Misty windscreen

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tally2425

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Well last night it was raining and was fairly cold outside and it was a pain in the **** to keep the windscreen from steaming up inside with the ECON on and auto set to 23c, before we jump to the conclusion that it's the heater matrix i just want to eliminate other things that it could be.

Here's a little information on the matter

i basically live under trees and leaves are starting to fall off the trees could something be blocked?

Secondly drove to work this morning on normal temp 23c on auto and it was NOT steaming up

Thirdly there's a slight musty smell when i put the heat on so it's making me think something is blocked?

there doesn't seem to be a leak in coolant.

it's not a major problem as i can demist the car with the button to demist the front windscreen but just want to try solve the problem!

Thanks
 
tally2425 said:
Where is this and how do i change it?
Click to expand...
Right under the under the glovebox

Very easy to do and takes 5 mins,

Stick your hand down into the passenger footwell, find the two little finger screws at the back of the glovebox surrounded in the foam, untwist these, pull the foam out, put your hand up and pull the pollen filter housing cover off (slides) and pull the old filter out, new one in and do everything up again, job done.
Click to expand...
 
nluk100 said:
Very common when the weather gets cooler, especially if you have a (bad!) habit of wiping the inside of your screen with your hand. Clean it with normal glass cleaner then apply some Rain X Anti Fog 200ml Prevents Fogging & Steaming rainx interior glass demist | eBay
Click to expand...

This makes me feel better! haha, i shall do that and see how things go!

LEE69 said:
Right under the under the glovebox
Click to expand...

Thanks i shall get a new pollen filter too as it's done 90k and it's definitely worth a change! what's the best i can buy to replace it?
 
Last edited:
1. Change your pollen filter - this will improve things, especially if its old.

2. Check for blockages of the inlet air vents, and the outlet (waffle).

3. With humid outside air (eg: its raining outside) - and if you have ECON on (or AC off) - the humid outside air will condense on the windscreen - and mist up. That will always happen due to the dew point. The only way around this is to utilise full AUTO, or switch ECON off, or switch AC on.

Same effect why you get condensation on the outside of a cold glass on a warm day. Switching on the AC or switching off ECON will de-humidify the air, changing the moisture content and dew point, and your screen will no longer mist up.
 
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veeeight said:
1. Change your pollen filter - this will improve things, especially if its old.

2. Check for blockages of the inlet air vents, and the outlet (waffle).

3. With humid outside air (eg: its raining outside) - and if you have ECON on (or AC off) - the humid outside air will condense on the windscreen - and mist up. That will always happen due to the dew point. The only way around this is to utilise full AUTO, or switch ECON off, or switch AC on.

Same effect why you get condensation on the outside of a cold glass on a warm day. Switching on the AC or switching off ECON will de-humidify the air, changing the moisture content and dew point, and your screen will no longer mist up.
Click to expand...

I'm definitely changing the pollen filter so that's all good. Thanks for the explanation makes me feel 100x better! :D
 
The slight musty smell is probably due to 2 things - a manky pollen filter, and an aircon evaporator coil that has gone slightly musty/mouldy.

The aircon evaporator coil is in the same area as the pollen filter (under/behind the glovebox) - when the aircon is working, it is extracting all the moisture from the incoming air, and all this moisture/water needs to go somewhere. So there is a drain tube from the evaporator, to the outside of the car (underneath the car) - this sometimes gets blocked, so its worth getting underneath to find this to poke it out with a stick.

In the hot weather, you can tell if the drain tube is clear, when you return to your car after being parked up (having previously driven with AC on) - and you find a puddle of water under your car. This water is from the evaporator coil.

So - check that your drain tube is clear, and you can buy antibacterial and anti fungal sprays to clean your evaporator coil out, if you think that is the problem.

But just start with the pollen filter and see how you go.
 
veeeight said:
The slight musty smell is probably due to 2 things - a manky pollen filter, and an aircon evaporator coil that has gone slightly musty/mouldy.

The aircon evaporator coil is in the same area as the pollen filter (under/behind the glovebox) - when the aircon is working, it is extracting all the moisture from the incoming air, and all this moisture/water needs to go somewhere. So there is a drain tube from the evaporator, to the outside of the car (underneath the car) - this sometimes gets blocked, so its worth getting underneath to find this to poke it out with a stick.

In the hot weather, you can tell if the drain tube is clear, when you return to your car after being parked up (having previously driven with AC on) - and you find a puddle of water under your car. This water is from the evaporator coil.

So - check that your drain tube is clear, and you can buy antibacterial and anti fungal sprays to clean your evaporator coil out, if you think that is the problem.

But just start with the pollen filter and see how you go.
Click to expand...

I'll have a look for this aswell, i may aswell check everything whilst i'm working on it! also any ideas what pollen filter i need for my car there seems to be 8P1 and 8PA which is two different types my car and the pollen filters differ and not sure which type i need, my car is Audi A3 2.0 FSI (2004/2005)
 
Take your old pollen filter out to check part numbers.

5 mins grovelling about in the passenger footwell.

You can drive without the filter for a couple of days, but put the cover back.
 
Do you have climate control? If so, just press the de-mist button, looks like a little windscreen, to the left on the bottom row of buttons.
 
fangio said:
Do you have climate control? If so, just press the de-mist button, looks like a little windscreen, to the left on the bottom row of buttons.
Click to expand...

i do indeed and when i press it, it goes away but after a few moments it's back again
 
Something needs looking at!

Your carpets aren't damp, are they? :think:

Some cars get water inside when the drains in the bulkhead get blocked with leaves,
 
fangio said:
Something needs looking at!

Your carpets aren't damp, are they? :think:

Some cars get water inside when the drains in the bulkhead get blocked with leaves,
Click to expand...

Nope no leak at all, i'm just coming to think that's it's condensation as i had it on auto on 23c and it was more like 9c outside so most probably nothing but changing the pollen filter and unblock my drains and see how thinks go!
 
Changed the pollen filter, was fairly dirty check the photo out!
 

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