I have a spec d sti impreza which smells fishy inside and steams up when left after a run. The condensation seems slightly oily. The carpets are dry but it does lose a small amount of water. I was thinking on the lines of a hose leaking on to the heat exchanger or at worst the heat exchanger leaking. I was wondering what is involved with checking this out or would I be advised to put it into a garage. I have limited mechanical experience.
Thanks for any advise or help

 

Do you have air con? It's a shot in the dark, but refrigerants are oil based. Not sure about the fishy smell though. I'd run it in to a garage anyway just to get it checked out.

 

Steams up the front, rear or both screens?

 

First off, check that the heating is NOT set to recirculate the air, it MUST be set to allow in fresh air. The fishy smell you mention is stale air.

If the carpets aren't damp, it's not going to be the heater matrix. If they are, taste the damp, if it's sweet-ish, then it IS the heater matrix.

If all else fails, check the boot: spare wheel well, carpets and the "wells" behind the trim on both sides, all areas where damp collects. If it's the boot, and that CAN cause condensation inside the car, let us know and we can go from there: there are about six places water comes in......

 

Thanks for your replies will check them all out tomorrow and keep you posted

 

Had a look this morning. No signs of wet or damp. Carpet under heater dry. Boot and spare wheel well dry. No signs of condensation on under side of bootlid. Had the car running to get it warm inside, made sure recurculation was not switched on (which it was). The car was then shut of and left, after about 10 mins misting up occured, starting from the rear side windows about equal both sides and rear window started. Front windscreen clear. Just been back out and not got any worse in fact one side clearing. Smell seems to have gone as well. So see how it goes and what its like after a longer run.

 

In this cold weather, take the car for a decent run, get the interior VERY hot with blowers aimed at the floor, then open all windows wide for a minute. repeat a few times, this gets rid of lots of warm, moist air, and helps to dry the interior. The colder and DRIER the air coming in is, the better, so a nice dry day with temperature in the low singles.

 

Try the pollen filter if installed

 

Open the windows while beating off

 

Or place a dehumidifier in the car overnight.

Just be careful NOT to tilt it getting it back out...like what I did, and spilled the water in it, so had to start again the NEXT night