Scirocco Central

I have a 61 plate TDI Bluemotion.

On a couple of occasions recently the windscreen has misted up badly first thing in the morning, completely misted up. I have Climatronic set on max windscreen, AC on and the heat setting right up to clear it.

It takes forever to clear the screen, and even when it is drivable the top part of the windscreen has small droplets on it. This morning it took 15 minutes for the screen to demist.

So:

- Is this amount of misting normal in a Scirocco?
- Is the length of time de-misting normal for a diesel model?
- Have I got the settings right for de-misting?

Before this car I had a petrol civic and that demisted in minutes. This is really starting to annoy me, and its the one negative I have found about my car.

Wrong way.....

Leave your heating controls set to what you normally want.

Set the control call (Windscreen) Defrost to on. This will whack the fans on full onto the windscreen only with Aircon switched on automatically, but importantly it overrides the aircon minimum working temperature, about +3'C outside air temp., not the control settings you see on the centre dash. It lets the system work with air temps down to +1.5'C so you get dry air out of the windscreen vents. When you switch the defrost off, the normal previous settings will return.

Its been particulalry bad this winter as its been damp & wet since October. I'm getting a lot more misting this winter than the previous two.

Also, don't use recirculation setting when its misting up. It soon steams up in this mode in damp cold weather.

C.

You have got the air-recirculation button off, havent you ??

This will slow de misting down if on and the air in the car is damp , like you have got in the car with a wet coat on

Remember Diesels take longer to warm up than petrols

I get the frosty morning mist as well. I've tried all sorts of different settings and not much seems to make a difference. I start the car and go and deal with the windows and within seconds the windscreen is thick with a film of condensation on the inside and it takes 5-10 mins to clear off. It's a pain. I miss the front demister I had on my puma. That cleared it in about 30 seconds

I have this little secret weapon wedged in behind the passenger seat in the rear left passenger footwell, up against the lower seat belt anchor point. Stays put, the 4 ltr ice cream container acts as a over spill (if it happens - not so far) and the aerosol caps stop the unit sliding around inside the container. On the outside container base are velcro hook pads to keep it in a stationary position in bends and sharp turns by grabbing into the carpet.

Not wholly a solution but its keeping down moisture except for the dampess days.

Smaller ones aren't upto the job from experience over the years, needs to be the 15cm diameter size. Lasts about 3 months per fill.
C.

We always have stuff delivered at work with those dessication sachets. Maybe I should fill the doorbins with those

Have got to agree with the OP the Roc is pretty poor at defrost and demist at times. My Volvo, which was also a diesel, cleared the early morning demist very quickly. On the other hand the climate on the Roc is overall far better than the Volvo, so swings and roundabouts.

I have also found that mine is pretty poor at demisting. Hopefully on the facelift they will put the heated front windscreen in! I really miss it from my Focus.

jimma1983 wrote:I have also found that mine is pretty poor at demisting. Hopefully on the facelift they will put the heated front windscreen in! I really miss it from my Focus.

The heated screen is patented by Ford so I doubt the new car will come with one.

In some ways I'm glad to find out it's not just me! Otherwise it's pretty disappointing.

We have the same issue with ours and have been looking for a good solution.

I have the exact same problem with my MK5 GTI,maybe its a Volswagen thing ????

carlpea wrote:

jimma1983 wrote:I have also found that mine is pretty poor at demisting. Hopefully on the facelift they will put the heated front windscreen in! I really miss it from my Focus.

The heated screen is patented by Ford so I doubt the new car will come with one.

Patent is now expired so they are popping up on some other cars. IIRC the VW Phaeton has one.

Me too, and worst when the interior screen freezes.

RW1, you had beat me to it! i was also thnking about those absorbant stuff a couple of month ago, when i was in a homeware store whilst on holiday. Not got it off the ground yet.

I also suffer when i drive after going to the gym, with wet hair and hot body after the shower. Instead of waiting, i just lower the 2 windows and let the air balance out.

skyblues11 wrote:I also suffer when i drive after going to the gym, with wet hair and hot body after the shower. Instead of waiting, i just lower the 2 windows and let the air balance out.

The unit won't solve that sort of situation. For that, use of the windscreen Defrost switch with the windows shut is best. That will quickly pump in air-con dried air (lower humidity) and vent the damp air out through the rear boot air vents. I usually find it clears the inside of the windscreen within a minute. Then go back to your normal Climatronic conditioning settings.

The drying agent (Calcium Chloride) containers are about drying out the air inside the passenger cabin air over a longer period like overnight. So the humid air does not condense on the windows. Also the interior carpets & windows when the Scirocco is not in use (ie. overnight or daytime parked) are dried out to a lower moisture level. The units will help to keep down daily moisture ingress as the interior starts from a much drier condition. Evapouration off shoes, clothes & damp hair will still just go straight onto the glass when the Scirocco is in use, hence the use of the Defrost button to accelerate the drying out process.

Started originally using them for keeping the interiors of my winter stored cars dry. Realised how effective the units were during the first winter usage of 1997/98. I noticed how dry the air was when I opened up the cars to exercise the engine & hydraulics brakes/clutch each month. It was extremely dry inside the passenger cabin. So, having suffered the interior dampness effect with all my Scirocco Mk2's since 1983, fitted one in the daily driver during 1997/1998 winter to combat the mositure on the interior glass. It worked and every winter until I got the Mk3, they were used with success.
I additionally suffer from a lot of damp air off a large school playing field (6 acres) next door which means damp air is regularly blown into the car's front interior air intake vent and onto the inside of the windscreen. With the Scirocco being parked outside and not being driven generally 4 days every week, so not given an airing, the moisture soon builds up, particularly this winter. Hence I returned to fitting a unit about 3 months ago.

I've now realised yesterday that the passenger cabin of the Scirocco Mk3 is a much larger volume of air, so this morning, a second unit has been pressed into service. (They became redundant in the stored cars when I fitted the garage with a dehumidifier unit some time back.)

Haven't seen the 15cm larger containers over recent years until I was in the Manchester branch of Wilkinson yesterday. They are in store but not on the mail order website. B&Q sell the drying agent tubs of Kilrock Calcium Chloride but have not seen the large drier units in there since electric de-humidifiers became more popular.

C.

Anyone tried the simple solution of applying anti mist (spray or wipe on) to the inside screen prior to this ?

This helps a great deal,
only problem i get is the way the inside of the windscreen gets filthy, being able to draw pictures in the foggy layer that develops fairly quickly.

take a look at this post from last year !! it works on mine

http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... f=2&t=7295" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

too hot wrote:I have the exact same problem with my MK5 GTI,maybe its a Volswagen thing ????

Agreed. I used to own a mk5 Golf GTi and that was less than brilliant at de-misting. Nowhere near as bad as my Scirocco though.

When you consider the poor de-misting and the issues with the windows not dropping/closing it makes you wonder if VW completely skipped cold weather testing when developing the Scirocco. A real shame that an otherwise great car becomes infuriating in winter because of issues other manufacturers seems to be on top of.

Would it stop me buying another? No

I think my car is brilliant at demisting but previous cars were Scimitars which were notoriously bad. However my car is much better than the wifes Corsa