Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello, old Tom here, I got myself a 1969 Morris Minor 1000 July 2007, I've also got a 1957 Ford 100E Squire (my pride and joy). I've always been a fan of the Morris as my first car as a 22 year old in 1958-9 was a 1937-8 Morris 10 4 what a lovely old car that was, I used it to travell from Finsbury park in North London to Acton in West London daily to work in British light steel pressings making parts for Rootes group, Hillman Husky etc.
Well that's that over with, now can anyone tell me if they have had a condensation problem like I have with my Morris Minor ? during the winter when parked out over night the condesation builds up inside, even behind the roof lining, as I noticed a couple of small (size of 50p) stains over the centre of back seat and they were wet, I removed a bit of the roof lining above the drivers door and put my hand inside and felt quite a lot of moisture over the roof, and I'm baffled, any one any ideas please.... contact Tom...... dortom@supanet.com

Hi Tom and welcome, the condensation in a Moggie is partially caused by the design not being airtight and that along with the bare metal finish is a magnet for condensation, you could try dessicant packs to soak some of it up and also to try and make it as airtight as possible, things to check, all the door seals, gearlever gaiter, bulkhead grommets and so on, I would also disconnect the fresh air pipe that runs from the front of the car to the heater as its around 4" and will allow a large amount of air in, just undo the jubilee clip at the heater end pull the pipe off and plug the pipe with a piece of cloth or an old scarf and leave it like that until the spring.
Are you still in the same area (you havent filled in your whereabouts) as thats not far from me if you want someone to have a look.

Condensation is a massive problem on the modern car, i mean really bad. Hard frost and you get as much on teh inside as the out.
Its caused by a certain someone who uses it daily never taking wet stuff out, always getting in soaking wet, dogs too etc. REALLY Bugs me
Every now and then and it needs doing now i have a portable dehumidifier that i put in there for a few days and nights.
If you can borrow one it's help you out for a couple of months, youd be surprised how much moisture can be retained in the carpets and stuffing & fabric in the seat.
Those packs & moisture traps you can get do work, but if you leave a dehumifier running for a couple of days you'll get pints so they can never keep up (and they are dear)
Its also quite bad in the mog due to wet dogs, but the simple solution for me there is take a clean dry tea towel with me everyday on th etrip to the post office

Only hope really is to dry it out - all doors and boot open on a lovely dry day, - so not much hope of that for a while. Also - have alook at and under the carpets - are they wet ? If so - it will never dry out inside. Best bet of course is to store in in a good dry garage!

Hmm, wouldn't agree with blocking off the fresh air vent as I've tried that this winter in a vain attempt to make the heater a bit warmer. I found that recirculating the air caused lots more condensation. What you need is a good flow of dry(er) air through the car - can be difficult in the winter weather.

Do you drive the car regularly? Mine has a couple of water leaks so the carpets can get damp after heavy rain - if I'm driving it every day (as I usually do) it dries out in a couple of days, if not then it stays damp and gets a bit musty (and probably rusty too!). Leaving all the doors and windows open on a dry day certainly helps, particularly if there's a good breeze. Not tried a dehumidifier but shutting the vacuum cleaner in there for an hour helped, and drying the inside of the windows with a dry towel every day is a good tip too.

Stick a box of cat litter under each front seat, and seal as many leaks as possible. Condensation happens even in air tight modern cars. My VW Polo can have ice on the inside of the windscreen some mornings!

Years ago I made up some small heaters which I run in our outside cars overnight, only uses a small fan (3in) and this blows air through a self regulating heater cable and uses about 100/150 watts.
I find this keeps the interior nice and dry, with the added bonus of no misted up or frosted windows in the mornings.

As above - yes you really must keep the fresh air vent on the heater open to have any chance of clearing condensation out of the car, although it will never deal with wet carpets. And see another thread recently where the intake hose is moved in behind the rad so it picks up pre-warmed air. This works! Also when it's not actually raining - try to have the climate control system (quarter lights) open when driving!

I found that recirculating the air caused lots more condensation.

Mine has a couple of water leaks so the carpets can get damp after heavy rain

I have found the only cure with damp wet carpets is to completely remove them to dry them especially if there is underfelt as this acts like a sponge and the only cure is to stop the leaks, the biggest culprits are the widow rubbers.

I'm told that Halfords sell "dry bags" for de-humidifying caravans etc. Not seen them but I guess they're big bags of silica gel or similar. Here they are:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... ryId_38196

Not a recommendation as such as I've never used them but might be worth a try.

Sealing the car up is completely the wrong thing to do to get rid of condensation. Any water in the air inside the car then has nowhere to go, except condense out on cold surfaces like the single skin roof and glass.

You need to ensure there is always some ventilation going on. Leave the fresh air hose where it is, open the heater control so it is set to "car" or "screen", and even crack open the windows 1/4" if the thieves around where you live will let you get away with it.

Condensation happens when moist air is cooled and can't hold as much water vapour as when it is warmer. The cold surfaces cool the moist air inside the car, and the water vapour condenses out. On a cold night, the ouside air will have less moisture in it than the warmer air inside the car.

If you leave ventilation available, you will be changing the warm damp air inside the car with cold dry air outside and the condensation will follow the air to happen outside the car.

You've also got to remove the source of the moisture, as has already been suggested. Check for damp carpets or underfelt as a result of water leaks. If they are wet or damp, try to find the source of the leak and fix it.

Then you can use the various de-humidifying methods suggested to dry out what's left.

Wet carpets etc as they dry out through the normal drying process put this evaporated moisture into the air (in the car) this moist air will condense on any cold surface, usually windows and/or external panels)
The car interior must be free from water leaks and dry to minimise this effect.
Good fresh air ventilation will assist this and help remove moisture brought in from wet clothing, shoes etc

Air circulation must be the key.
I had my Moggy covered up with water-proof tarp for most part of 3 months - carpets were absolutely soaked when I go it in it, condensation runinng down the inside of the windscreen and dash.
So I removed the wet carpets and dried them out of the car, dried up floor pans best I could. Now I keep it uncovered overnight and drive with windows slightly down and heater on full.
No more condensation or pools of water on the floor - even with the weather we had last week and me getting into the car soaking wet!