Technical Marea steaming up problem

[guygamps]

Hello, my Marea '99 1.8 ELX Weekend has terrible problem steaming up inside.

1. with 4 or more people in the car, you can drive around for an hour or more with the fan on full power, the air con "on", and as much heat as you can bear, and the car will never de-mist, its almost un-drivable.

2. with just a driver on board, I sit in the car park at the end of work watch everyone else drive away, 10 minutes later - I can leave.

3. when left for a few days recently, upon return on a cold evening (about -2 deg C) there was ice on the inside of the windscreen, does this give any clues?

What's going on



P.S. the car is fitted with standard climate control for Marea ELX/HLX, this it the first winter I have owned the vehicle so don't know if it has always done this. I did have the climate control re-gassed and checked for leaks in the summer though.

 

[CheeseMaster]

I hope my response isn't bloody useless but the only car this has happenned to me on was not a Marea, it was my Spyder. I found that when I lifted the footwell carpet the rubber underlay was soaking. I tracked down this leak to two places, firstly a perished rubber bung between the engine bay and the footwell near where the cables go through and the other place was the window lining. The water would seep in on wet days, driving with the top off or the heat on would solve the dampness in the cabin, but the next day it would be back ( the problem not having been sorted out ). Once I sealed the leaks and dried out the underlay ( and toweled down the floorpan ) it never occurred again.

Oh and I cleaned out the drain holes too, but I doubt that will be the problem.

 

[Deckchair5]

Yes you've got a leak inside the car. Might be a small heater matrix leak. Does it smell of antifreeze when warming up?

Failing that you might have a water leak soaking the underneath of the carpets. Pull them back and have a look. Soaking? It could be one of your drainage channels blocked

Do you have an air con leak? Sometimes the drain for the air con matrix can get blocked or broken so it dumps it into the car rather than outside. That can be VERY smelly

If you have a sun roof then there's another internal sauna possibility

 

[CheeseMaster]

The way I'd tackle this would be to strip the carpets out of the front, take out any underlay and get that drying off. Towel out the footwells and then drive for a week with the carpets up. See if you can spot where its coming in from, or trickling down from.

 

[polecat]

Talcum powder sprinkled around the floor area and sides will indicate where the water is coming from. Blocked sunroof drains are a common cause.

 

[Hellcat]

ELX doesn't have a sunroof does it?