Very cold outside: need AC to stop car misting up

London luke · Post by **London luke** » 22 Nov 2005, 20:34

If I turn the AC off the car just mists up. Tried adjusting the settings etc. Do I always have to use the Ac ??

Cheers

NiSk · Post by **NiSk** » 22 Nov 2005, 20:47

Make sure you don't have the recirculation switched on.

//NiSk

Jade Falcon · Post by **Jade Falcon** » 22 Nov 2005, 20:48

Silly question but have you made sure the air is directed at the screen, that usually does the job.

London luke · Post by **London luke** » 22 Nov 2005, 21:22

Its on the demist setting. I notice that the passenger side blows stronger. It was on recirc. Will try tomorrow.

Thanks for such quick replies

Luke

Post by **RichardW** » 22 Nov 2005, 21:52

Assume it's a Xantia? In which case the pollen filter is probably blocked up (or soaking wet

) Remove the carpet under the dash on the passenger side, and the you will see a slot cover under the dash, either clipped in or fixed in with 3 screws. Remove this then pull the pollen filter out. You should really fit another one soonish to protect the A/C evaporator, but you will be much less misty without for a while.

Oh, and also check the passenger carpet and under the dash for signs of coolant leakage. Heater matrix failures on Xantias are not exactly unknown....

p20 · Post by **p20** » 22 Nov 2005, 21:58

Its sounds cheeky, but when did you last clean the glass? I know i cleaned mine recently and once clear it stays clear, which means i can have the heat and not the screen

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 22 Nov 2005, 22:10

It was on recirc

Take it off recirculation,your problem will be solved!!You will be able to demist without having the air-con on.

Fresh heated air will be going on the screen rather than the same moisture laden air just going round and round, as happens on recirc.... The air-con comes on so that the recirculated air gets dried. Its the overcomplicated modern car's way of doing a simple job. In the old days you just opened a quarter light and put up with the draught.....

Regarding the passanger side clearing quicker,It always seems that way in every car I've ever had!! In fact, its just down to the fact that you are sitting in the drivers seat breathing moisture laden air onto a cold screen..........if there's no passenger, then the drivers side will always take longer to clear.

np · Post by np » 22 Nov 2005, 22:11

RichardW wrote: Oh, and also check the passenger carpet and under the dash for signs of coolant leakage. Heater matrix failures on Xantias are not exactly unknown....

Mine also has a small leak that drips down into the footwell from behind the dash,which makes the carpet wet.I belive its from the base of the windscreen scuttle panel.I sealed it up a while ago which cured the leak.But the panel is pealing off now & is cracking,causing it to leak again.

Also as P20 says,i too cleaned the glass,which made a big difference to misting up.Mine only mists up if the weather is really wet.Most of the time its ok.But remember that once the outside temp drops to a certain point,3-5 degs in my case,its then too cold for the a/c to work.

Homer · Post by **Homer** » 23 Nov 2005, 08:39

You may find you have to give the car a good run, get it nicely warmed up and run the heater for a while to dry the ducts etc.

London luke · Post by **London luke** » 23 Nov 2005, 10:00

RichardW
I removed the filter this morning. It was dry. A bit black etc. Cleaned it out and washed it in antibacterial sloution etc. Lots of black dirt washed out. Filter now a light blue. Its now drying in the airing cupboard. Thought I would give it a try !!

Will try the heater using without the recirc.

Cheers again.

mezuk04 · Post by **mezuk04** » 23 Nov 2005, 10:03

Can you clean the Pollen Filter as mentioned above instead of replacing it????

micitroen · Post by **micitroen** » 23 Nov 2005, 10:33

Luke, you will find that it is the 'recirc' that was causing it. It might be something else as well as that but turning that off will undoubtedly make it better. My CX has a heater matrix problem (getting it fixed tomorrow) and there is a build up of moisture in the car but this soon clears with the heater on.
As somebody previous has said. The idea of the recirc button is to shut off the car from the outside air so that you 'recirculate' the air that is already in the car....this is very handy if you need to drive throught lots of smoke/fumes etc. tunnels of any length spring to mind. But with an air con car it is also used to aid economy of use. On a warm/hot day (lets say 30c) with the air con on and working correctly its very easy to get the temp down to a reasonable level. When that level is reached the A/C should be put to recirc to ease the load so that instead of trying to cool down and dry 30c humid air from outside the car you are cooling down air that is already considerably drier and cooler from the inside of the car than the air on the outside of the car. This will give you much better fuel consumption.
How long you should do this for is up for debate as 'how long do you want to keep breathing the same air?' Obviously this is not quite true as most cars are not hermetically sealed and there will always be an exchange with the outside air. But it is a point to consider on a long journey.
Hope this helps.

bbrucez · Post by **bbrucez** » 23 Nov 2005, 15:24

I've found that even not on recirc I get the same problem despite directing cold air onto the screen.
When I switch off the aircon, the problem comes back repeatedly for as long as I do it (hours not minutes).
Was beginning to think it was plain bad design when my wife tried hot air. For a couple of minutes it was misty but then it cleared.
Have a try!!

Gregg1100 · Post by **Gregg1100** » 23 Nov 2005, 19:38

Hi,
On my Xantia VSX 16v, 2 litre(with aircon), if I set heater to fresh air, then there is no air directed at screen. Set heater to recycled, and it blows up onto screen quite well. Pollen filter has been changed. Bloody Frog Cars. Who`d have them

Greg

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 23 Nov 2005, 23:34

p20 wrote:Its sounds cheeky, but when did you last clean the glass? I know i cleaned mine recently and once clear it stays clear, which means i can have the heat and not the screen

I second this.

When I first got my Xantia I had TERRIBLE troubles with the windscreen fogging up. It looked clean and I thought the airflow wasn't enough, but it turned out to be some kind of film on the inside of the windscreen (possibly some car cleaning product) causing it, I thoroughly cleaned the inside of the windscreen with meths on a small rag and I've never had any fogging problems since....

Regards,
Simon

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Very cold outside: need AC to stop car misting up

Very cold outside: need AC to stop car misting up

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