Rav 4 Mum from Scottish Borders

[S20SFA]

Hi I bought a Rav 4 & I’m loving it. One thing I can’t fathom is why it takes so long for my window screen to defrost and clear & thought someone might point me in the right direction into fixing it please 🙏🏻 and thank you for accepting me into your club. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Hello Sharon - welcome to Toyota Owners Club.

If the issue also includes condensation inside the car, using air con in conjunction with the heater can hasten demisting, as the air con dehumidifies the air. Also see the link to Toyota Mag in the following topic:

 

[Cyker]

If this is condensation, set blower to windscreen, turn on AC - That alone should clear the windscreen condensation pretty quickly!

It's also worth storing some desiccant in the car - I usually nick packets of them out of the boxes when people buy new equipment for installation at work, but they sell slightly overpriced things like this in Robert Dyas:

https://www.robertdyas.co.uk/unibond-aero-360-moisture-absorber-white-dehumidifier

You can also leave a largish bowl of rice or instant coffee in the car as that will also suck a lot of moisture out of the air in the car overnight (Just don't drive off without taking it out first!!!  )

 

If this is frost on the outside and such, alas there's not a huge amount that can be done as only Fords tend to have directly heated windscreens; The engine takes too long to warm up in such situations for the heater blower to melt it quickly, so realistically you're stuck with scraping/de-icing it off.

[S20SFA]

Thank you for your advice, I think I have discovered my air conditioning needs refilling 🤦🏻‍♀️ !

 I just need to figure out how I can do this without the huge garage bill ! Thank you 🙏🏻 

[Stopeter44]

An A/C refill should cost between £50-£75 (Kwik fit is £50, but appears to be universally despised), I suspect the Toyota dealer will do it for a reasonable price.

[Catlover]

2 hours ago, S20SFA said:

Thank you for your advice, I think I have discovered my air conditioning needs refilling 🤦🏻‍♀️ !

 I just need to figure out how I can do this without the huge garage bill ! Thank you 🙏🏻 

Its winter time,  demand for air con will be higher in the summer...... and possibly higher prices. You  may get a bargain in the winter.

Dont go to a super cheappy, go to a recognised ACon specialist.  There are 2 refrigerentsI believe, but your system probably takes the "older" stuff which is cheaper than the newer.

[Cyker]

2 hours ago, Stopeter44 said:

An A/C refill should cost between £50-£75 (Kwik fit is £50, but appears to be universally despised), I suspect the Toyota dealer will do it for a reasonable price.

My local dealers wanted £190 for a regas... not sure I would call that reasonable!

90% of AC places just use a machine now, so even Kwik Fit would be okay as long as the tech connects the machine correctly and pushes the right buttons. Any idiot could use that machine to regas an AC system. Not many real AC specialists around any more, at least not down here in the south!

 

[Yugguy1970]

It's worth googling if any of the major chains are doing a refill offer.

I've done this a few times at KwikFit and similar places and it's always been fine.  They just connect their machine and as long as your aircon system is in good nick it's job done.