For some reason, my Highlander seems to trap moisture inside the car. When I turn it off, after a minute or so, I hear some things moving around the vents (dampers or gates or something, maybe?), and then when I return and it’s anywhere close to freezing or colder, then I have heavy fog and possibly ice on the inside window. When the air kicks on, the fog gets even worse before finally clearing up.
I can scrape ice on the outside of my window, but this is thr only car I’ve had that freezes I side, and I hate it. Does anybody know why it does this? What was the point of designing the vents to close shortly after turning off thr car? Why are things this way?!
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I have this issue in my 4R, and it seems like having AC on and recirculate off solved it for me. Apparently the recirculate overstresses the defrost, at least in my case. That’s on either defrost or foot/defrost.
Copy that. Thanks!
Run the ac with heat on hi. It will dry it up. Also clean the inside of your windshield.
I’ll try both, thanks.
Turn on hear towards the windshield, open the window so the inside is the same temp as outside. You can rub shaving cream on the inside then wipe it to prevent this.
Thanks
Just hit the AC button and always leave it on.
It runs the compressor which removes moisture from the cabin.
I’ll do that.
1: Turn off the recirculated Air setting. 2: Turn on the Air Conditioner
This is from my Toyota owners manual
I’ll have to look through my manual again. I had the defrost on, which I thought automatically turned on the AC, but from the comments here it sounds like that’s not the case. Thanks!
Turn your A/C on. It dehumidifies the cabin, helps during the winter time.
Otherwise, check your passenger’s side floor underneath the floor mat. If there’s water there then your evaporator drain hose is clogged and needs to be cleared.
I’ll try the AC - I thought the defrost setting automatically engaged the AC, so I’ll try it manually.
I’ll also check the floor - I didn’t know about that.
Do you have recirculate turned on?
I do not. This problem shows up when I run the dedicated defrost button and the air mode that shows the defrost symbol and the feet.
I think some of these vehicles had an issue with water intrusion check out TheCarCareNut on YouTube he did a video about it.
Tha ks, I’ll take a look!
There’s a service campaign-see here
Open the windows
That is a solution, but not one I had to employ with any other vehicle I’ve ever owned. My question isn’t how can I prevent the fog - the question is why the heck was the car designed in a way to trap moisture in the first place? Why doesn’t it remove all that moisture with the defroster? Why do I have to employ problematic solutions to a problem I shouldn’t have in the first place? Letting snow in through the open windows doesn’t help solve the moisture problem in the car, either. That’s a solution entirely dependant on the weather, the dew, etc - it’s not reliable.