[Closed] bangernomics - are portable windscreen demisters any good?

I had one in a Triumph Herald 'back in the day'. To cut a long post short: "Don't bother".

A new motor/fan is probably less that 100 shouldn’t be too hard to replace diy even the resistor pack will be cheap aswell. A 2nd hand ones prob about £50 if you want to do it even cheaper. Have a look see if you can get the old one out it may just need cleaning out and a spray of wd to get it spinning,

Depends on the car that^ though some require hefty dash/centre console removal.

Sounds easy enough though....

https://www.noteownersclub.co.uk/forum/16-how/4388-how-change-your-blower-motor.html#/topics/4388

My blower only works on 4. Resister pack and blower replacement being put off but its getting on my nerves having a hurricane roaring continuously

I've got rid of the mist/ice on the inside of our banger by putting a sheet on the outside of the windscreen overnight. Stops the outside icing up and the inside misting/icing.

Have you tried that?

I had one in a Triumph Herald ‘back in the day’. To cut a long post short: “Don’t bother”.

I had one in a Triumph Spitfire 'back in the day'. Unless they have improved significantly since then: "Don't bother".

If you can park the car near your house, stick a fan heater on the back seat 10 minutes before driving the car. That will demist it for long enough to get the engine warm, after which the natural draft from forward motion may be enough to keep the screen clear.

I had a citroen c2 with a leaking rear end (fnar fnar etc) which meant the carpets were getting saturated so it was completely misted up every morning, you'd wipe it off and it would mist up again before you got going. And it was often frozen on the inside as well.

Obviously being a citroen the air blower didn't work so I bought one of these. Long story short, it will clear a very small patch on the windscreen directly in front of it after a minute or two, but do nothing more after that.

Probably because they're only 100-200w whereas a normal fan heater is more like 2000.

Depends on the car that^ though some require hefty dash/centre console removal.

mechanic has stated £100 fitting as steering console has to come out.

If you can park the car near your house, stick a fan heater on the back seat 10 minutes before driving the car. That will demist it for long enough to get the engine warm, after which the natural draft from forward motion may be enough to keep the screen clear.

going to do this as a matter of course maybe, but i spose its for the times when she's away from the house or it steams up whilst driving, or having parked it for a few hours away from home when its icy, that sort of thing. cant rely on it never misting/icing up away from home.

Probably because they’re only 100-200w whereas a normal fan heater is more like 2000.

thanks, good to see real world figures that show why theyre so crap then.

https://www.noteownersclub.co.uk/forum/16-how/4388-how-change-your-blower-motor.html#/topics/4388
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did this a year or so ago when it first started playing up, this was to change the resistor card IIRC. so....... it maybe might not be too difficult to do. ill sound the mechanic out and see if he fancies a bash at it this way to save a bit of time (and money)

thanks

 

Depends on the car that^ though some require hefty dash/centre console removal.

I used to have a Volvo 240. It was often said that they started with the blower motor and built the rest of the car around it.

I used to have an old windscreen wiper in my old car when it wouldn't demist properly.
or - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0776RHSRJ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_mxcvCbV3HFCFK
Temp solution, of course.

Funny actually, the number of people who'd say "Why have you got a windscreen wiper in your car?" ... erm...

There was a thread on this a couple of years back. Google 'nissan note blower motor removal hell'. It is a total dashboard out job.

My wifes 2007 went, tried the resistor first as it was an easy £10  job but this did not fix it as it was the bushes on the motor (sound like your issue too). If you can get the blower replaced for £250 i would bite his hand off. I thought i could do it myself so bought a new blower, took all the trim off disconnected the old blower......but would the ****er come out from behind the dash would it ****. It tried everything, but gave in as it is a full dash out job and i was not wanting to try that (airbags etc) so took it to a local garage to finish the job and it was about £250 in labour alone with half the job already done.

All the youtube vids make it look easy as they are on left hand drive cars but on a right hand drive the pedals/steering column  etc block everything from coming out that way and its about 1 inch too big to take out from above....it is a pig of a job.

.....aaaaaand that settles it for me then, garage it is 🙂

thanks chaps

you could try an anti-fog/hydrophobic coating on the inside of the glass until you get it sorted.

Or fit some internal windscreen wipers 😀

The fan heater in the rear seat will only work if the car is completely dry, stick one in the back of my damp van after a wet, muddy bike has been in there and it steams up worse than ever!

My Berlingo does it bad. I use one of them squeegees you buy to squeegee the shower. Works ok.

you could try an anti-fog/hydrophobic coating on the inside of the glass until you get it sorted.

is this like the shaving foam trick you can do on your bathroom mirror? only prob with that may be that the water will just drip and collect elsewhere wont it, like the carpet maybe?

thanks

We had a similar problem in the wife's Scenic.

After a lot of b*****ing about, I tracked it down to an earth fault. Self tapper that Renault used had come loose/corroded so it was a bit of a make/break connection.

Cleaned it all up and the terminal as well, replaced the fixing with a brass bolt and smeared a bit of vaseline around it.

Good for 4 or 5 years now.

An hour with a jigsaw and a couple of hinges - job jobbed!...

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We also have some silica gel bags that absorb moisture in the car. When they change colour you bring them indoors and bake them on a low heat to drive the moisture out then put them back.

is this like the shaving foam trick you can do on your bathroom mirror? only prob with that may be that the water will just drip and collect elsewhere wont it, like the carpet maybe?

yeah will end up beading down the window. Would want to put something along the bottom of the screen to soak it up for now.

I had a problem with the sunroof on my Octavia leaking, probably because the drains had blocked up. I bailed around a centimetre of water out of the rear offside footwell, leaving a sodden carpet, and the front footwell was pretty damp as well. Of course, this time of year it doesn’t really dry, so I tried using a hot-air paint stripper to try to dry it out, but that only dried to top.
Anyway, I found one of those big silica gel dehumidifier packs in the back of a car that came in a week or so back, blagged it and microwaved it, and stuck it in the car.
It really does seem to have dome the trick, little condensation in the car now, even with the cold and damp there’s been just lately.
I’ll nuke it again over the weekend, just to keep things as dry as possible.
I stopped the leak by using Wilko’ All-weather clear tape to cover the edges of the sunroof, the car’s not worth spending much on these days, other than to keep it running.

Looked at one of those myself a few days ago as my Audi A4's blower has gone and we are weeks away from replacing it so cant be bothered with the garage. General feedback was that there simply wasn't enough power from the car outlet to make it do anything worthwhile and the cables are supposed to get bloody hot too.

she has one of these microwave bags already.

thanks

I'd get it fixed as there is a high chance of the windows misting up whilst driving without it working properly.

I'd hazard a guess this one would be pretty effective!