Hi everyone, I'm a newbie, so go easy on me. I'm having a lot of problems with outside condensation, especially on the driver and passenger side windows, with the outside humidity here in Louisiana being quite high. (It gets to the point of making driving unsafe, because I can't see except through where the wipers clear it on the front windshield.) I don't understand why rolling the windows down apparently doesn't wipe it off, every car I've ever had before this did that. Has anyone found any good solution to this? Rain-X or replacement gaskets for the windows? And yes, I searched the forum first, all I found was references to having to physically wipe down the windows each time, which gets old really fast!
Wow, that must some serious humidity. AI would think Rain-X would do good in that situation. It may adhere but as soon as the air flowed over the windows, it should clear quickly.
Warm the car windows up. Condensation occurs when some solid is colder than the dew point of the surrounding air.
I have the same problem with the passenger windows on the beach here in Texas. I leave a rag in the car so I can wipe the windows when needed. I'm also getting moisture on the inside of the glass of the navigation system on humid days. iPad ?
Move to Oregon? You'll wake up with it raining 90% of the time. You'll look back on the condensation days like they were days in a desert. Actually, I use Rain-X living in Oregon...a lot. I can attest to it's Rain Repellent qualities but I don't how it would do with condensation. I would guess it would still form, but perhaps pool and roll off in greater quantity?My concern would be you still might have a lot of condensation, just strips of clear where it has rolled off. But try it and let us know. I kinda think a daily wipe with the rag might be annoying, but perhaps the simplest and easiest solution. At least it should be keeping your windows pretty clean.
It's driving, not parking, that's a problem. How to heat up the car windows with the AC on? I know on some vehicles, having the AC on with the heat also turned on, solves this problem, but I'm not sure if it's because of the heat, or because of a humidity differential which is solved by allowing the outside air (very humid) to equalize with the inside air (not). Oh, and that mostly solves problems with INSIDE, not outside, condensation.
Probably because of the rain-repellent windows found on the Four and Five. They don't want to wear down the baked-on coating prematurely and they're apparently using the same design for all the trims.
Make sure that when you use A/C, that you keep the vents pointed away from the side windows... probably best if you cut off the upper vents and only use the lower vents. The only other thing to do in very high humidity conditions like those would be to not cool the inside of the car too much. Keep it comfortable, no need to perspire, since A/C dries (lowers the humidity) the air inside your car and maintain a mid to high fan position to keep the air around you stirred. Just remember that the colder you make the inside of your cabin, the more condensation you will cause outside. Give these things a try and let us know if it works! We get the same basic effect here in Winter under certain meteorological situations. When you drive in cold valley air (cold air is heavier than warm air so the coldest air settles to the bottom of the valley) and then go up a hill quickly, you can get into a warmer layer of air, that if conditions are right, can cause the entire car to become instantly covered in fog that turns to ice. Pretty hazardous if you're headed into a sunrise. Windshield wipers will just skim over the ice and make it worse if the temperature of the car is cold enough. Very scary.
Yes, keep the car's surface as warm as possible. Turn up the A/C a few degrees, make sure it's on face (or better, foot, though that's worse for keeping you cool) and not defrost. You can use the rear defroster, too, that'll help that window. You can indeed turn on the heat and the A/C; the car has a humidity sensor, and will run the A/C to keep it dry, and the heat to keep the air at the set temperature. Of course, if it's hot out, this probably isn't comfortable. Do you park in an air conditioned space? Or perhaps a garage that holds cold air well? The underground floors of a parking garage (or a garage under a building, etc.) often trap cool air overnight which stays cool during the day. This will make the outside skin of your car cool, and cause air to condense on it when you drive into the warm, humid air. To avoid it, park somewhere else, or move your car into a warm, possibly sunny spot an hour or so before you need to go somewhere. Water will condense on the car when you do this, but it will have time to evaporate as the car warms up, and no additional condensation will form, unless you really crank the A/C down.
Does anyone know if the coating on the outside of the Gen 3 package five front-side windows prevents this problem. The humidity is too low where we are in California to encounter this type of condensation.
Not sure if that coating would have much effect. This fogging problem works the same way that a glass full of ice and water will condense moisture on its outside surface as the glass cools. Some call it sweating. At the moment the glass surface reaches the dew point temperature of the air, moisture will start to form or condense on its surface. Humidity levels are crazy high in the Gulf Coast States at times, and that's when an A/C cooled car will cause fog on the outside of the windows. If you aimed the A/C vents at the side windows, you would see the fog forming more quickly. You can produce the same effect on the windshield by pushing cold A/C through the defrosters. The best way to keep this fogging from happening is to use the least amount of cooling in the cabin you can live with and keeping the cold air vents pointed away from the windows. Or move to the desert!
I have the same problem in northern Ohio. I can't wait until the frost. My concern is more the headlights. Did the rainx actually work for anyone?
