Ridiculous condensation

[Andy Beats]

How would you start.....?
It's like when we had a leak in our house roof, where the water appeared was nowhere near where the leak was.
Water is a busturd, it will find its way anywhere.

[monkeyhanger]

After seeing that amateurish butchery, I'd say there's a strong possibility that you have the cause there. If the dealership open all that electrical tape up and find the wiring loom cloth binding tapes have evidence of moisture ingress, then yoj have your answer..

I can kind of see why they did what they did - they were adamant that the camera was going to be at the top of the tailgate window - there's just no tidy way for that to happen as the cabling won't fit through the top of the tailgate and onto the top of the window as there's no framing trim that goes around the perimeter of the whole tailgate to hide the cable under and there are no big enough gaps on the top bodywork frame of the tailgate for the cable to poke through.

You have to feed the cable inside the tailgate right the way down one side and then across and up to the top of the plastic trim. This puts the cabling and the rear camera coming out towards the bottom of the rear window.

That's easily a £200 fix at dealership rates. Take the tailgate trim off, unclip all the wiring loom into the tailgate, rake it all back to the butchered rubber gaiter, remove and discard the butchered gaiter, thread the loose loom through a new gaiter and into the tailgate. Secure new gaiter at both ends, reclip loom and plug ends back in to electrical points (possibly resoldering plugs back on, then refit tailgate trim.

Get the dealership to photo and document everything they do with that gaiter. Take a few more pics as it is from all angles. I think it's clear that the way they mounted the camera up top, they would find it hard to deny cutting into the gaiter to route the cable as it is currently mounted. My pics (Still haven't done that installation guide!) of my installation show there's only one way to do the tailgate properly, resulting in the cabling coming out from the bottom, exiting the tailgate trim around where the rear wiper is.

[Leif]

In dry weather my car is fine, even on cold mornings, but in heavy rain the condensation on the front screen is appalling. A year the air is already saturated with water, but I’m sure my other cars weren’t as bad.

[jackois]

A thought from my previous car, a Fiat 500.

The recommendation for the air con on that was to switch the air con off and leave the engine running with the interior fan on for 30 seconds before switching off. This was to allow the evaporator to dry and reduce bacterial growth. I used to switch it off at the top of the road which gave it the requisite 30 seconds.

I'll try that out as well.

[RUM4MO]

A thought from my previous car, a Fiat 500.

The recommendation for the air con on that was to switch the air con off and leave the engine running with the interior fan on for 30 seconds before switching off. This was to allow the evaporator to dry and reduce bacterial growth. I used to switch it off at the top of the road which gave it the requisite 30 seconds.

I'll try that out as well.

I'm not knocking your suggestion, that is roughly what I try to do to bring the evaporator back up to ambient and dry off, but this is the first time I've heard it being a suggestion from the car maker - it does make a lot of sense for those of us living in a cold wet area of the world!

[Andy Beats]

Condensation is getting on my wick in this car, I tell you.
I expect to be sitting on my drive for a while if the windscreen is frozen, but this is the first car I've had where I've to sit on my drive for ages and wait for the windscreen to bloody demist.
Fan on full blast, setting on 'screen'....nothing...no effect on the mist at all for ages.
And the back windows are still completely misted over even by the time I get to work.
This is with one person in it!
I honestly think the car would be undriveable with passengers breath as well.

[Muldoon]

Condensation is getting on my wick in this car, I tell you.
I expect to be sitting on my drive for a while if the windscreen is frozen, but this is the first car I've had where I've to sit on my drive for ages and wait for the windscreen to bloody demist.
Fan on full blast, setting on 'screen'....nothing...no effect on the mist at all for ages.
And the back windows are still completely misted over even by the time I get to work.
This is with one person in it!
I honestly think the car would be undriveable with passengers breath as well.

Hi Andy

This is connected to another thread I started about poor demisting - I'm convinced the 1.0 TSI engine partly due to it's high efficiency and the generous cooling system for a 999cc (presume to cope with the turbo in hot weather) makes it give away little heat - it's too thermally efficient if that's the right phrase. At idle it will take ages to warm up - the only time the temperature starts to rise is when you drive it hard and make the engine work to push heat into the system. I've mentioned before about gentle driving downhill on my commute for 4 miles the temperature stays at the rock bottom of the gauge until you make the engine work / climb any incline.
I googled anything about the TSI engine in other cars, some Skoda owners complaining about the same problem of slow warm up.

I'm seriously concerned about demisting and defrosting when it gets properly cold e.g. minus 5 overnight - might have to resort to supplementary heat in the cabin. You can tackle the frost on the outside but inside with the cold windscreen covered in mist and even actual condensation droplets at the bottom you can't safely start driving. I reckon it would take 20+ minutes with it sat stationary idling for any warmth to get through from the heater the way this engine behaves.

[Andy Beats]

This is connected to another thread I started about poor demisting - I'm convinced the 1.0 TSI engine partly due to it's high efficiency and the generous cooling system for a 999cc (presume to cope with the turbo in hot weather) makes it give away little heat - it's too thermally efficient if that's the right phrase. At idle it will take ages to warm up - the only time the temperature starts to rise is when you drive it hard and make the engine work to push heat into the system. I've mentioned before about gentle driving downhill on my commute for 4 miles the temperature stays at the rock bottom of the gauge until you make the engine work / climb any incline.
I googled anything about the TSI engine in other cars, some Skoda owners complaining about the same problem of slow warm up.

I'm seriously concerned about demisting and defrosting when it gets properly cold e.g. minus 5 overnight - might have to resort to supplementary heat in the cabin. You can tackle the frost on the outside but inside with the cold windscreen covered in mist and even actual condensation droplets at the bottom you can't safely start driving. I reckon it would take 20+ minutes with it sat stationary idling for any warmth to get through from the heater the way this engine behaves.

I live in a place where it's safe to go out, start my car and leave it running.
I'm used to doing this when I look out the bedroom window and see the windscreens are frosty.
But it looks like I'll now have to start doing it when I see the windscreen is misty too.
I might buy a second Pingi pad too...
I'll have an array of Pingi pads along the dash, like the back window of pensioner's car with cushions....

[broberty]

This is connected to another thread I started about poor demisting - I'm convinced the 1.0 TSI engine partly due to it's high efficiency and the generous cooling system for a 999cc (presume to cope with the turbo in hot weather) makes it give away little heat - it's too thermally efficient if that's the right phrase. At idle it will take ages to warm up - the only time the temperature starts to rise is when you drive it hard and make the engine work to push heat into the system. I've mentioned before about gentle driving downhill on my commute for 4 miles the temperature stays at the rock bottom of the gauge until you make the engine work / climb any incline.
I googled anything about the TSI engine in other cars, some Skoda owners complaining about the same problem of slow warm up.

The technical answer to this is to add a PTC heater to the HVAC system. Assuming there isn't one already based on the poor performance, VW probably didn't include to save a bit of money.

[Andy Beats]

Can you pleased educate an old fool...what is PTC and HVAC?

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.10 ... 11628-5_51

It's basically a little electrical heater in the system, so you don't have to wait for the car to warm up.
My Nissan Leaf had one of these as it obviously didn't have an engine to use for heating.
I could also switch the heater on every morning remotely via an app on my phone.
God I miss that function....

[Andy Beats]

I'm away to start my car 10 minutes before I need to leave, everyone....

[monkeyhanger]

Even after a journey (when the screen has cleared) and a short break I can return to the car and the screen is misted again.

Grant

The moisture doesn't go away by just heating the cabin up, as you heat the air, its capacity to hold moisture increases, so the condensation goes, but the moisture is there ready to deposit back on a cold surface when the air cools again. The Aircon helps to clear it by drying the air, but you're topping up the moisture in your car by breathing.

Also, in this weather you're walking moisture in to the car. It was lashing it down on Monday morning, and as I have rubber front mats, I could see that there was probably 10ml pooled on the mats - that can make a lot of condensation. If that's damping the carpet mats and wicking the moisture, your car looks drier inside than it is.

A lack of an auxiliary heater and the car taking a long time to warm up (water is hot in 2 miles, oil takes 7 miles to 90C) doesn't help remedy the situation. A can/bag of a reusable dessicant might help if you can minimise or isolate passive air into the cabin (if the wind is able to blow saturated air into the cabin then you're peeing into the wind on this score.

[RUM4MO]

It seemed like Audi messed up with the aux heaters fitted to some of the DERV A4s, big recall happened on safety grounds!

Even on the previous model of Polo like my wife has, I'd quite like having an auxiliary heater to help at cold starts, maybe a future project - unless it involves removing the dash! (which I'd reckon it would to replace the airbox).

[Andy Beats]

Also, in this weather you're walking moisture in to the car. It was lashing it down on Monday morning, and as I have rubber front mats, I could see that there was probably 10ml pooled on the mats -

A 1cm pool of water on your mats...?
How?
Are you wearing waterproof clothing that the water is running off of and onto the mats?
That amount of water would be just as noticeable on carpets, they'd be ringing wet.
Mine aren't.

[david.stark]

Granted this makes no difference with rain as using it would leave the cover soaked but it was useful the other week when it was frosty. The key was to have the heater and aircon pumping at the windscreen while the cover was still on.

I then scraped the side windows before removing it and job was almost done for demisting the screen

I bought 2. One for morning and one for work as I work late into the evening depending on shift.

Car Windshield Cover, Beeway®... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077CY4DVF? ... pop_ma_swf