Steaming Up

Odd. Ours is at the misting-up-stage but this is because we need to clean the windscreen, and I can compensate with the natty heated front windscreen, too! :)

Can you actually _see_ steam?

One other way to get around it would be to divert the air to the footwell when you put the heater on.

What does the air smell like? Stale water, slightly sickly sweet, or no smell at all?

Sounds like there is a small leak in the heater core that seals itself as the heater gets hot. Try and examine the bottom of the heater for any wet spots.

MrCheerful

Heater radiators run hot all of the time. Temperature control is by air mixing but I agree it may be a small weep from the heater core. Another possibility is a blocked plenum drain allowing some water to get into the heater. A leaking windscreen seal could also do the same thing but I don't know the Renault well enough to say. Good luck.

John

quite a few vehicles have got water circuit controls . I don't know about renault but lots of other makes including modern fords do.

MrCheerful

Can you get to the blower fan? There's probably water getting in it.

Pete

Renault 21 has a wonderful fan design. It has the lower bearing in a housing with drain/vent holes above the bearing so it can fill with water and seeds resulting in a rusty bearing and sized motor followed by blown thermal fuse in the resistor pack. Thermal fuse about 50p tops from RS or Maplins, don't know what they charge for the resistor pack but you can bet a new resistor pack is the only way a Renault dealer can replace the fuse.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

either way start here and work inwards

Yes I can actually see it the steam is fairly think and smells like steam when I use my steam cleaner. I think it smells like stale water smell, if that makes sense.

Thanks for your replies guys I will investigate further jay

"Norm" wrote

My old car had the blower fan in a tray which supposedly had a drain hole, when the hole became blocked the fan would flick water into the heater, the result was instant steam. It usually became most interesting as I drove out of the car wash and the steam condensed on all the windows.

pb