My wife bought an `04 LL Bean Ouback last August. Now that the rainy season is here I have noticed a lot of moisture on the inside of the windows. I first noticed it a couple of months ago, when I would get into the car the windows would be clear until the vent system was turned on, then you would get a little fog. It seemed to be a bit more than normal, but did not think anything of it. Now it is very obvious, especially when the car is sitting during the day with the windows up you can see the fog. The moisture on the sunroofs is very heavy. But I cannot feel moisture anywhere but on the glass itself. Nothing in the carpet, interior of the doors seem to be fine. Nothing seems to be dripping from the sunroofs, and the headliner is always dry. I have driven the car for two hours at a time on a nice day with the heater turned up to make sure it gets dry. But it still fogs up when there is rain. I have suspected the air conditioner, and so have stopped using it, but still is bad. I guess the next step is to dry it out and then not use the vent system at all to try and rule it out. I have noticed that it seems to start fogging in the rear, would make sense with a wagon, the ventilation is not as good back there. I do not like the design of the window seals on this car, could they be the culprit? Maybe this is all normal for Subaru? If it is I will try to convince her to sell it. If it is not normal, I need to find a solution before this thing rots.
Seems to be too much moisture.
Dec 23, 2004
10 Replies
Sounds to me like you have the heater system permanently set on recycle. The recycle button should only be pressed in and lit during warm up. Once the heater is pumping out warm air, switch it back to the external feed and the problem will go away.
David Betts snipped-for-privacy@motorsport.org.uk
I have an 04 OBW LL Bean. I don't have this problem. I do notice a few seconds of fog when the syetem switches over to defrost, but that's about it. I almost always use the "Auto" setting otherwise. I would take it to the dealer.
Did someone take it skiing? My wife took several friends skiing and all the snow tracked into the car caused the symptoms you describe.
If you garage the car, leave the windows all the way open at night. During the day, crack the windows a couple of inches. It will dry out in a few days.
Check to see that the drain on the AC is not clogged. When that does happen, water collects in the drain pipe and can run back into the evaporator behind the glovebox. When it sits for a while (aka still air and no circulation, you get condensation on the inside of the car. Had that happen so bad on a Subaru as well as an XJS.
Quick way to check is turn on the AC ... do you see water dripping below the car on passenger side after 2-3 mins? If yes, ok. If not, you got clogged drain.
Paul
lmn> I've had it on external almost exclusively, only tried recycle to see if it
windows.
during
So, tell me if I'm right: your problem is the when parked, the windows fog up. Despite the detailed description, that seems to be the problem. I'm not sure of the answer, but I'd like to know what city you live in. I think this is a bit of evidence you left out, I'm not sure it will help, but right now temperatures in America could be anywhere from -20 to perhaps 90 or better.
Pete who is where the temps are, alas, in the minus range :-(
I had the same issue with a Mazda in the Seattle area during the winter. Never ever saw the issue when the car was in California. All I could deduce was that it related to temperature, dewpoint, running the heater and tracking moisture into the car with damp shoes. The seals may be too good. I solved it by opening the driver's window 1/2 inch when parking it (covered/garaged) at night. The warm moist air went out just fine, repeat every few days.
(I had added some deeply grooved rubber floor mats because of the Seattle drizzle and saw just how much shoe water ended up in the car.)
-John
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