It appears to be a common problem with the Octavia.

There must be a problem somewhere for there to be enough water ingress to mist up the car overnight.

The problem is, whilst the Octavia does suffer from some well documented leaks (rear washer pipe, door seals, door carriers and pollen filter) far too many of us are complaining that their cars are taking too long to demist on a morning.

All cars get damp during the winter, especially those that don't get long runs and therefore the chance to dry out properly, but they also are able to clear it much faster through the use of the A/C, fans and heater.

The Octavia still seems to struggle, interestingly some more so than others.

Mine has been plagued by this from new; to the point I struggle to clear the side windows when it’s raining, even after an hours drive.

If there is an overnight frost I know that I need to start the car 10 minutes before I intend to leave the house, not to defrost the outside of the screen, but to clear the condensation from inside the glass.

Diesel's take longer to warm up, so I tend to find if you can clear enough of the screen to see clearly and safely, once you set off things improve much quicker.

Interestingly my windscreen suffers worst than the rear screen.

There are loads of threads on this, and they always tend to appear around this time of year.

Here is another recent one with some useful links on how to check for some of the most common causes:

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/180771-rear-heated-screen/

As far as I can tell none of these apply to my Octavia, so I think I am stuck with misty windows for a while.

To quote a common car manufacturers excuse, it appears to be ‘inherent to the design’!

Good luck

Please can you explain further about Pollen filter leaks in the Octavia II? I am looking to get one of these and would like to either cure it before it starts to leak, as I have done in three Superb I's

Is the pollen filter housing difficult to remove?

Thanks

SJ

To be fair, damp pollen filters aren't restricted to Skoda, reading other forums it seems to be a fairly common issue in quite a few cars.

With all cabin filters they are pulling outside air into the cabin which I guess means there is always the possibility of them being exposed to water.

The pollen filter on the Octavia is just above the passengers feet.

Have had this to a ridiculous extent over the last week, had to defrost the entire inside of the windscreen a few times. Never had to do that once in 6yrs ownership of previous car, and that was an MGZS!

Spotted some water in the little wallet-sized pocket cubby hole thing on the side of the driver's seat too, so am assuming driver's door seal is knacked. Will give skoda a call in the morning, hopefully get it sorted in warranty.

Today on a long trip being cold and rainy, I noticed that the windows do mist very easy.

Compared to others it seems very bad.

During the first 60km the side rear windows never dimisted and in the city always was sign of mist on the windows doors.

Even with air con for front windshield on always did not help.

Not even the wifes 2001 Megane does this.

Maybe it has to do with the thickness of the glass.

One of the rear boot window has the lines of a defroster, but nothing happens.

Edited 29 November, 201015 yr by alberg

Hi

Not sure if this will work for all of you but it's worked fine for me.

I found that my windscreen was misting up and taking ages to clear in the colder weather so tried Rain X interior demister. This helped a bit but left the inside streaked which I hate.

I therefore purchased a unibond dehumidifier pack from B&Q for about a fiver. These aren't the great big things these are small packs for the inside of cupboards etc. There are two in the pack and I have put one under both front seats and haven't had a misty windscreen since. They should (I hope) last about 6 weeks. I know it's not a permanent fix, but it sure does help. For a fiver it's worth a try.

For sure humidity absorber helps. I am having one in my car over the night. I think it helps a lot. In a few days it collects few dcl of water from inside air.

I am using:

http://www.henkel-cee.com/cps/rde/xchg/henkel_cee/hs.xsl/1815_2801_CEE_HTML.htm

but for sure there are other similar products available.

Edited 30 November, 201015 yr by franek

One of the rear boot window has the lines of a defroster, but nothing happens.

I think those are for radio reception and not heating?

I have on of these from Homebase

Edited 30 November, 201015 yr by darrenw

The others look good, but what I love about the Unibond ones is that there are two of them, they are also flat packs that sit nicely under the front seats and don't end up containing water which could spill. The crystals just go hard when full.

Personally I find leaving the temperature at 18 and pointing to the dash and the fan speed at 3/4. prevents the initial misting up of the screen.

I do this before I switch the engine off every evening. so when starting the car, the fan builds up gradually to the desired speed.

I think the fact that I have got into a cold car breathing warm air into the cabin could have a bearing on the problem, although not convinced its solely down to that.

When first seen this treat I went out and drove always with the heater on the 1 speed fan and between 21/22 cº on setup.

Never misted up and when it did I put it to front screen and highter fan speed and went away.

With other people onboard did mist up more but a simple click on the AC buttom and a little more fan speed and voilá. All gone.

It´s a known fact that if the weather itself is very moisty it´s harder to unmoist the interior .

Edited 6 December, 201015 yr by alberg

I'd be interested to hear any other recommendations for dehumidifiers particularly those that could be picked up instore, I've checked my local Homebase for that lemon mentioned above but they're out of stock. Amazon have an 'egg' dehumidifier but reviews for it (and many others like it) are very mixed. Like many others here it seems I'm suffering from the inside of my car being frozen which is a real pain in the neck to clear as I can't use a scraper and the dashboard ends up covered in bits of ice. I've checked my car for any obvious leaks but there's no pools of water anywhere or signs of dampness, my last car (mk II Seat Toledo) did have a leak with water in the rear footwell which also meant water froze on the inside of the screen however that felt quite different as even in non-freezing conditions the inside of the windows were wet and the car felt damp. If this is something I have to live with then anything to minimise the problem is worth trying.

John

Edited 28 December, 201015 yr by JohnMcL7

No, that's different at least in my case. It's not the issue of misting up when the car is on, it's the fact it's freezing water inside between journeys which shouldn't be happening as the other cars in identical conditions on my driveway aren't suffering and none of my other cars have either (bar one when it did have a leak).

John

had a bad problem last year with condensation,found more than 1'' of water in the spare wheel well

took it back to dealer where they changed boot seal. no more problems since.

Before folk start condemning their Octavias for leaking water, have you considered this?

There's been a lot of snow around recently, and it's obvious that a certain amount of this will end up in the car, and cause surface wetness of the carpets. Also, it doesn't take more that a few seconds after someone with a wet coat gets into the car for things to start misting up. Even opening the doors in heavy rain will allow water inside the car, enough to cause the misting problem.

Look at the windows of any service bus next time you're out. All day long folks get on and off with wet clothes, brollies etc, and you'll be lucky to see any bus without totally steamed up windows at this time of year.

Mike

To be fair Mike this has been an ongoing issue for some time now, well before the snow arrived.

I remember replying to similar threads last winter.

Comparing an air conditioned five seater car to a partially heated 30+ seater bus isn't really a fair comparison.

Yes damp floor mats and clothes will mist up any car much quicker. In my experience my Scout just can't clear it anywhere near as well as any other car I've owned, even those without A/C.

I bought a couple of those dehumidifier bags, work great imo. Never got into the car with it being damp on the inside since. Bag sucked up a couple of decilitre's in the month I had it.