Ice in my car!?!

[ProjectM96]

This morning when I wanted to leave to go to work, my car was covered in a thin layer of ice. My door key opening was stuck closed, but I eventually got my key inside.

It did NOT rain the night before so the car was dry. Even my convertible top was iced up. My headlights were a flat white color covered in ice.

I started the car and blasted the heat on my winshield. After 10 minutes, I still cannot see through the window. Eventually, I noticed drops of water falling on my lap. I look at the sun visor and flip it down and the plastic over the sun visors were all wet.

Another minute of waiting and I realize that my wipers won't do anything because the ice and melting water on the windshield was on the inside of my car. I did not have anything to wipe it so I dried a small spot with my hand and started driving. After another 10 minutes of driving, the water on the inside of the windshield started to recede and dissappear like it was never there.

How/Why is this happening? How can I prevent it?

I have to carry around paper towels every morning to dry the inside windshield.

At a car wash with a pressure washer, no water gets into my car so I know there are no leaks and yes my top is closed all the way and my windows are all the way up.

[milliemax]

There had to be water in the air. Have you "treated" your top lately ?

[2003S]

Put the top to the engine service position, and see if there is water not draining from the area under the clamshell -- there are 2 drains that should let water escape, but if it's there, I suppose it could evap / condense inside the top...

[thstone]

There is definitely moisture getting inside the car and condensing on the inside of the cold windshield during the night. The fix is to stop moisture from getting in and dry out the interior.

Besides the two drains under the clamshell, be sure to check the two front drains next to the battery in the front trunk. Those can get clogged and then moisture can get into the interior through the firewall access holes - thus creating moisture problems with the inside of the windshield.

Last, find a warm place (warm dry garage/sun during the day/etc) and open up the windows to try and let the interior moisture dry out of the interior.

[ProjectM96]

I already checked the drainage holes. They were fine.

I realized where the water is coming from.

In the summer, time, I used the A/C all the time. I have only used it a couple of times in the past 3 months and only for 5 minutes at a time.

The A/C/ leaks water in my car. Passenger carpet gets wet when I use A/C. -I completely forgot about it since I rarely use the A/C nowadays. But I will just deal with it this winter because it is too cold to work on the car. This spring, I will patch up the leak, dry the carpets, and let the car air out for a while. I also have a list of other things to do. Complete Tune Up, MT 90,000 interval oil change, install my recently purchased Cold Air Intake and RSS Underdrive Pulley with new serpentine belts, buff out some scratches with compound, and wax the car.

[John99Boxster]

Sounds like you have a good plan Project.

Just try to dry out the passenger side as well as you can so you dont have this problem every morning.

[thstone]

Ok, good to hear that you found the cause!

[Mark_T]

What you experienced is fairly normal here when the temp drops into the -30's. You go out to your car, unplug the block heater, start it (hopefully), and then you have to scrape all the ice off the outside of the windows while the car is warming up. Then, when you start the defroster, the inside glass ices up and you have to wait until the heater starts blowing warm air to melt it off before you drive away, or you drive away with your scraper in one hand and the wheel in the other, trying to keep a small circle open so you can kinda see where you're going. Back in the 70's when most cars still had pretty crappy heaters we had to apply plastic frost shields to the inside surfaces of the side and back glass otherwise the frost would never clear away. Every fall we'd buy and install frost shields and every spring we'd have to scrape them back off again.

Of course, those of us that have heated garages, interior warmers, or Command Start don't have to deal with this.

[barkinfool]

Well, a more logical explanation is that some Penguins fan was messing with your ride after the way the Flyers destroyed the Pens last night. At least that's the first thing that came to my mind....