21 plate C-HR condensation / freezes / frost inside cabin

[FROSTYBALLS]

1 hour ago, Woofwoof said:

happens on brand new cars due to the new plastics giving off nano particles which adhere to the windscreen

Process called 'outgassing' which doesn't just affect new cars. Caused by the plastics in cars giving off plastic molecules. Can also be exacerbated when cars are in direct sunlight, causing the internal plastics in the car (dashboard, etc) to heat up and give off the molecules.

[Woofwoof]

4 hours ago, Chrispy chicken said:

Thanks Woofwoof, car is going into Toyota today to look for obvious problems i.e. door seals, wet under carpets etc.

Soon as I get it back (if they don't find anything) I'm going to try all the tips and tricks posted. 

I think your right about the cleaning of the inside of the screen, Interesting fact you make about the nano particles, I can tell by the fact I can still see the outlines of where manufacturing stickers are stuck on the inside on the glass, kinda tells me this car wasn't properly valeted in the first place. This would make sense that the condensation would stick easier.

Thank you. and thanks to everyone for your comments. 

I have had a good mix of comments now which makes me believe there is a solution to this, and that it could be something as simple as you and others say with the screen not being cleaned properly 🤞

 

Very few valets clean the inside of the windscreen unless it’s full of fingerprints

especially further forward where it’s hard to reach

[Chrispy chicken]

Cheers Woofwoof, and Frostyballs, (the names on here are great by the way 😂)

got the car back from Toyota dealership now, no surprises, couldn't find anything wrong with it.

A "make do" attitude. Not very impressed. "all of ours on the forecourt do it too" "we use towels to mop it up", "its normal" and "all cars do it"

Well this is the first car I've had that has done it.

I shall thoroughly clean inside of the screen and windows later and see how it is on next frost. Will let you know how we get on.....to be continued

[AndyRC]

1 hour ago, Chrispy chicken said:

Cheers Woofwoof, and Frostyballs, (the names on here are great by the way 😂)

got the car back from Toyota dealership now, no surprises, couldn't find anything wrong with it.

A "make do" attitude. Not very impressed. "all of ours on the forecourt do it too" "we use towels to mop it up", "its normal" and "all cars do it"

Well this is the first car I've had that has done it.

I shall thoroughly clean inside of the screen and windows later and see how it is on next frost. Will let you know how we get on.....to be continued

Our CHR does it and like yourself it’s the first car I’ve owned that does it. End of the day it’s not a massive issue , just wish Toyota offered a heated windscreen which on VWs used to be quite a cheap option or standard fitment and work great. 

[gavin77]

Hi all 

I also had this problem on a brand new 2018 model. 
also noticed how the windscreen would always be full off condensation on damp aul days.
Cleaned the windscreen really good scrubbed it in fact.
no damp clothes no damp dogs car was always kept spotless. 
same thing left it in to Toyota Ireland. 
said their was noting wrong and they couldn’t find anything wrong we it. 
have videos off me with an ice scraper inside the car scraping ice from the windscreen it’s no joke doing that at 6 in the morning. 
couldn't be putting up with that carry on.
I had also thought about buying a karcher hand held vac just for the condensation alone. 
drove vans for years that would be freezing on the inside and never had to scrape ice form the inside windscreen. 
put up with it for nearly 3 and  finally got rid off it. 
after driving Toyotas for over 20 years that one was the their I say it a Friday car. 

  

[Chrispy chicken]

Thanks Gavin, sounds like you had exactly the same problem. 
It’s sounds so stupid and I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t care but when it’s every damp day wiping it down and then a major ball ache on frosty mornings it’s just a nightmare. Especially when you’ve paying £30k for it. 
what I can’t get my head round and the argument that I shall be taking up with Toyota GB is that if this car was sent  to Scandinavia, in the colder climate it simply wouldn’t be fit to use. 
 

[TonyHSD]

8 minutes ago, Chrispy chicken said:

Thanks Gavin, sounds like you had exactly the same problem. 
It’s sounds so stupid and I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t care but when it’s every damp day wiping it down and then a major ball ache on frosty mornings it’s just a nightmare. Especially when you’ve paying £30k for it. 
what I can’t get my head round and the argument that I shall be taking up with Toyota GB is that if this car was sent  to Scandinavia, in the colder climate it simply wouldn’t be fit to use. 
 

Hi, have you done any changes to the settings of the heating system, air flow ets, temperature, fan speed, with or without ac? Anything changes or stays the same? 

[Chrispy chicken]

Hi Tony. So far I’ve taken it off recirculate and put a dehumidifier bag inside. To be honest I’m hoping it might of made a difference, the weather been quite mild here so haven’t really been able to test yet. Time will tell I guess. 

[gavin77]

Total agree with u sir it’s not what I would associate Toyota with in this day and age price over here in Ireland at time off purchase was €33500. 
One thing I will say is check around the door seals especially around the back doors I found mine where very poorly attached to the body. 
long term plan was the for  wife to take the CHR after 3 years off my driving. 
but we where not going to be carrying around ice scrapers for inside windscreen and towels and a wet vac. 
still have numerous videos off me scraping the ice from inside. 
actually felt hard done by with the car also back boot struts where not up to the job off holding the boot up that was another trip to Toyota and noting got done about them either.
I was told the the struts in the 2019 model had been upgraded how true I don’t know.  

[TonyHSD]

Interesting, usually there is always a reason why moisture and ice can form on the inside of the windscreen, there is some source of water inside the car rather is from wet cloths, carpets , coming through the vents or anywhere else like faulty windows seals, could be even rear ones or doors. Air is keeps circulating inside the car as natural occurrence similar to inside the house, and even if boot is wet or rear foot wells the moisture will go up to the screen. In your particular cases can be either some fault with the cars like not properly installed seals, or a source of water that you can actually find easily. Having ice on windshield happens to probably everyone at least one e in a while, happened to me too, last time a year ago and it was so cool that I even took pictures of it. Why was formed I am not sure, but thinking about I believe the earlier that day I kept the car in ready mode for an hour with heating set at 22c° and I was in and out of the car few times., perhaps I let some moisture locked in while was keeping the doors open after car was running with heating on and warmed up windscreen + open doors on freezing cold equals immediate condensation and then ice. My point is thoroughly check the car interior every inch for water ingress, moisture, spills and windows and doors seals if been tight all around including boot area and spare wheel well. 

[gavin77]

One off the pictures from scraping ice. 
forgot how bad it actually was. 

[Chrispy chicken]

Thanks guys. I’ll have a good check of rear door sills and boot. I had Toyota check for water under carpets etc. nothing found. Not convinced it was thoroughly checked though. 
One thing that make me wonder is when you put heater on straight away the windows immediately steam up, could this be moisture blowing up from heater box (matrix). Could water of somehow got let in through air intake vent and sitting now in housing? I don’t know 🤷🏻  
But then I think there’s to many vehicles out there that have same fault to be something as unusual as that. 
I’m pinning my hopes on an idea mentioned before, the recirculation button being “off” and flap being open when left overnight, letting the air to flow in and out of the vehicle. My hope that it balances temp from inside and out. I know I had set to “on” before. We’ll see. 

[TonyHSD]

38 minutes ago, Chrispy chicken said:

Thanks guys. I’ll have a good check of rear door sills and boot. I had Toyota check for water under carpets etc. nothing found. Not convinced it was thoroughly checked though. 
One thing that make me wonder is when you put heater on straight away the windows immediately steam up, could this be moisture blowing up from heater box (matrix). Could water of somehow got let in through air intake vent and sitting now in housing? I don’t know 🤷🏻  
But then I think there’s to many vehicles out there that have same fault to be something as unusual as that. 
I’m pinning my hopes on an idea mentioned before, the recirculation button being “off” and flap being open when left overnight, letting the air to flow in and out of the vehicle. My hope that it balances temp from inside and out. I know I had set to “on” before. We’ll see. 

Yes, perhaps the moisture comes from the vents and more specifically from the heater core ac core condensation, there is usually a drain pipe which goes under the passenger footwell top side and out of the car near the left suspension arm. This can be easily checked on hot summer days when using the ac the car should discharge water from there, if this is blocked or disconnected can cause all the moisture to go up the screen., this is also the reason why I don’t like and don’t recommend using an air con during winter when air flow is diverted towards windscreen, every time we turn on air con and heating together to defrost the windscreen and dry the car (condition the air) we actually make the perfect environment for a lots of condensation because the heater core is hot and the ac core is ice cold, since the ac will not work continuously in winter the ac core will accumulate a lots of water which will be blown straight to the windscreen and when you switch off your car and walk away there are two metal parts one cold and one hot that are located close to each other and all the condensation goes straight to your windshield and freezes up when cold enough. If you would like to experiment here are my tips: 

1. set heating to manual and temperature 21- 22C°

2. Air flow from outside and towards windscreen and feet 

3. Speed fan set at 2 

4. AC off 

This settings should be permanent and no changes should be made while ussuing the car. Allow more time in the morning for the heater to defrost and clean your windows, if more people inside and you need to extra clean the windows just increase the fan speeds as required and then revert back to speed 2. You can try this way and see if helps at all. 
Good luck 

[Red_Corolla]

My Corolla tends to mist up too and I also thought the screen hadn't been cleaned due to the suction cup marks, but it turns out they don't wipe away so easily! I've given mine a good clean with proper glass cleaner and the marks are still there when it mists up. The misting is gradually getting better as all the nasty chemicals that we love to inhale ( aka 'new car' smell) slowly depart.

I don't think Toyota design is entirely to blame, I've come across interior freezing before years ago before the days of climate control. Usage pattern is a big factor in it and I agree with Tony about trying not to depend on the A/C too much, especially on short journeys. Best to only use it for initial demisting and turn it off 10 minutes before the end of the journey so that you don't get condensate forming in the ducting or, even worse, the dreaded 'mouldy fridge' smell  that sets in when bacteria starts to grow (this used to be a common issue on manual A/C cars when doing short journeys a lot). You have to kind of wean yourself off the A/C when the car is humid because, the first time you turn it off, the windows will immediately begin to mist again lol. A decent journey with at least an hour spent driving at speed goes a long way to purging out the moisture.

Toyota are definitely behind the curve compared to the Germans in this regard. On my last two cars (a Skoda and a BMW), I hardly ever had to manage the demisting myself - the system took care of it autonomously.

[Cyker]

I'm used to just leaving the AC on. I must admit Ford do have the advantage tho', with their wire-heated windscreens!

 

[Woofwoof]

1 hour ago, Red_Corolla said:

My Corolla tends to mist up too and I also thought the screen hadn't been cleaned due to the suction cup marks, but it turns out they don't wipe away so easily! I've given mine a good clean with proper glass cleaner and the marks are still there when it mists up. The misting is gradually getting better as all the nasty chemicals that we love to inhale ( aka 'new car' smell) slowly depart.

I don't think Toyota design is entirely to blame, I've come across interior freezing before years ago before the days of climate control. Usage pattern is a big factor in it and I agree with Tony about trying not to depend on the A/C too much, especially on short journeys. Best to only use it for initial demisting and turn it off 10 minutes before the end of the journey so that you don't get condensate forming in the ducting or, even worse, the dreaded 'mouldy fridge' smell  that sets in when bacteria starts to grow (this used to be a common issue on manual A/C cars when doing short journeys a lot). You have to kind of wean yourself off the A/C when the car is humid because, the first time you turn it off, the windows will immediately begin to mist again lol. A decent journey with at least an hour spent driving at speed goes a long way to purging out the moisture.

Toyota are definitely behind the curve compared to the Germans in this regard. On my last two cars (a Skoda and a BMW), I hardly ever had to manage the demisting myself - the system took care of it autonomously.

Does the auto mode not resolve delisting by itself

had an electric Hyundai which would most up in the summer even and I always had to mess with the settings

[Chrispy chicken]

18 minutes ago, Woofwoof said:

Does the auto mode not resolve delisting by itself

had an electric Hyundai which would most up in the summer even and I always had to mess with the settings

Thanks again all. We’ll give Tonys method a go. Try using the AC less, speed 2, recirc off.  
 

It certainly makes sense about being the ideal scenario to create moisture, to have both on at the same time all the time, hot and cold, sounds obvious now you say it Tony.   👍🏻

[Red_Corolla]

13 hours ago, Woofwoof said:

Does the auto mode not resolve delisting by itself

had an electric Hyundai which would most up in the summer even and I always had to mess with the settings

I'm not sure if it has auto demisting or not, TBH. If it does, it doesn't work very well, because I frequently have to push the manual demist (the rest of the time, it's always in Auto). I've found auto demisting to be very effective with German cars, but this one isn't quite as clever.

Another thing I've found is that ECO mode is the enemy of effective demisting. It's OK for very short journeys when the windows happen to be clear and you don't want to waste too much energy on heating (I sometimes use the OFF button in this scenario), or after the first 20 minutes into a longer journey when the cabin has had a chance to warm up. Otherwise, it's best to set off with the climate system in normal or FAST mode.

[Stopeter44]

18 minutes ago, Red_Corolla said:

Another thing I've found is that ECO mode is the enemy of effective demisting. It's OK for very short journeys when the windows happen to be clear and you don't want to waste too much energy on heating (I sometimes use the OFF button in this scenario), or after the first 20 minutes into a longer journey when the cabin has had a chance to warm up. Otherwise, it's best to set off with the climate system in normal or FAST mode.

I have been running the car in Normal, and the A/C in ECO, but thinking about using the ECO mode and leaving the A/C on normal. we're lucky around where I am it's very dry most of the time. What are your usual settings ?

[Red_Corolla]

15 minutes ago, Stopeter44 said:

I have been running the car in Normal, and the A/C in ECO, but thinking about using the ECO mode and leaving the A/C on normal. we're lucky around where I am it's very dry most of the time. What are your usual settings ?

Drive mode depends on the day and the situation. I'm running the HVAC in normal initially and then switching to ECO after the cabin has reached a comfortable temperature. I find that avoiding ECO at the beginning helps the cabin warm up a lot faster, but ECO is fine for maintaining. FAST mode doesn't seem to make a great deal of difference.

OFF mode can sometimes be used to persuade the car NOT to start the engine if you're just moving it on the driveway. It fires up straight away if you let it believe that you want heating.

[Roger_N]

On 1/11/2022 at 7:15 PM, TonyHSD said:

Interesting, usually there is always a reason why moisture and ice can form on the inside of the windscreen, there is some source of water inside the car rather is from wet cloths, carpets , coming through the vents or anywhere else like faulty windows seals, could be even rear ones or doors. Air is keeps circulating inside the car as natural occurrence similar to inside the house, and even if boot is wet or rear foot wells the moisture will go up to the screen. In your particular cases can be either some fault with the cars like not properly installed seals, or a source of water that you can actually find easily. Having ice on windshield happens to probably everyone at least one e in a while, happened to me too, last time a year ago and it was so cool that I even took pictures of it. Why was formed I am not sure, but thinking about I believe the earlier that day I kept the car in ready mode for an hour with heating set at 22c° and I was in and out of the car few times., perhaps I let some moisture locked in while was keeping the doors open after car was running with heating on and warmed up windscreen + open doors on freezing cold equals immediate condensation and then ice. My point is thoroughly check the car interior every inch for water ingress, moisture, spills and windows and doors seals if been tight all around including boot area and spare wheel well. 

 

On 1/11/2022 at 7:20 PM, gavin77 said:

One off the pictures from scraping ice. 
forgot how bad it actually was. 

Have these pictures been sent to Toyota customer service? I would be kicking off big time if that situation greeted me every freezing cold morning.

 

[TonyHSD]

3 hours ago, Roger_N said:

Have these pictures been sent to Toyota customer service? I would be kicking off big time if that situation greeted me every freezing cold morning.

My one not, I only showed my picture art of ice 🤣 to show that this could happen to any car. Usually my one is dry and this happens only once in a while, I believe that it is very important how we set the heating system and how we use our cars and where, in normal circumstances this should not happen unless there is water ingress from somewhere like faulty doors/windows seals, drain pipes or gutter under the Wiper Blades, but we are talking about new cars here except mine obviously and the new cars should not have issues. We had two exact make and models made two years apart and we discovered after been parked together one was bone dry the other was same frosted window and smell of damp, upon investigation we had found the boot was flooded with litres of water going through the rear lights clusters, after fixing that never had my moisture/ice issue anymore. 

[spanishfudge]

On 1/6/2022 at 5:28 PM, Bernard Foy said:

Not sure if you can do much about it other than wait until the car heats up. I think there might be a warm air blower that you can buy to sit on top of the dash powered from the 12volt cigarette lighter, which may speed things up a bit. But others may chime in with other solutions.

 

On 1/6/2022 at 5:28 PM, Bernard Foy said:

Not sure if you can do much about it other than wait until the car heats up. I think there might be a warm air blower that you can buy to sit on top of the dash powered from the 12volt cigarette lighter, which may speed things up a bit. But others may chime in with other solutions.

move to spain not much frost here 

[Chrispy chicken]

Hi Roger, 

Car went into the dealership Monday and no surprises, couldn't find anything wrong with it. 

woke up Tuesday, frosty night, ice inside again!! 

I phoned Toyota GB who are going to investigate further.

however...

I was planning to get some pictures of my car this morning, but after carrying out the recommendations of everyone on this site, last night with a frost I awoke to a car without ice on the inside for the first time 😊😊😊.

whether it this will carry on we'll see.... I'll leave Toyota GB to investigate anyway and I'll update if they come back with anything different or more conclusive as to why some suffer more than others. 

So far we have stopped using AC apart from clearing the initial misty windscreen, set "recirc" to OFF, put a dehumidifier bag inside and cleaned the glass. I also opened my windows for last 500 yards of journey to expel the warmer air. Its seems to of done the trick. Whether it will at even lower temperatures time will tell.

  Will let you know........

[Chrispy chicken]

1 hour ago, spanishfudge said:

move to spain not much frost here 

Sounds lovely 🍻 😂