YuK!

[notorious]

Jesus Christ ...

[Goran]

Ouch! That's not a nice thing to come back to after warm and sunny India.
You got me worried now, I have some black leather seats in storage in a part of the house that doesn't have heating.

I hope it cleans up back to normal.

[daviesbike]

Should have been in a nice heated garage ticket up in a blanky...

On the other hand how was this epic trip ? I've been following some of your progress will you be doing a right up ?...

[Goran]

With all this rain my car has got chronic misting up of windows, even though there is not much standing water to be seen under the hood and carpets are dry.
Could be the air con, when I switch it on it seems to spew out more moisture?

Does anyone have a recommendation for de-humidifiers? Silica gel bag or plug in?
I see Halfords sell the bag type for £10 but it seems they are a real pain to dry once full.
Someone had one in the oven for 8 hours at 80C and it only removed 14% of the water.
Maybe plug-in types are better?

[HPsauce]

I use silica gel bags, just dry them on the central heating boiler.
Weigh before use, after absorbing water, then again as they dry.
1Kg bags absorb about 150gm of water quickly, I then dry them. They probably take a lot more.

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by Goran

With all this rain my car has got chronic misting up of windows, even though there is not much standing water to be seen under the hood and carpets are dry.
Could be the air con, when I switch it on it seems to spew out more moisture?

In my experience that's blocked aircon drains. That usually happens first, then the carpets eventually start getting wet after a while.

I think/assume there's a tray that the aircon condensation collects in before it drains away. If it's not draining away properly it's probably staying in the tray for longer, increasing the humidity when you initially turn the aircon on. It might be draining away slowly or, if your aircon is weak or you're not using it much, it might just be evaporating away before it builds up enough to wet your carpets.

[Goran]

Are aircon drains the two drains that run either side of the gearbox?
The ones with orange connectors in each of the front footwells?

Thanks

[HPsauce]

That's them. Have a container ready to catch the water when you disconnect them, the condensate tray can hold quite a lot (couple of litres maybe)!

But if it was filling up you'd almost certainly be getting the water sloshing and wet feet symptoms as well.
You can also end up with water in the pipes that lead to the rear seat ventilation, that's fun! Try all combinations of air outlet (all closed with just one open at a time) on max fan and see if you get any spray.

My own experience is that blocked scuttle drains are the ones that result in lots of windscreen condensation, even before they overflow to the interior.

[Goran]

Thanks, I'll have a look at them. First though is to poke them from under the car without disconnecting internally, if that releases any blockage & water I can avoid removing the carpets.
No sloshing sounds so far.

[HPsauce]

I didn't think you could get at them from below, and anyway they tend to need removing and washing out properly..
Passenger side is much easier to get at so do that first.