Windscreen wet on inside

[DJ_26]

Hi guys,

On our 2007 Fiesta, we are starting get this heavy condensation on the inside of the windscreen. By heavy, I mean it's thick condensation where, if you swipe a small section with your finger, you will pull up quite a few drops of water! Please see the below pics:

This never used to happen in all the years we've had this car, but in the last year or so it has developed this problem. Any idea why this is happening? All the windows are shut overnight, so what else could be causing this?

 

[BarryG79]

Check for damp foot wells, I've had this in both a Fiesta and a Focus.
Fiesta was a missing grommet in the bulk head. Can't remember what the cause was with Focus, water ingress was only covered in 1st Year of warranty so ended up px it. Might not be the cause of your issue but worth a look. Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Glassman]

That's a lot of condensation, and a clear indication that water is collecting in the car somewhere. Has the windscreen been replaced? Is there a sunroof? Check all the door seals (could even be the membrane behind it). Leaky heater matrix; wire/pipe passing through the bulkhead; roof mounted radio antenna...

 

[DJ_26]

Thanks for the replies guys, I will check these areas. The car has not had it's windscreen replaced and no sunroof. I certainly hope it's not the heater matrix! I have a feeling it may be the door seals for some reason. The doors have been off the car for a respray a couple of years back, so could it be the seals have not been refitted correctly or just need changing? The upper window frame seals appear to be ok, both front and rear doors. Could it be the lower seals perhaps?

 

[DJ_26]

Check for damp foot wells, I've had this in both a Fiesta and a Focus.
Fiesta was a missing grommet in the bulk head. Can't remember what the cause was with Focus, water ingress was only covered in 1st Year of warranty so ended up px it. Might not be the cause of your issue but worth a look. Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cheers mate, what model was your Fiesta? Was there some work done to your car which resulting in the grommet to become missing?

 

[desertstorm]

Has the fiesta got a recirculation flap ?. Make sure it's not closed. If the heater matrix was leaking you would be loosing coolant and you usually get a sweet smell from the coolant. A water leak somewhere would be my guess, sometimes difficult to track down though. Having the doors off shouldn't be an issue but some cars do suffer water leaks through the door seals though.

 

[DJ_26]

Has the fiesta got a recirculation flap ?. Make sure it's not closed. If the heater matrix was leaking you would be loosing coolant and you usually get a sweet smell from the coolant. A water leak somewhere would be my guess, sometimes difficult to track down though. Having the doors off shouldn't be an issue but some cars do suffer water leaks through the door seals though.

I mean it has air con with recirculation but whether it has a flap for this I'm not sure. The aircon is pretty rubbish though. Would it be worth doing one of those fancy smoke machine tests and see if the smoke escapes from the door seals?

 

[desertstorm]

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/8613-water-ingress/ Check the boot and spare wheel well

 

[SteveMcB]

Damp or blocked pollen/cabin filter can sometimes be the culprit. My Golf has always been bad for it, it's totally dry inside, a bit of a mystery.

It's a bit of a coincidence if it only started after the doors were off though?

 

[BarryG79]

Cheers mate, what model was your Fiesta? Was there some work done to your car which resulting in the grommet to become missing?

It's was a 1994 mk3, Ford had moved the aerial from the wing to the roof at some point so the hole that was left was filled with a grommet until the mk4 came along. Not sure if it was missed or fell out, but it took 3 or 4 trips to dealer at the time to get it sorted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[opelfruit]

I know it's already been mentioned, but have you checked the foot wells for damp carpets? Lift the mats up and see how wet the carpet is. I had a Mondeo some years back and there are drain holes in the bottom of the door for rain water to escape, they can get blocked so water builds up inside the door and then when there is enough it runs through the inside and down into the footwells.

I fixed it by getting a metal coat hanger and wriggling it around inside the drain holes to clear the blockage. Took ages for the footwells to dry out afterwards, I kept putting a teatowl in the foot well to soak things up and after a week or so it settled down.

 

[SteveMcB]

Yep, I had a scooby with really bad condensation, carpet felt OK but when I lifted it the sound deadening underneath was completely soaked.

 

[Ralphthemouth]

I know it's already been mentioned, but have you checked the foot wells for damp carpets? Lift the mats up and see how wet the carpet is. I had a Mondeo some years back and there are drain holes in the bottom of the door for rain water to escape, they can get blocked so water builds up inside the door and then when there is enough it runs through the inside and down into the footwells.

I fixed it by getting a metal coat hanger and wriggling it around inside the drain holes to clear the blockage. Took ages for the footwells to dry out afterwards, I kept putting a teatowl in the foot well to soak things up and after a week or so it settled down.

I had this in mine a few days back. Bad condensation built up inside and I had a hunt around. Found that the drain holes in the bottom of both front doors had become blocked. Bit of wire stuffed into each one, and a long trickle of water came out of each. That seemed to fix the problem.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[DJ_26]

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/8613-water-ingress/ Check the boot and spare wheel well

Thanks for going to the effort of getting the link, I appreciate it

Damp or blocked pollen/cabin filter can sometimes be the culprit. My Golf has always been bad for it, it's totally dry inside, a bit of a mystery.

It's a bit of a coincidence if it only started after the doors were off though?

I will try and check that area too. Yeah it's a bit difficult to identify a direct link as I've only noticed it in the cold weather and the repair work was done at some point that I don't fully remember!

I know it's already been mentioned, but have you checked the foot wells for damp carpets? Lift the mats up and see how wet the carpet is. I had a Mondeo some years back and there are drain holes in the bottom of the door for rain water to escape, they can get blocked so water builds up inside the door and then when there is enough it runs through the inside and down into the footwells.

I fixed it by getting a metal coat hanger and wriggling it around inside the drain holes to clear the blockage. Took ages for the footwells to dry out afterwards, I kept putting a teatowl in the foot well to soak things up and after a week or so it settled down.

I had this in mine a few days back. Bad condensation built up inside and I had a hunt around. Found that the drain holes in the bottom of both front doors had become blocked. Bit of wire stuffed into each one, and a long trickle of water came out of each. That seemed to fix the problem.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

Now these two points are quite interesting, namely because we've had the exact same problem on this very car previously! Although I didn't know that this would run inside and into the footwells! In fact I think there is a pointy screwdriver and toothpick in the door pocket from when my dad last emptied the doors (I'm sure he has done it at least three times in our ownership of this car). I really do hope this is the cause of the issue as it is so simple to sort out! I shall report back after attempting this fix.

 

[SootySport]

Mk4 Fiestas do have a door drainage problem, some of the door drainage holes are not correctly pressed out from the factory.

 

[ACWKGYTO]

Check to see if youre loosing coolant, if you are then its most likely your heater matrix

If your heater matrix is on the way out, get it checked because if it bursts and youre in the car, it throws out a load of very hot coolant, which is extremely dangerous....take it to a trusted garage for their opinion, they might not want to do the job though, it can often be a dashboard out job, very fiddly and labour intensive !

 

[wolfie138]

had an issue w/ this sort of thing w/ previous cars in winter, when parked outside on sunny days - the windows act like a greenhouse so the car interior warmed up but the air outside was icy, so the air would condense on the cold glass, literally had to keep a roll of kitchen paper in the car to mop it off.

 

[Wifeb4Life]

Same issue here on the 2014 Fiesta we just got rid of, on cold days the car was warm inside but cold out and the inside window would be soaking that we used a towel every day. Also water built up in the boot over time, got rid of it before we investigated what the problem was.

 

[DJ_26]

Mk4 Fiestas do have a door drainage problem, some of the door drainage holes are not correctly pressed out from the factory.

That's interesting, we've had a mk4 and a mk5 in the past and they fortunately never had these problems, in all the years that we've owned them.

Check to see if youre loosing coolant, if you are then its most likely your heater matrix

If your heater matrix is on the way out, get it checked because if it bursts and youre in the car, it throws out a load of very hot coolant, which is extremely dangerous....take it to a trusted garage for their opinion, they might not want to do the job though, it can often be a dashboard out job, very fiddly and labour intensive !

Yeah I was a little worried that this may be the case and in most cars I hear that it is a pain to do. I checked the coolant this morning and it was fine. The coolant used to drop a couple of years back but this was because of a faulty expansion tank and I don't think it has ever dropped since.

had an issue w/ this sort of thing w/ previous cars in winter, when parked outside on sunny days - the windows act like a greenhouse so the car interior warmed up but the air outside was icy, so the air would condense on the cold glass, literally had to keep a roll of kitchen paper in the car to mop it off.

This is interesting and makes sense. Yeah with this car, it would literally drench the paper towel and I knew it wasn't right, because it never used to do it.

Same issue here on the 2014 Fiesta we just got rid of, on cold days the car was warm inside but cold out and the inside window would be soaking that we used a towel every day. Also water built up in the boot over time, got rid of it before we investigated what the problem was.

My dad has a 14 plate Fiesta and hasn't had this issue thankfully. I did hear a couple years back with the early mk7 models (2008-2010). They use to have some problem with the boot seals or something and the boots used to fill up with water. Perhaps yours had a similar issue but I would have thought they would have sorted it by 2014.

Another update: I went to try and drain the doors as suggested above, but no water seemed to come out. I reckon that at some point the doors must have drained themselves, because there were white marks and a bit of dirt by the drain holes (so water had drained through previously). Since then I haven't noticed any issues, but then again the weather has changed, so I may/may not see it til next winter. Let's hope it has resolved permanently!