Is this normal ?

calcrc

calcrc

New member
Hello guys, happy new year !

I took some pictures to show if this is normal on a 50k $ truck.

We had some -35 celsius the past 2 weeks and the back windows froze from the inside. There is like 2-3 millimeters of frost on the inside of the truck.

I took it 1 time to fix it but they seemed to have done nothing.

Here are some pictures and any help is welcome. I have an appointment with my dealer on Monday and I want to know if I have to go over the tech straight to the manager and tell him I am not happy.












My thoughts is that there is some air coming inside and the truck is not fully airtight or something.

Thanks in advance :)
 
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If you've got any kind of moisture inside your 4R, either from damp floor mats, damp carpets, or something in the cargo area, it will condensate on the inside windows and freeze in the cold, giving you the frost in your pictures. Make sure the inside of the truck is bone dry before wasting your time at the dealer. Rent a heated garage for a few days if you must. And from here on in, control the amount of snow you drag into the truck with your boots, and those of your passengers, or the problem will be back. This is pretty basic stuff.
 
Not really , I have a 2003 civic and my brother has my old 99 Runner and both of them don't have any frost.

Last time it happened I washed the truck inside out and dried all the windows to take out all the humidity and it still freezes.

Either the heating is not doing what its supposed to do or the doors are not fully sealed.

If there is cold air coming inside from a door that is not fully sealed then I guess this is what happens and its not suppose to happen.

I can't even do my dead angles when I turn with how much the window is frozen in the back.
 
Yes it is definitely normal, although there is a lot in your case. I noticed my 4Runner is a bit worse than most vehicles I have owned/driven, and I think it is due to the interior volume in regards to the airflow from the AC. It has nothing to do with the sealing of the vehicle, and I don't honestly know how the dealer could fix this. This is the result of the the amount of moisture inside the vehicle which is condensing and freezing on the exterior glass, which is cold because it is the boundary between the heat and cold. If you run the AC with the heater, it will help by pulling the moisture from the air, also make sure you are definitely NOT using the recirculate air button, which will help bring dryer air in from the exterior. You can also crack the windows a bit which will help bring in dryer air from outside, and allow you to run the heater at full without cooking yourself.

You have a lot of frost, and if it is really cold it will take a long time to dissipate, so I would use a scrapper or credit card on the inside of the glass to clear it off for the time being.

Besides from just snow being dragged into the vehicle, you also get it from people breathing inside the vehicle if you have a full car load. You mentioned you washed the truck inside and out, and that is almost certainly what has caused this.
 
I've had this happen a few times with different trucks, definitely a humidity thing with the difference between inside the car and outside air. Can't speak to how normal it is, it's always happened to me in super cold temps when I am in the high country skiing and parked outside. I never had it as bad as you but I wasn't in -35 temps either.
 
I don't think a door seal is going to make any difference. Cars are not air tight vacuum sealed nor will it change the fact that if it's -35 outside it will be -35 inside the 4Runner. The moisture inside the vehicle will react accordingly and it seems apparent you have a lot of it.

Check under your floor mats to see if your carpet is really wet. Constant thawing and freezing of wet carpets could be one of causes. If so, take them off/move them so air can get underneath while you're dirivng and blast your floor heaters on high. Take out the floor mats when you park so your carpet can breath. Maybe someone spilled something and didn't say anything.:noidea:
 
I don't know about you but on these frigid days I'm never without a steaming hot cup of coffee... Could that be your culprit?
 
maybe Toyota needs to have "special" vehicle seals, and other interior features to make sure they can handle Mars-like conditions :smow: Winnipeg deep freeze as cold as uninhabited planet - Manitoba - CBC News
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Is a big dog riding in the car after exercising?

Once the car is warm, maybe you could open a dehumidifier bucket to dry it out.
 
dekeman said:
If you've got any kind of moisture inside your 4R, either from damp floor mats, damp carpets, or something in the cargo area, it will condensate on the inside windows and freeze in the cold, giving you the frost in your pictures. Make sure the inside of the truck is bone dry before wasting your time at the dealer. Rent a heated garage for a few days if you must. And from here on in, control the amount of snow you drag into the truck with your boots, and those of your passengers, or the problem will be back. This is pretty basic stuff.
Click to expand...

Your problem is exactly as [MENTION=48776]dekeman[/MENTION] stated. You have a combination of moisture in a vehicle without insulated windows and extreme cold outside. The dealer cannot fix this, and there's nothing wrong with your truck - don't waste your time, they will just eff something else up.

Have you never been in a house with a poorly insulated window which gets frost on the inside? It's condensation.
 
mine has on a much smaller scale done the same thing.. you can feel it when you touch the steering wheel.. nothing built up on the windows though.. there's definitely more of this in the 4runner than any other previous toyota i've had..
 
calcrc,

You didn't say but I'm assuming it's parked outside.

If it were me, I'd try this experiment and see if it changes anything. After parking, open a few or all of the windows for a short time. If there's any wind, you won't have to leave them down very long. If it's calm, maybe a minute or two just to be sure. Those temps ought to suck the moisture in the cabin air right out in a hurry. If you see no change in the amount of frost in the morning, the source of moisture is something other than leftover cabin air.
 
What is this frost you speak of? 70 degrees f. here in Arizona today and sunny. I have to laugh at you guys now because you can laugh at me when it is 110 degrees here in the summer.
 
Ive lived in Edmonton Alberta all my life, all my suvs/cars/trucks all look like that or worse in the winter. The 2014s have window defrosters on the very rear side windows I noticed at the dealer. I wonder why they don't put heating elements in the rear doors of cars and a small fan to blow at the windows. Probably just gave away a million dollar idea to someone...
 
I definetly dont have that problem, even tough its a chilly 81 degree night. Life in the tropics, what can I say!!!
 
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