Air-con demisting issues

[JPW]

I'm currently having issues with my aircon and demisting the car on cold mornings.
All of my previous cars demist the screens within 20-30s of turning on the air-con due to the air being dry from the air-con system.
The Golf seems useless and I can drive off and the window steams up more than when I started!
I had the system "serviced" and recharged when the car was last serviced, but this has made no difference.  It seems to work reasonably effective in the heat, but seems next to useless for demisting?  Any advice is much appreciated.

[lukemk5gti]

The demisting isn't great in the GTI but the fact that it's so bad in the first place means you should prevent it misting instead of curing it afterwards.

Check all of your carpet for any sign of water ingress, stick a hairdyer in the car for a while making sure it's not in direct contact with anything and dry it out.

Throw a few packs of silica gel around the place (you can buy these cheap on eBay).

When you're sure the car is completely dry give the windows a good clean internally.

Now apply a teaspoon of washing up liquid to each internal window with a microfiber cloth. Leave to site for 5 mins and buff off with another clean dry microfiber cloth.

This will cover the screens in a hydrophobic coating, if your car is fully dried out it'll be very difficult for any condensation to build up on the windows from now on!

[GTI5]

Cleaning the inside and outside of the windscreen should help, I've used Autoglym car glass polish on the outside and clean the inside with a damp cloth and a small amount of washing up liquid.

My experience of Silica bags is they don't work for this problem.

[JPW]

So is the general consensus that the air-con and demisting is that bad?
I don't know many cars that have the same problem, the Ford Focus even turns the aircon on when you select demist to take advantage of the dry air.

Will try some of the tips, thanks but it does seem a phaff!

[Matthewsimone]

We have 2 mk5 golfs and both windscreens demist rapidly when aircon is switched on so sounds like something is a miss here mate!

Also on most cars you will find if the temp is below 3c the aircon pump wont even come on as its a frost protection function for the ac system

[skard]

Check your pump works. The pulley on it has a shear plate so even though it is rotating, it doesn't mean the pump is operational, like on many cars.

[dansmith180]

As long as mine is warm then it demists pretty quickly, I have put some of the big demist packs from amazon in there as well to help prevent the misting in the first place.

Mine only mists up if there's multiple people in the car and I've left hot air from the heater in there, other than that its spot on now.

[Gene Hunt]

Check the other thread about this. Kent Cars, micro fibre  windscreen pad. £1.00 from B & Q. Quick wipe over job done. They all take an age to clear,changing pollen filter & keeping the screen clean helps but it's to do with the angle/rake of the screen & how it holds the warm air as it cools in the car creating condensation. Loads of VW models do it.

[JPW]

Thanks for the tips guys.  Dehumidifying dessicant in car and will pick up a new pollen filter tomorrow....watch this space