Ive had my Fabia for 18 months and its never done this before, but heres what happened today...

Left home, it wasnt particularly cold so I left the heater control on minimum. After about 5 miles I turned the heat up to around 24 degrees as it had got cooler and the screen misted up immediately, as did all the side windows. I put heat on full and screen demist setting and fan on full, and it would not clear the screen despite hot air coming out! Put AC on and it demisted quickly. I then turned AC off and it misted up again and the same issue again. This happened all the way to work, was fine on way home though.

Any idea whats happening as its not happened before in all sorts of weather.

Ive had my Fabia for 18 months and its never done this before, but heres what happened today...

Left home, it wasnt particularly cold so I left the heater control on minimum. After about 5 miles I turned the heat up to around 24 degrees as it had got cooler and the screen misted up immediately, as did all the side windows. I put heat on full and screen demist setting and fan on full, and it would not clear the screen despite hot air coming out! Put AC on and it demisted quickly. I then turned AC off and it misted up again and the same issue again. This happened all the way to work, was fine on way home though.

Any idea whats happening as its not happened before in all sorts of weather.

Warmer air can hold moisture better than cool air. When it meets the cold window surface it condenses and mists up. The air con simply acts as a de humidifier. I get this on our Honda CRV sometimes, it's just down to the atmospheric conditions and air temperature.

Warmer air can hold moisture better than cool air. When it meets the cold window surface it condenses and mists up. The air con simply acts as a de humidifier. I get this on our Honda CRV sometimes, it's just down to the atmospheric conditions and air temperature.

Yeah that makes sense, but surely today didnt have a unique atmosphere??? I mean, Ive had the heater on before with cold screens and nothing, and even if it has misted the heaters always demisted it before. In this case the heater made it worse!

This usually happens when recirculation is activated. Could you have accidentally switched to the recirculate position on the heater? Not sure what the switches are like on the Fabia, still awaiting delivery of mine and can't remember the layout / position of the switches.

Hi Lemon, I'm guessing you had the air recirc switched off yes? If not that would do it. Or had air recirc been activated without your knowledge? Does your car behave like "Christine" in the horror film? So many questions. But seriously that's annoying.

just keep the aircon on. best way to prevent paying for maintinance too... I always keep aircon on permenantly, and have never had to "service" it... 107,000 miles in the fiat, aircon still worked as new

just keep the aircon on. best way to prevent paying for maintinance too... I always keep aircon on permenantly, and have never had to "service" it... 107,000 miles in the fiat, aircon still worked as new

leave air-con on ? would this use more fuel?

leave air-con on ? would this use more fuel?

its been proved not to use more fuels, as long as you are driving, it only uses more fuel on tickover, i.e. sitting for ages in traffic....

its been proved not to use more fuels, as long as you are driving, it only uses more fuel on tickover, i.e. sitting for ages in traffic....

With huge respect...you may want to look at that again! Air con uses notable amounts of extra fuel in petrol or diesel cars. When I switch mine off when at idle my engine speed increases momentarily as the engine management readjusts for the lack of compressor load. When driving it saps fuel and power too. I'm down around 4-6mpg in summer when using air con.

With huge respect...you may want to look at that again! Air con uses notable amounts of extra fuel in petrol or diesel cars. When I switch mine off when at idle my engine speed increases momentarily as the engine management readjusts for the lack of compressor load. When driving it saps fuel and power too. I'm down around 4-6mpg in summer when using air con.

with huge respect back, that could simply be the higher temps, less dense air, less efficient engine (and loss of power) high temps really make a dent in fuel economy.... and yes I agreed on tickover is when it sups fuel, i stated that.

the aircon i read up on was a detailed study... the compressor is run by the engine, in engines like my old fiat (314lbs/ft torque) the power it takes compaired to that is irrelivent... any normal driving will power it without compromise, less than using your lights at night...

even in a small engined petrol (as OP) on throttle it will make no difference at all,a strong head on breeze will be more detremental to fuel economy... on overrun (throttle off slowing down) the compressor is being run for free... taking no power at all...

I agree that on tickover it takes fuel (I stated that) if your driving is all town, then maybe you would want to turn it off, in the average motorist , taking your foot of the accelerator 100yards sooner approaching a roundabout will save you 10 x more fuel than turnig your aircon off..

in some cars (the mark I fabia vRS fo example) the compressor is not turned off even if you turn the switch off so is runnig all the time anyway...

worth looking into... you smoke> opening the window was also proved in this test to be worse than turning off the aircon....

i would run it all the time. (unless I lived in city enviroment, where maybe stop/start tech or hybrid would be more appropriate...

This is an AC thing. I'm pretty sure residual moisture lingers in the heater matrix when the AC has been used in many VAG cars, if you've been using it with the heater turned up then turn off the AC, the moisture gets blown back into the car and steams up the windows.

This happened loads in my MK6 Golf late last year/early this year when we had the real cold snap; pretty much had to have my AC on all the time to stop the windows misting up, if I turned the AC off I very quickly was unable to see where I was going! Now its starting to get milder I can now use my heater without AC with no misting issues.

Was exactly the same in my MK5 Golf though strangely it doesnt seem to afflict my wifes 08 Polo with Climatic AC.

Pipsyp, that makes sense as I had the aircon on the day before. Last two mornings its been fine as I havent used the AC... wish cars didnt have it tbh!

OK, I have an HTP and I can guarantee those arguing about consumption... it makes a huge impact on my MPG when its turned on. You can feel it sapping power, so have to press the throttle further down to make the same progress... I lose around 4mpg with AC on. Like I said, Id happily not have it.

with huge respect back, that could simply be the higher temps, less dense air, less efficient engine (and loss of power) high temps really make a dent in fuel economy.... and yes I agreed on tickover is when it sups fuel, i stated that.

the aircon i read up on was a detailed study... the compressor is run by the engine, in engines like my old fiat (314lbs/ft torque) the power it takes compaired to that is irrelivent... any normal driving will power it without compromise, less than using your lights at night...

even in a small engined petrol (as OP) on throttle it will make no difference at all,a strong head on breeze will be more detremental to fuel economy... on overrun (throttle off slowing down) the compressor is being run for free... taking no power at all...

I agree that on tickover it takes fuel (I stated that) if your driving is all town, then maybe you would want to turn it off, in the average motorist , taking your foot of the accelerator 100yards sooner approaching a roundabout will save you 10 x more fuel than turnig your aircon off..

in some cars (the mark I fabia vRS fo example) the compressor is not turned off even if you turn the switch off so is runnig all the time anyway...

worth looking into... you smoke> opening the window was also proved in this test to be worse than turning off the aircon....

i would run it all the time. (unless I lived in city enviroment, where maybe stop/start tech or hybrid would be more appropriate...

Hi Sharkrider, yeah...I know where you are coming from. I agree to some extent with the head wind thing and some othe stuff. But I haven't seen that information/report that you speak of, but it sounds like a load of BS. Or...you may have misunderstood the article. The Mk1 Fab doesn't run with the AC on all the time even though the compressor may be turning. But electronic AC is much more refined and uses less power than mechanical AC, but there is still a large power drain on the car's systems and this leads to less mpg. It sounds as if the article you have seen is merely suggesting that the larger the engine the less pronounced this effect is. I would largely concur in the main with that as the AC will proportionally take less power from a 3 litre engine than a 1.2ltr for example. But as a further example my Mercedes 500 SEC Auto used to loose between 4-5mpg with the AC switched on. On a car that only managed 18mpg at best, that's a huge increase in fuel usage just to cool your self down! As I said in my earlier post...my 1422cc TDI looses easily 4-6mpg. Proportionally that's no where near as much of a loss as my Mercedes, and at 54mpg for my Fabia instead of 58-60mpg I can afford to run the AC. There is no evidence I have ever seen that suggests you don't pay a price for running AC. All AC uses large amounts of power electrical or mechanical and you can test this for yourself easily by turning off the AC and doing a run. Then switch it back on for the same run under the same conditions. I haven't yet been in any car brand new or old that doesn't suffer less mpg with AC on. But I do understand why you might think this is not the case now.

On the subject of aircon....

My drive home has a long steep downhill section. I find the aircon makes for a wonderful brake and cools me down as well ! Saves my brakes anyway. I dont use aircon unless its sauna conditions. Makes a huge difference on economy in my car. Maybe as the GL is more efficient anyway you notice it more.

If aircon was an option I wouldnt have it, its just useless extra weight most of the time and even in standy it saps a little power as its always driven. Besides, when its warm out I take the motorbike

Window misting.....never had a problem. In fact the mk 2 is much better than my mk1 as that always cleared the passenger side first. Opening the windows a bit until the cars warm helps.