Tuesday 6th January 21:49

[eldar]

porcupineprince said:

There is no damp in the car. The re-circ button isn't on. So that rules two things out.

The pollen filter was mentioned earlier, how likely is changing this going to help? I might go and buy and fit a new one at the weekend if it's likely to help.

Many thanks for the quick response guys, much appreciated.

I've got a meriva, it suddenly started misting up for no apprent reason. Some kind soul here said 'pollen filter'. Got a new one, and fitted it (quite fiddly), and no more misting. The old one was a clogged as a clogged thing

About £3.50, the filter.

[ultegra]

Condensation nuclei?

Sounds technical, but windows steam up more if there is something for the water vapour to latch onto.

Same principle as when the commies used to drop cement powder out of aircraft to make it rain other than on red square. The fine particles seeded the vapour.

Worst is cigarette smoke residue or other micro-filth.

Try cleaning the inside of the glass with Windex or some other spirit based cleaner.

Edited by ultegra on Tuesday 6th January 22:45

[Orb the Impaler]

+1 on the pollen filter. Thhese can have an amazing effect.

[erolb]

Also make sure you don't have any paper (maps etc) in the car or boot. These hold moisture like a sponge and release it onto the glass when the glass cools. Same goes for any cardboard boxes in the boot. My wife had two sheets of A4 in her Aygo, terrible fogging. Took them out - Everything's fine.

[danrc]

I asked this question last month and the same sort of t
suggestions were put forward.

I can recomend cleaning your windows properly but not with window polish - instead use nilglass. The windows i had cleaned with polish steam up and really hold onto the moisture whereas the windows cleaned with nilglass do steam up but clear very quickly.

Also, for those suggesting using the AC - on the Bora is doesn't work below 4 DEGC so thats rendered it useless for the best part of 2 months.

I've yet to change the pollen filter.

[triggersbroom]

Change your pollen filter and really clean the inside of your glass all round. Check that your car isn't letting in water anywhere.

Making sure your recirculationg isn't on goes without saying.

One last option....

take deep breath, get into car, drive to destination, stop and get out and breathe out

[matchmaker]

Orb the Impaler said:

+1 on the pollen filter. Thhese can have an amazing effect.

Another for the pollen filter. Compare the airflow on recirc with the airflow on fresh. If the flow on fresh is less than the flow on recirc, the filter is clogged.

[blank]

danrc said:

I can recomend cleaning your windows properly but not with window polish - instead use nilglass. The windows i had cleaned with polish steam up and really hold onto the moisture whereas the windows cleaned with nilglass do steam up but clear very quickly.

Agreed. Definitely be careful what you clean the glass with. I made the mistake of cleaning my windscreen with normal household glass cleaner (cheap Morissons stuff) and leaving the car overnight would make the screen mist up. It must have a hygroscopic ingredient or something....

Eventually stopped it by cleaning the screen really well with (very diluted!) meths, and giving it a polish using glass polish. Although this seems to have caused a problem for danrc, it definitely worked for me. I've read that Meguires glass polish causes these issues.....

[danrc]

blank said:

danrc said:

I can recomend cleaning your windows properly but not with window polish - instead use nilglass. The windows i had cleaned with polish steam up and really hold onto the moisture whereas the windows cleaned with nilglass do steam up but clear very quickly.

Agreed. Definitely be careful what you clean the glass with. I made the mistake of cleaning my windscreen with normal household glass cleaner (cheap Morissons stuff) and leaving the car overnight would make the screen mist up. It must have a hygroscopic ingredient or something....

Eventually stopped it by cleaning the screen really well with (very diluted!) meths, and giving it a polish using glass polish. Although this seems to have caused a problem for danrc, it definitely worked for me. I've read that Meguires glass polish causes these issues.....

To be honest i think it was my own fault rather than the product. I've used it in the past and its been great but this time i must have done something wrong. Maybe i never buffed it off properly or something which attracted the moisture. Not sure.

Like i say, nilglass has had the best results for me. Either that or the new windscreen i just had fitted

[blank]

danrc said:

blank said:

danrc said:

I can recomend cleaning your windows properly but not with window polish - instead use nilglass. The windows i had cleaned with polish steam up and really hold onto the moisture whereas the windows cleaned with nilglass do steam up but clear very quickly.

Agreed. Definitely be careful what you clean the glass with. I made the mistake of cleaning my windscreen with normal household glass cleaner (cheap Morissons stuff) and leaving the car overnight would make the screen mist up. It must have a hygroscopic ingredient or something....

Eventually stopped it by cleaning the screen really well with (very diluted!) meths, and giving it a polish using glass polish. Although this seems to have caused a problem for danrc, it definitely worked for me. I've read that Meguires glass polish causes these issues.....

To be honest i think it was my own fault rather than the product. I've used it in the past and its been great but this time i must have done something wrong. Maybe i never buffed it off properly or something which attracted the moisture. Not sure.

Like i say, nilglass has had the best results for me. Either that or the new windscreen i just had fitted

Just thought actually, the first time I used it, the car had been sitting for a while and it was very cold, made it very difficult to buff off and didn't really help overall. So when I next used it, it was after a long journey so the car (and interior!) was nice and warm, and I kept the car running while I used it. Gave much better results!

[Goughie]

I'm going to mention the c word here - caravan! Caravans are notorious for condensation/misting and you can buy a little chemical "soak" that takes all the moisture out of the inside of your car. Can't remember the name of the chemical but its little crystals that are blue and turn pink when the moisture is taken out of the air (or vice versa can't remember which way round it goes!) You then heat the crystals to drive out the moisture and they revert back to the blue colour and are ready for use again.
I used them on my very first car (a 652cc Citroen Visa) that had this and a million other problems and it meant I only had to deal with the remaining million! HTH

[danrc]

blank said:

danrc said:

blank said:

danrc said:

I can recomend cleaning your windows properly but not with window polish - instead use nilglass. The windows i had cleaned with polish steam up and really hold onto the moisture whereas the windows cleaned with nilglass do steam up but clear very quickly.

Agreed. Definitely be careful what you clean the glass with. I made the mistake of cleaning my windscreen with normal household glass cleaner (cheap Morissons stuff) and leaving the car overnight would make the screen mist up. It must have a hygroscopic ingredient or something....

Eventually stopped it by cleaning the screen really well with (very diluted!) meths, and giving it a polish using glass polish. Although this seems to have caused a problem for danrc, it definitely worked for me. I've read that Meguires glass polish causes these issues.....

To be honest i think it was my own fault rather than the product. I've used it in the past and its been great but this time i must have done something wrong. Maybe i never buffed it off properly or something which attracted the moisture. Not sure.

Like i say, nilglass has had the best results for me. Either that or the new windscreen i just had fitted

Just thought actually, the first time I used it, the car had been sitting for a while and it was very cold, made it very difficult to buff off and didn't really help overall. So when I next used it, it was after a long journey so the car (and interior!) was nice and warm, and I kept the car running while I used it. Gave much better results!

Could well be what i did wrong as well. The car had been sat for 3 months and i went to town on it giving it a full clean. This was at the start of December as well so i dare say your right!! I wish i had a nice warm garage to give the car a good clean in.

[Mr Gear]

Get this: http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?productID=9...

It works exceptionally well and is cheap too. I had severe problems with misting before I bought this.

This will treat the symptoms, but the CAUSE is probably a leaky seal somewhere letting water into your car.

[dpbird90]

dougc said:

raf_gti said:

Set the vent so it doesn't circulate the air from outside?

Other way around isn't it? Turn off the air recycler to get fresh air in from outside. The interior steams up as the air inside the car gets moist from not being circulated.

Yep it is, you need the air to circulate. I had the same problem with my car, had the "going past a farm" model on with the heater, in 5 minutes it was like having a van, you couldn't see a thing out of the side windows, and if it wasn't for heated rear screen and the blower on the front on max I wouldn't have seen anything at all.

[morgrp]

dpbird90 said:

dougc said:

raf_gti said:

Set the vent so it doesn't circulate the air from outside?

Other way around isn't it? Turn off the air recycler to get fresh air in from outside. The interior steams up as the air inside the car gets moist from not being circulated.

Yep it is, you need the air to circulate. I had the same problem with my car, had the "going past a farm" model on with the heater, in 5 minutes it was like having a van, you couldn't see a thing out of the side windows, and if it wasn't for heated rear screen and the blower on the front on max I wouldn't have seen anything at all.

Try cleaning the window too - dirty windows steam much easier than clean ones

[MK4 Slowride]

Give all your windows a good clean with proper glass cleaner, worked a treat for my car.

[TehMonkey]

Open the window.