my thoughts on the new car

[figgyburn]

hi all,have had the car two days and thought i'd post my first impressions. as has been mentioned by a few people this car drips with condensation especially the back window. in forty years of owning cars i have never experienced anything like this before. the weather here has been crisp and dry so no rain excuses for the condensation.the back window heater and i use the word heater loosely is rubbish all it does is leave the back window all stripes and the front demister is not much better and i have to use a chamois to wipe the front or i would be there all day waiting for it do clear the window. there is definately a problem with this car and i am surprised that skoda have not done something about this. other than this i have been impressed so far with the driving experience and am looking forward to the future fingers crossed. cheers john

[workman]

fella if you switch on the air-con when you have the heat on, i've found, this clears all mist etc.

[mannyo]

It sounds to me as though your car is damp inside. If you bought it used its possible that the stuff they used to valet the interior isnt drying out properly due to the cold weather, or you have the heater on recirculation mode which makes the air damp and stale after a short time.

Mine is bone dry, and never condensates on the inside. The dualzone climate is on auto, and the temp set to 19c. I only need the rear heated screen for a few mins at the start of my trip then I can see perfectly with no problems for the rest of the journey.

[dan123]

Me too....I have never had so much misting up inside a car on a cold morning, it does clear pretty quickly (agreed always have the A/C on, in fact I never switch it off).

I thought my problem might be linked to the problems I had when my car was new, A/C condensate drain was kinked and the interior was flooded (this would fit with Mannyo's theory), but all the carpets and sound proofing was stripped out and binned.

Any one else have a lot of condenation on cold mornings?

[dstev2000]

I got in my car this morning and it was fecking freezing, ice all over the car but minimal condensation on the inside. It's a different story if you have a wet coat or the like in the car though.

Think what it's like when it's pouring with rain and you get in the car, if the heater and aircon aren't running full pelt the car steams up in seconds.

Sounds like a damp problem to me.

Dan, do you think figgyburn could have the same problem you had (kinked A/C condensate hose)? or a duff seal letting water in maybe?

Check the front footwells thoroughly for any signs of moisture for starters.

[bosnjo]

Mine is two months old and glass moisture inside the car on cold mornings is the same as in all of my previous cars (7 Golf's, 1 Fiat, 2 Megane's, 1 Toyota Avensis). Yours might have a problem.

[bosnjo]

Also, note that all cars with Air Conditioner need it switched on to clear the moisture. Cars without it clear the moisture just with the heater (or vent) on, but with AC if AC is off, moisture only gets worse.

[LeighB]

Originally Posted by figgyburn

.the back window heater and i use the word heater loosely is rubbish all it does is leave the back window all stripes cheers john

I have not that experience, but mine is the estate which may be different?
I was using it today and the rear window was actually steaming, so the heater is pretty potent on mine at least, the wing mirror heaters also steam when used.

[Dr Zoidberg]

That's one thing that doesn't happen in mine. Only the usual small amount of condensation inside on very cold wet days and certainly nothing that the aircon can't shift quickly

[Toneboy]

I have found the window clearing on my Estate TDI to be very good either with normal heating or the Air con and certainly the rear demister is very effective taking only a few minutes to become clear.

[tezza72uk]

I have also noticed that it takes longer to clear the front screen even though my climate control is always on and set to 20. Today the conditions have made the amount of condensation particularly heavy on the inside of the screens, front and rear. The rear window demister seems as good as any other car I have owned but the front window takes for ever. This is not helped by the fact the diesel engine takes longer to warm up than a petrol. I have checked the footwells as suggested in this post and have found them to be free of water.

[JustinCider]

Mine suffers badly from misting on both the front and rear screens, but I put it down to the car being valeted prior to me collecting it. So I'm giving it until the first service, if it doesn't sort itself out by then, I'll get them to look at it.

The other point I'd like to make is I use mine daily and I'm constantly opening the boot. If its damp or wet on the rear screen, I get a fair amount of water dropping into the boot, as I did with my mk1 Octy vRS. Its a bit annoying they never managed to sort that!!! So that doesn't help the damp problem.

[fredw]

Originally Posted by tezza72uk

... the front window takes for ever. This is not helped by the fact the diesel engine takes longer to warm up than a petrol. ...

I also have a diesel but have no problems with demisting the front screen. I just set the climatronic to full blast on the windscreen with the aircon on and it clears in seconds.

My Ocky 1 was not so good at demisting the windscreen however the performance was identical to that on my wife's Mk 4 Golf. Shows that VW have consistent quality control.

[vRSLen]

My vRS estate steams its rear window up on the outside and have to keep
using the rear wiper on cold days.

[Toneboy]

I can not agree that the this Skoda diesel, certainly the 2.0 TDI, is slow to warm up and put out heat as mine will do so almost from the off and in less than one mile you can certainly feel the output.

My past PSA diesels took literally miles before even a gentle heat was put out.

[smerko]

what the fastest way to clear a misted windscreen? hot or cold air?

[ednmra]

Hot, with air con and high fan on, and screen button selected.

[matchmaker]

My Mk 1 vRS hatch can take an age to demist - the back window took a full 45 minutes to clear last week. When it's cold outside I often have to change the Climatronic from "auto" to "demist" every few minutes as the windscren starts to mist up.

[ScoobyChris]

Also worth remembering that the air con only works when the outside temperature is above 4 deg C so you might find it tends to mist up more when it gets colder....

Chris

[Goochie]

I diddnt think the misting issue was a "problem" seems very common from reading this thread.

[ednmra]

Mine's no worse than any other car I've had, and better than a good few.

[OctaviaBuzz]

Mine mists up pretty much the same as my last car, (fiat) but the Octy takes alot longer to demist. perhaps because its an SDI and not petrol like my fiat was? I've also found the rear heater element to be quite weak, compared to every other car i've owned. I very often have a stripey back window, lol.

[agent006]

Mine mists up for a day every couple of weeks, no idea why. It also seems to chuck crap out of the screen vents as the inside of the screen will be filthy within a week of cleaning it.

[JustinCider]

Since my last post on this, Ive done about 3k miles and now the misting problem seems to have gone! So it probably was the dampness in the car due to the use of a wet vac when valeted. Or possibly it was his sweat!