I have a Skoda Octavia diesel estate Mark one which was first registered in January 2006. I believe the mark two model came out around this time, however, mine is a mark one Octavia.

 

For the last three years I've had an issue with the windscreen misting up inside the car. This happens for about six months of the year in the winter months. I have to clean the inside of the windscreen probably about every 20 miles so that I can see clearly, it's a fairly frustrating issue. It's actually almost like a thick film on the windscreen which is almost impossible to see through. In the areas on the windscreen that I haven't cleaned regularly, it is the equivalent of looking through frosted glass, you cannot see out.

 

I have never been one for using my hand or a cloth to clear the windscreen, I like to let the blower clear screen to avoid any marks and smears. However, at the moment I have to clean the windscreen regularly with window cleaner and a cloth.

 

The cabin air filter is clean as it is checked regularly at the correct servicing intervals. I have recently had a new fan due to the old fan failing. The car actually has 267,000 miles on the clock, it pulls a fairly heavy trailer, so I have to say it has done very well. 

 

The only thing that I can think of that may be happening is perhaps the outside air is somehow being drawn in and creating this issue.

 

Any help is appreciated.

 

I was potentially thinking of running the car into the ground. However, if I can't fix the issue I may purchase a new vehicle as it's very frustrating not being able to see clearly out of the windscreen.

 

Thank you for reading.

 

Roy

check the carpets and underlay for water ingress.

check behind the wheel arches for a build of muck and leaves blocking the scuttle drains as this can fill up with water then gets into the cabin. 

check your doors- seals and the bottoms of door cards for water. if the door card has water, take it off and reseal the membrane

Do you have the A/C on during winter months as that really helps with keeping the screen clear during cold wet months.
Also, are you a smoker as nicotine leaves a film on the glass if you smoke in the car. I know that from personal experience and you can see it when you use window cleaner with a white paper towel. 
RainX do a product to coat the glass on the inside to prevent misting so that may also help.

When the engine gets up to temperature, and you have the heater on, do you smell a slightly sweet smell for a minute or two until it settles down?,

 

Is the deposit on the screen slightly oily/slippery to the touch?,

Try to apply some shaving gel and then wipe it out with a paper towel. It wipes out a bit difficult but prevents fogging from moisture.

If what I think may be the issue turns out to be fact, the gel approach may make things worse, but it is worth a try even if just to rule out condensation.

 

Perhaps the OP could post his findings so we can assist them further.

Condensation will build up in this kind of weather, and it happens on all cars. If you really want to fix it, try pulling up the carpet and check the sound deadening to see if it's wet. It will probably be worth checking that the grommet is there behind the pollen filter behind the scuttle panel.

For now though, pressing auto on the climatronic will set to 22 degrees, this is the best temp in order to rid of condensation quickly. However, only having one middle vent (stupid design) takes a bloody age to do anything. But, you could always buy a Pingi Dehumidifier Car, it's like a small pillow and helps reduce moisture, that or cat litter too for a while.

1 hour ago, DeanVRS20VT said:

that or cat litter too for a while

 

i have a little hessian bag full of cat litter in my car all the the time. lob it on the dash at night and it makes a huge difference.

On 17/12/2020 at 01:27, kentphil1 said:

If what I think may be the issue turns out to be fact, the gel approach may make things worse, but it is worth a try even if just to rule out condensation.

 

Perhaps the OP could post his findings so we can assist them further.

Just try this in your bathroom's mirror. Then you will see that after a hot bath / shower there will be no mist on the mirror. I tried it on our mirror before tried it in the car as I had the same worries as you. So this is my advise, try it on your bath's mirror or at a small square are at the windscreen that is out of your immediate eye perspective like the upper corner of passenger's side.

£1 de-humidifiers / damp tramps are cheap enough for even a tight Scottish Person. 

Or a marg tub with dry salt in it and holes in the lid.   In the car and in the boot.

54 minutes ago, stratosg said:

Just try this in your bathroom's mirror. Then you will see that after a hot bath / shower there will be no mist on the mirror. I tried it on our mirror before tried it in the car as I had the same worries as you. So this is my advise, try it on your bath's mirror or at a small square are at the windscreen that is out of your immediate eye perspective like the upper corner of passenger's side.

 

I have used that method for nearly 10 years, so can also vouch for it's effectiveness. I also use a Pingi on the dash if the weather is really cold and damp - also very effective.

 

However, if it has the startings of a heater radiator issue, where they can leak tiny amounts overnight which are only really noticed as an odour for the first minute of the radiator warming rather than coolant loss and an oily deposit on the screen that takes 2 -3 days to build up, it will turn the screen to a fog like vision area once the warm fumes hit.

 

This will only clear by wiping the screen, as the deposits are almost like steam, which will only get worse as the heater rad degades further.

 

I 100% agree as to the effectiveness of getting rid of condensation, but I am just adding a word of caution if it is a heater rad, as I have been on the end of a failing unit and it's not nice to live with.

 

This was why I was hoping the OP might have reposted, just to we could sort the wheat from the chaff (or the rad from the condensation )

 

Keep safe all,

 

Phil.

 

 

Edited 19 December, 20205 yr by kentphil1

On 13/12/2020 at 12:26, mac11irl said:

check the carpets and underlay for water ingress.

check behind the wheel arches for a build of muck and leaves blocking the scuttle drains as this can fill up with water then gets into the cabin. 

check your doors- seals and the bottoms of door cards for water. if the door card has water, take it off and reseal the membrane

Hi there,

Thank you for taking the time to read my question, it's appreciated.

I've checked all the carpets and the scuttle drains et cetera, they all seem to be okay. I think it may be something to do with a radiator issue as it's really blowing thick mist onto the windscreen, making it almost like frosted glass. I really appreciate your input, thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to read my question and thank you for your answers, each one is appreciated. I was going to answer each of you individually, please accept my apologies as there are quite a few people to reply to. I have read every one of the solutions.

My conclusion is that from your answers, the misting up issue may well be coming from the radiator. I think all the other issues have been eliminated. I tried the Rain X wipes which worked really well and they are definitely something I will be using in the future. They really cleaned the windscreen well, however, the abnormal misting up continues. 

Probably around four years ago the air conditioning stop working. The garage told me that it was a pipe that was quite expensive to replace, I was half expecting to replace the car, so, I did not replace the air conditioning pipe, so it is still not functioning. Do you think this could cause an issue?

I did try putting a container of Radweld into the radiator as this is something that my local garage suggested. However, the problem still seems to be ongoing. I would have thought if there was a leak in the radiator, it would probably show more? I probably top the radiator up about three times a year, it does not take an abnormal amount of water to fill it.

Once again, thank you for trying to help. It's appreciated.

Roy

 

On 19/12/2020 at 20:12, kentphil1 said:

 

I have used that method for nearly 10 years, so can also vouch for it's effectiveness. I also use a Pingi on the dash if the weather is really cold and damp - also very effective.

 

However, if it has the startings of a heater radiator issue, where they can leak tiny amounts overnight which are only really noticed as an odour for the first minute of the radiator warming rather than coolant loss and an oily deposit on the screen that takes 2 -3 days to build up, it will turn the screen to a fog like vision area once the warm fumes hit.

 

This will only clear by wiping the screen, as the deposits are almost like steam, which will only get worse as the heater rad degades further.

 

I 100% agree as to the effectiveness of getting rid of condensation, but I am just adding a word of caution if it is a heater rad, as I have been on the end of a failing unit and it's not nice to live with.

 

This was why I was hoping the OP might have reposted, just to we could sort the wheat from the chaff (or the rad from the condensation )

 

Keep safe all,

 

Phil.

 

 

Hello Phil,

Thank you for your reply, it's appreciated.

I have received quite a few answers and made a general reply to everyone. However, I think you may have hit the nail on the head with the radiator issue. I'm not an engineer, although I have a bit of common sense when it comes to machinery et cetera. Do you think if I replaced the radiator, that would save the problem? Or could the leak (if there is a leak) be from a pipe attached to the radiator? I've just looked up the price of the radiator and they are surprisingly cheap, (about £36) obviously, there would be fitting charges. If it's a sensible price, it may well be worth having the job carried out.

The windscreen literally starts misting up almost immediately, ideally, it needs cleaning every 20 miles of travel, which is pretty ridiculous! When I give the windscreen a quick clean, and miss some of the lower bits, the windscreen is literally like frosted glass, you cannot see anything through it. And to be fair, it almost has a faint green tint to it, or maybe it's me imagining it does!

The fact that the car has 268,000 miles on the clock is absolutely fantastic and it still drives absolutely fine and pulls quite a heavy trailer, daily. It's almost become a bit of a joke to keep the car going, however, I don't want to spend silly amounts of money on the car.

Thank you so much for your input.

Roy

If it is blowing thick mist, it does sound like a heater radiator, as that is just fine steam being sucked through the vents.

 

I don't want to teach grandma how to suck eggs here, but on a normal car you have 2 radiators in the system. The first is the large cooling radiator which most people know lives at the front of the car and is fairly easily accessible.

 

There is a second heater radiator which is about 1/8 size of the main rad, just for the purpose of providing heating which lives in the air distribution box that is located inside the car behind the dash.

 

To get access to remove the box and then to allow removal of the radiator means almost a complete interior strip - i.e seats, dash, centre console and a fair bit more.  This vid albeit on a lhd car shows what needs to be done, as regardless of which side the steering wheel is on, the basic job is the same.

 

I had a neighbour who had a quote that was in the region of £900 fitted from a vw soecialist, the local main agent wouldn't even quote. the only way this gets cheap is to use your own labour, but it is a fairly big job and not for the faint hearted as the aircon deeds to depressurised and then regassed at the end.

 

You can confirm if it is the radiator by trying the car with the temp set on cold, if it is slower to mist or does not mist then that is your issue, as the rad is out of the system when the temp is set to cold.

 

I appreciate the current weather does not lend itself to driving without heat but you could run the car up to temp on your drive with the heater temp on cold and just see what happens.

 

There is a tiny possiblity that your air con drain could be blocked, but if the test i detailed above yields no mist, it probably is not that.

 

When you installed the Radweld, did you put the heater temp on maximum hot?, if not, it may not have found it's way to the heater rad yet.

 

If you want more info please ask, hope it helps,

 

Phil

16 minutes ago, kentphil1 said:

If it is blowing thick mist, it does sound like a heater radiator, as that is just fine steam being sucked through the vents.

 

I don't want to teach grandma how to suck eggs here, but on a normal car you have 2 radiators in the system. The first is the large cooling radiator which most people know lives at the front of the car and is fairly easily accessible.

 

There is a second heater radiator which is about 1/8 size of the main rad, just for the purpose of providing heating which lives in the air distribution box that is located inside the car behind the dash.

 

To get access to remove the box and then to allow removal of the radiator means almost a complete interior strip - i.e seats, dash, centre console and a fair bit more.  This vid albeit on a lhd car shows what needs to be done, as regardless of which side the steering wheel is on, the basic job is the same.

 

I had a neighbour who had a quote that was in the region of £900 fitted from a vw soecialist, the local main agent wouldn't even quote. the only way this gets cheap is to use your own labour, but it is a fairly big job and not for the faint hearted as the aircon deeds to depressurised and then regassed at the end.

 

You can confirm if it is the radiator by trying the car with the temp set on cold, if it is slower to mist or does not mist then that is your issue, as the rad is out of the system when the temp is set to cold.

 

I appreciate the current weather does not lend itself to driving without heat but you could run the car up to temp on your drive with the heater temp on cold and just see what happens.

 

There is a tiny possiblity that your air con drain could be blocked, but if the test i detailed above yields no mist, it probably is not that.

 

When you installed the Radweld, did you put the heater temp on maximum hot?, if not, it may not have found it's way to the heater rad yet.

 

If you want more info please ask, hope it helps,

 

Phil

Hello Phil,

 

Thank you so much for your very comprehensive reply, it really is appreciated.

 

To be perfectly honest, I like to think I know a little bit about cars and mechanics, but obviously, not huge amounts! However, I've always wondered how a heater system works, I did not realise there were two radiators, I assumed it was all off the main radiator. Hence why I looked up the price of a new standard radiator, today!

 

After watching the video and seeing the quotes that your neighbour had it actually looks quite a complicated job. I thought it was just a case of slipping the main radiator out and putting in a new one!

 

Due to your reply Phil, I am almost sure that it is a radiator issue as in a couple of months time and as we approach the spring and summer months. The problem almost ceases. I'm guessing that the heater comes on full power once the engine warms up as I think this is one of the few Mark one models with climate control. 

 

It was several months ago when I put the Radweld in the radiator. I literally put the Radweld in the radiator when the engine was cold and went about my normal business. The heater would have been on climate control and to be fair it was probably in the summer months. So the heater may have been blowing cool air, depending on the time of day.

 

Do you think I ought to set the climate control to maximum and warm the engine up beforehand, and then add the Radweld? I must admit I didn't read the instructions and I had no idea there were two radiators! Or would a double dose of Radweld help in the system?

Thanking you in advance, your help is appreciated.

You need to be cautious using too much radweld, as that can cause you other issues. It really is only meant as a stop gap solution, but it might give you a few more months of use perhaps longer if it actually can get into the hole and seal it.

 

How much coolant do you think you may have had to top up since you put the radweld in?, just roughly to the nearest pint?.

 

You could try running the car on the drive once its warm for 15-20 mins with the climatronic on max to let the radweld fully circulate into the heater rad.

 

The thing is a tiny pin hole in the rad will produce a lot of steam once the system is warm, but may not need much radweld to seal it.

 

Radweld needs to enter the leak area so that it can react with being in the open air as the car cools to seal the leak of fluid.

 

It's a bit like toothpaste trying to squeeze out of a tube, while the cap is on it is nice and fluid, but leave the cap off overnight and it goes to a more solid lump on the end of the tube. That is a well over simplified way of explaining how rad sealers work, but hopefully you see where I'm coming from with it.

It was several months ago when I put the Radweld in the radiator.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Use K-seal if you have to use one of these sealing  additives , I have known people have excellent results with it  , like head gasket issues , leaking water pumps etc. 

Sorry, are we talking about the same car here?, as am a bit confused with the 2 different member names.

 

The reason I asked about the coolant loss was to try to ascertain roughly how much radweld may still be in the system, and as such, if there was enough left to do it's job, without a second helping being necessary.

On 28/12/2020 at 19:04, kentphil1 said:

You need to be cautious using too much radweld, as that can cause you other issues. It really is only meant as a stop gap solution, but it might give you a few more months of use perhaps longer if it actually can get into the hole and seal it.

 

How much coolant do you think you may have had to top up since you put the radweld in?, just roughly to the nearest pint?.

 

You could try running the car on the drive once its warm for 15-20 mins with the climatronic on max to let the radweld fully circulate into the heater rad.

 

The thing is a tiny pin hole in the rad will produce a lot of steam once the system is warm, but may not need much radweld to seal it.

 

Radweld needs to enter the leak area so that it can react with being in the open air as the car cools to seal the leak of fluid.

 

It's a bit like toothpaste trying to squeeze out of a tube, while the cap is on it is nice and fluid, but leave the cap off overnight and it goes to a more solid lump on the end of the tube. That is a well over simplified way of explaining how rad sealers work, but hopefully you see where I'm coming from with it.

Good morning Phil,

 

My apologies for the late reply. Thank you for the very useful and helpful information, it's appreciated.

 

Thank you for the information regarding the Radweld, I hear what you're saying.

 

I guess it may have been last winter when I put the Radweld in the car after thinking about it, (time goes quickly). I would have thought I have put approximately 2 pints of water in the car since the Radweld was last used.

 

Do you think it would be safe to purchase another can of Radweld and try the technique that you suggested?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Roy

One thing I learnt a couple of years ago that helps with the interior of the car misting up is to cool it down before parking. What I do now on cold days, is for the last 3 miles of my journey is set the interior temperature to cold to cool it back down again. If its not raining, get the windows open for the last few hundred yards and get it a close to ambient temperature as possible. I find it stops the car misting up inside.

 

The other thing I have always done when the temp is 5c or below, is poUr a 2 litre bottle of tepid water over the windscreen. It will start to warm it a little and stops it misting up with your breath when you get in the car.

 

HTH

 

Edited 30 December, 20205 yr by Westbury63

15 hours ago, GardenEquipment said:

Good morning Phil,

 

My apologies for the late reply. Thank you for the very useful and helpful information, it's appreciated.

 

Thank you for the information regarding the Radweld, I hear what you're saying.

 

I guess it may have been last winter when I put the Radweld in the car after thinking about it, (time goes quickly). I would have thought I have put approximately 2 pints of water in the car since the Radweld was last used.

 

Do you think it would be safe to purchase another can of Radweld and try the technique that you suggested?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Roy

If you have only lost about 2 pints, there should be a fair amount of rad weld still present in the system.

 

The reason that you need to be careful of over dosing the system, is that it can cause issues like gumming up the thermostat, if the stat itself is older and the internal plating is not like it was when new. Also, too much could cause rad core blockages if your main rad is getting near its pension age.

 

That being said, it isn't a big issue, but do you really want to pull parts of the coolant system apart in this weather if you don't really need to?.

 

If you want to try another dose, I would only use half a can, but make sure you run the car up to temp with the climate set to max hot, preferably in econ mode if you have it rather than auto.

 

It may fume/steam a bit through the vents, but as I said earlier, the sealant has to get to, and through the hole to set about sealing it. Once you run the car up to temp (15 or so minutes should do it) let the system cool naturally, and hopefully you'll be ok. If It still fumes with steam badly after 2 -3 days (it could take that long to seal, depends how bad your heater rad is), then you have a badly split rad and changing or leaving it by-passed are you only options.

 

Here is a vid from Holts to try to "fill in the gaps" for you.

 

 

Hope it works for you. Just bear in mind this wont hold for 10 years, it is only a short term solution really.