Car turned into Pool-Mobile

[moggul]

Hi, my car has more water than the ocean inside.
Other cars in the street not so bad, but my crappy citroen c3 appears to be a moving swamp.

I have tried dessicants/ cat litter, all the windows are up, turned recirc off.
The heating works but not well, so i guess not the heater matrix.
Its only me and im not that damn moist!

What can I do?

At this rate this car will be going to scrapyard.
It takes easily 10mins of sitting with fans on full until i can drive safely.
Going through kitchen roll like crazy too.

[colin79666]

Does the aircon work? Quickest way to get rid of windows condensate is to put the blower on hot, aircon on and windows open a crack. Hot air holds more moisture, the ac dries and the windows allow dryer air from outside in.

If it is really soaking check for a leak around the footwells and around the base of the windscreen.

[DrDeAtH]

Buy a squeegee?

[DuraAce]

Leaking water in somewhere?
Poor front screen seal? Door seals? Rear lights? Sunroof/drains?
Any wet carpets?

Does your ac work? (if not then fix it!) Pollen filter not blocked? Pollen filter housing secure and not cracked and letting water in?

Lots of things to check......

[GreenV8S]

moggul said:

The heating works but not well, so i guess not the heater matrix.

If it was the heater matrix, you'd notice a strong smell of anti-freeze inside the car.

With so much moisture inside it will be hard to locate the leak so I think you need to get it reasonable dry inside and then have somebody gently trickle a hose pipe round the windscreen and windows while you check on the inside for leaks. Meantime, make sure that you wipe the glass dry at the start of each journey and take the damp cloths out of the car afterwards. Unfortunately you'll probably find the carpets are also damp and you'll never get those dry until you cure the leak.

[paintman]

Have you got coolant mysteriously disappearing?

Have the doorcards been removed for any reason - be worth popping them off & checking that the plastic weathersheets that should be glued to the metalwork of the doors are present, undamaged & fixed in place.
Them being missing/damaged is a common cause of water ingress as water that runs down the door windows passes the waist rubbers & drips off the bottom of the window mechanism onto the back of the doorcards will drip into the car instead of being redirected by the weathersheet to the bottom of the door & out through the drain holes in the bottom of the door.
Are the drainholes clear?.

[AlexRS2782]

That level of build up is usually indicative of water getting in via one of the many body / window seals or a leak / blockage from a drain hole like the sunroof / door, when it's raining - in addition to any moisture / body heat you bring into the car when using it.

Problem is once any water is in it may / may not be in an accessible area to dry out - worse case scenario it might be underneath the carpet / underlay which will then take ages to fully dry out.

At some point, if you're that inclined, you might need to start having a look over the car for any signs of water ingress / damp and go from there.

Been there done that with my 205 GTI with it's old dodgy window seals. At one point i got used to keeping taking a hand towel out in the car to quick clear the screen if required - much quicker than smearing it around with kitchen paper

[Mignon]

That's pretty typical of a car with a water leak. Feel around the carpets. Once you've sussed the wet carpets you can usually find the leak.

[moggul]

thx guys i will investigate and get back to you with the result

[Saleen836]

As I drive an Astravan as my daily, moisture remains on the inside a lot longer than a standard car so during winter'autumn months when the weather is wet/damp I used to get this problem a lot, I worked out if I leave the windows open jus slightly (around 5mm) the problem was reduced by approx 50% or more.