Fog on winshield (inside) during winter (97 Accord)

I have a 97 Honda Accord. I recently moved from a much warmer climate
to michigan where the winters are brutal. Often, I get a buildup of fog
on the inside windshield, sometimes frosty as well. It can take the
climate control cracked on high almost 30 minutes before it clears up.
I tried it with and without the AC button engaged and both with recirc
and fresh air. It doesnt make much of a difference. I keep a rag in my
car to wipe the fog off, but it often just smears it, and often it
re-appears. Does anyone else experience such a problem? Is this a flaw
with the Accord climate control? Are there any solutions?

 

if it doesnt work with the temp set to "hot" and the AC on, you cant
really do much else.

 

Maybe one other. Open the window. Chances are the matching temp and
humid reduction would work wonders.

 

Make sure the controls are set to take in outside air, not to recirc.
In cold weather, recirc is only useful if you aren't in the car.
(e.g., recirc is OK while you are outside clearing snow from the car)
Otherwise, the moisture from your breath will fog the windows.

It is possible that you have a tiny leak in your heater core,
allowing small amounts of coolant to escape. Do you ever find yourself
adding coolant? You shouldn't need to in winter, and only rarely in summer.

Is your temp guage getting to normal, or is the air coming from the
defroster hot? If you have a defective thermostat, or if the control
valve is not allowing full flow of hot coolant into the heater core,
the defroster wouldn't get hot enough to clear the windshield.

A/C is useful for defogging in warm weather, but becomes less useful as
the outside temp approaches freezing.
Dan

(This account is not used for email.)

 

The inside steam is caused by wet carpets.

You need to fix the holes in your floor so the carpet will dry out. Or
if it is just from tracked in slush, get a rubber mat that holds the
water so you can pour it out or pick it up frozen and dump it.

You can leave a couple windows cracked open, this will help dissipate
the humidity, but as long as the carpets are wet, you will have
troubles.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

 

It could also be a bad heater core. When the leak they put steam into
the heating/ac system.

 

There is usually a pretty obvious smell associated with that....

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

 

Sometimes, sometimes not. Its worth a check.

 

I'll vote for the heater core.

Peter H

 

Sometimes, sometimes not. Its worth a check.

 

True, it's easy enough to see if the rad fluid is also low. I have just
owned enough rust buckets to have lots of wet carpet experience. LOL!

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's