Drying car out

BeenThroughItAll

Rather than worrying about how to dry it out, I'd be more worried about why it's so damp in there in the first place... all that water's coming from somewhere.


On another note, I've been noticing a lot of very modern cars over the last few days driving around all steamed up.


Why don't these people use their A/C? I'm talking about cars that I know have it fitted, so why don't people ever turn it on!* I find that so exasperating; some of these people are driving around looking through cloud cover and thereby putting me and others at risk due to reduced visibility. If I ever design a car there won't even be an 'off' button for the A/C.


*I know that loads of people will now say 'Saves fuel/bunnies/newts/the environment', 'too expensive to fix when it goes wrong', 'needs regassing all the time' etc... but if people would just leave the bloody thing turned on all the time, half the broken systems wouldn't be damn well broken in the first place.

titannia101

We filled an old sock with silica cat litter put it on the back parcel shelf. It's worked brilliantly having had damp problems for at least 5 years! Silica sock currently drying out on radiator and will be going back into car in 24 hours.

BeenThroughItAll

titannia101 wrote: »

We filled an old sock with silica cat litter put it on the back parcel shelf. It's worked brilliantly having had damp problems for at least 5 years! Silica sock currently drying out on radiator and will be going back into car in 24 hours.

Just a small concern maybe, due to volume of air difference, but essentially you're just moving a potential condensation problem.

Marktheshark

GwylimT wrote: »

Unfortunately there is nothing wrong with it, it's just rubbish so it won't make a difference unfortunately. When I altered the system a while ago I did find a small plastic dinosaur in one of the blowers, that was a surprise!

Sounds like its opening too early, the car should warm up in the first mile enough to get the heater going, they do get weak and premature opening is far more common than sticking shut.
Failing that an old hack is to fit a renault 11 thermostat in the top hose as they fit in the hose and clamp in the hose with a jubilee clip.
It gets warm then.

windup

park it pointing east

dacouch

wba31 wrote: »

i think i may have had re-circulate on, was never sure whether it was best to be on or off, makes sense now. ill make sure it's off when i go out in a bit...

I found this out the same way you have by having a damp car and using the heater on recirculate.

Use the other heater setting which brings in fresh (Hopefully dry air) and have your windows open a bit.

This will make a huge difference if used in conjunction with some of the other methods the other posters are suggesting.

facade

[QUOTE=BeenThroughItAll;67339826
Why don't these people use their A/C? I'm talking about cars that I know have it fitted, so why don't people ever turn it on!* I find that so exasperating; some of these people are driving around looking through cloud cover and thereby putting me and others at risk due to reduced visibility. If I ever design a car there won't even be an 'off' button for the A/C.

[/QUOTE]

I run my A/C all the time.

However, due to some design restriction that I can't explain, the compressor will not run when the outside temperature is below freezing.

This means that on a cold morning I can either watch the windows steam up on "recirculate", or choke on the diesel fumes from the car in front on
"outside air"

In the normal course of things, the A/C dries the air as it recirculates.


Condensation is not helped by driver & passenger breathing out all the time, as well as getting into the car with wet feet/damp coats.

Probably this new fangled idea of sticking in the windscreen with a few blobs of glue so they leak like a sieve once the bodyshell flexes over a few bumps adds to the problem too.

I just use bags of silica gel to treat the symptoms and take no notice.

Joe_Horner

titannia101 wrote: »

We filled an old sock with silica cat litter put it on the back parcel shelf. It's worked brilliantly having had damp problems for at least 5 years! Silica sock currently drying out on radiator and will be going back into car in 24 hours.

This. Also have a couple of open trays of it in my workshop to make absolutely sure the air stays dry in winter.

Far cheaper than the ready made moisture traps (about £1.50 for a kg bag last time I bought some) but you do have to check the bag when buying to make sure it's the silica gel stuff (clear / white crystals) - fuller's earth and similar (brown and "earthy" texture) doesn't work!

Norman_Castle

I use a squeegy on the windscreen. It soaks the dashboard but allows me to drive off sooner.

heartbreak_star

I've not had too much of an issue since I took recirculate off, but I've bought one of the little car-specific damp traps from Homebase. Sits in the middle cup holder and does help - and the crystals turn to gel so it won't leak.

HBS x