Cold Weather Cabin Warm-Up

[JohnD2]

Hi. Gen 2. Does anyone have any procedures to minimise the time taken to 1. Clear the windscreen? and 2. Achieve a comfortable cabin temperature? (eg 21 c). T I A, J

[kithmo]

I find on any car, the screen clears a bit quicker if you open a couple of windows slightly and the quickest way to warm up the engine and hence heat the cabin is to drive to make the engine work. Just remember if you want more heat then you have to use more fuel. To achieve a steady temperature with climate control you have to make sure all the vents are open and not directed towards you.

[GreenJuice]

Agree with above. Setting the air to recirculate worsens the misting and turning on the air-con dries the air pretty quickly.

[johalareewi]

I find on any car, the screen clears a bit quicker if you open a couple of windows slightly and the quickest way to warm up the engine and hence heat the cabin is to drive to make the engine work.

Unfortunately for me, I can't drive to make the engine work when I can't see out of the window. :(

[kithmo]

I find on any car, the screen clears a bit quicker if you open a couple of windows slightly and the quickest way to warm up the engine and hence heat the cabin is to drive to make the engine work.

Unfortunately for me, I can't drive to make the engine work when I can't see out of the window. :(

You could open the windows a bit more and stick your head out LOL.

I see where your coming from (when the windows clear LOL), I find a quick blast with the demister clears the bottom two thirds of the screen, enough to start driving and then off the demister, leave the climate on screen and feet with AC, the windows open a little and away I go.

What is a PITA is sometimes when you start up the screen is clear and then it starts misting up as you drive away. I find the windows open and climate set as above clears this.

Boy do I miss the Quicklear heated screen from my Mondeo.

[johalareewi]

I reckon Toyota should have night vision/camera which projects up onto the windscreen so you can still see where you are going even when the screen is misted up/dark.

[cuius]

Taking that to it's logical conclusion - drive in reverse using the rear-view camera!?

[korat102]

Boy do I miss the Quicklear heated screen from my Mondeo.

Couldn't agree more. Those frizzly little wires could be a pain at night but the screen cleared in seconds, even when iced up. I've always wondered why more manufacturers don't use them. The Prius isn't bad for this but it still takes a long time compared to that Mondeo I had. Sometimes wonder why I got rid of that car to be honest.

"Greenjuice's" comment is worth bearing in mind. If you're trying to demist, don't have recirculate on. First time I had a car with a recirculation system I didn't even know about it. Was driving around minding my own business one day and it started raining. The whole thing steamed up in about ten seconds flat - couldn't see a thing. You do have the option of using the air conditioning to dry the air these days which alleviates some of the problems of course but it's worth remembering.

[JohnD2]

Thanks Kithmo. Points noted. J

[B&J]

OK - this is getting silly. So, it's -5C this morning, which is chilly. Trying to get the car ready to drive, the windscreen and the rear window were FROZEN - that means they had ice on them. It ended up with the outside of the windscreen clear (deicer and wipers had done the biz) but I still couldn't see anything because the inside was frozen.

Now, I'm getting on a bit and have been driving for nearly fifty years, and I have never had a car where there has been ice inside the glass. I do mean ice - not condensation/mist.

Further to another posting I made, I now run with heating on all the time (SWMBO sees to that!) and the control is always on air throughput, not recirculation.

Any ideas as to what's causing this, please?

Thanks

B&J

[kithmo]

Run with AC on, as well as heat, to get rid of the damp air in the car, turn the AC off a few minutes before your journey's end.

Mine was terrible at misting up when it was new and I did have the odd occasion when there was a very fine layer of frost inside the screen last winter, although it cleared within a minute or so of putting the windscreen demister on. It doesn't seem to mist up as much now it's done 10k miles.

[Chris Dance]

To clear mist etc in the car I have found it is essential to have AC on. All three Toyotas I have owned all were prone to misting up.

[don21]

Has your cabin filter been changed?

If not a clogged filter can cause problems.

[B&J]

Has your cabin filter been changed? If not a clogged filter can cause problems.

Sorry for delay in replying - been away for a few days.

I'm assuming the filter is not clogged as the car is only three months old and done 2500 miles.

Thanks to everyone who's replied - I now run with Auto switched on and the A/C on. Admittedly, it has not been as cold since my posting, but there's been no recurrence of the car freezing inside.

Cheers

B&J

[MLW2233]

For the last 10 years I have put a kettle of teipid and I mean just tepid water on the screen and back window.

Melts all the ice

Puts 3-4 degrees of heat in the glass, so no misting up inside

Avoids chemicals

Gentler than scrapping off

I know some will say 'cracking screen'.....but with tepid, it really doesn't

[B&J]

For the last 10 years I have put a kettle of teipid and I mean just tepid water on the screen and back window.

Agreed. This is what we do, but my complaint was that the windscreen and rear window had ice on the inside

Don't fancy tepid water there!