GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

We had our first REALLY cold day here in the south, yesterday, and my husband and I took our 2 dogs a short drive (few miles, tops) for a walk in the park.

I keep the car in a semi-heated garage. Once we got out and started driving, the windows steamed up REALLY bad. We had the defroster on full, with the inside vents closed, and the heat all the way up. My car is doing that "ticking in the dash" that some others have written about, here, when the "fresh / recirculate" button is OFF, so the button was ON (recirculating, then, I assume).

Do I need to immediately leap to the likelihood that I may have a heater core issue, or is there something else in the '03 Vibe that could cause this?

Usually, when I commute myself (to this point, on at least slightly warmer days), the only time I really start to steam up is when idling at a stop. Once I start to move, it clears.

Thanks for any suggestions!

does your air conditioning work well ?
i ask because the defrost uses the ac to dry the windshield , its not just about heating the glass the drying is actually much more important .
also unless you are getting coolant on the floor or your heat smells sweet i wouldn't jump to the heater core as the bad guy.
also fyi you can have a wet floor without the heater core leaking . my floor gets wet if it either rains a lot or i wash it a lot i assume its coming in the vent by my wipers ...........

deff check that your ac works 100% that is most likely your problem
p.s. the ac kick on anytime the defrost is on so no need to hit the ac button

and if you do need a heater core in the future i have a new one still in the box from when i thought mine was leaking

Good luck

IMHO, I would look at that motor for the fresh air damper first... Continued use of recirculate mode can easily cause fogging of the windows. You really want fresh air flowing through when using the defrost positions and it sounds like your motor has failed in a position that does not allow that.

Assuming 2 people and 2 dogs in the car you can figure that there's quite a bit of moisture being generated inside your Vibe. Under the cooler weather conditions noted, you really do need to keep recirculation off as mentioned by others here to keep the humidity level from building up inside the cabin.

There's a lot of plastic inside a Vibe. This plastic continually "out gasses" and will result in depositing a film on the inside of your car's glass surfaces. The film becomes a visible haze when the sun passes through the glass. This material coating the glass will help the fogging issues in cooler weather, something we see quite a bit here in Maine.

Using a good automotive glass cleaning product will cut this film and leave you with glass that should be less willing to stay fogged. Just remember to keep fresh air moving through the cabin of your car when you can.

Keeping the interior of your car dry will also help. Wet floor matts or wet towels and clothing will make the problem worse. We fight this fogging issue during our colder seasons here in Maine. Fresh outside air and clean interior windows helps quite a bit.

Hope this helps!

I'm going to immediately suspect the compressor. Recirc on or off, at full blast the evaporator should be able to pull enough moisture out of the interior air to keep the windows from fogging badly with no problem.

ColonelPanic wrote:IMHO, I would look at that motor for the fresh air damper first... Continued use of recirculate mode can easily cause fogging of the windows. You really want fresh air flowing through when using the defrost positions and it sounds like your motor has failed in a position that does not allow that.

This. very much so. fix or get fixed the recirc motor, get some fresh air moving through the car to flush out the moisture. Don't look for more complicated or expensive failures until you have done this

vibolista wrote:Using a good automotive glass cleaning product will cut this film and leave you with glass that should be less willing to stay fogged.

And a final wiping with newspaper or the cheapo brown recycled paper towels.

as most here have mentioned it sounds like your problem is using the recirc air and not fresh.

also mentioned is the AC coming on when using defrost. But IIRC the AC only kicks in when the temp selection is on the cool side. When set to warm, the AC does not come into play.

I see this all the time up here in Michigan during bad weather, and it happens in all cars, SUVs, pick ups, etc. if you don't turn the recirc air off. Like others have mentioned it's best to use fresh air when using the defrost. If you use the defrost and have the temp control set over to hot the A/C compressor shouldn't come on, so I don't think it's a a/c compressor issue at all. Also, check to make sure the cabin filter isn't plugged. If your cabin filter is plugged and needs to be changed you're probably not getting enough fresh air in the car.

timsdiecast wrote:I see this all the time up here in Michigan during bad weather, and it happens in all cars, SUVs, pick ups, etc. if you don't turn the recirc air off. Like others have mentioned it's best to use fresh air when using the defrost. If you use the defrost and have the temp control set over to hot the A/C compressor shouldn't come on, so I don't think it's a a/c compressor issue at all. Also, check to make sure the cabin filter isn't plugged. If your cabin filter is plugged and needs to be changed you're probably not getting enough fresh air in the car.

Good call, timsdiecast! I didn't mention the cabin air filter. That filter can certainly crud up and significantly lower the flow of outside air into the car's interior. Opening a window a tad in that case, will help get some of that excess moisture out of the car, until you get the chance to replace the filter.

vibe-a-licious wrote:as most here have mentioned it sounds like your problem is using the recirc air and not fresh.

also mentioned is the AC coming on when using defrost. But IIRC the AC only kicks in when the temp selection is on the cool side. When set to warm, the AC does not come into play.

The compressor definitely comes on for defog. Colder air can't hold as much water, so the water is forced to condense out of the air and onto the fins of the evaporator. However, once the outside temperature is below freezing, the compressor may shut off so that liquid freon can't get into it and ruin it. I can't test this, because it doesn't really get that cold down here in TX til later in the year.

The compressor stops running when outside temps fall into the 30-something degree range.

ColonelPanic wrote:The compressor stops running when outside temps fall into the 30-something degree range.

I would have to believe the compressor quits running closer to the 50 degree range, and the reason I say this is because even though I'm in the heating and cooling business I don't know a whole lot about automotive a/c, but every refrigeration and a/c system have 5 things in common, compressor, condenser coil, evaporator coil, metering device, and the refrigerant oil inside the system, and the colder it gets outside the thicker that oil gets, and it gets to the point where you can damage the compressor if you start the system and the oil is too thick. It's been in the 20s out up here in Michigan, and I actually had a buddy call me and wanted me to come over and work on his central air because he said near the end of the summer it didn't seem like it was getting cold enough. I told him I couldn't because I couldn't start his central air because the oil in the compressor, which is outside in the condensing unit, would be way too thick, and I could hurt his compressor if I tried. He was skeptic of what I was telling, but I assured him I'd be over in April when the weather started to warm up.

According to the GM service manual the cutoff is 40F.

just got a chance to check the manual.
apparently recirc should automatically turn off when selecting defog or defrost.
also, the A/C compressor will not engage if outside temps are below 32F/0C

vibe-a-licious wrote:apparently recirc should automatically turn off when selecting defog or defrost.

Mine sticks in recirc sometimes in my '06. Maybe I should take some electronics cleaner to it.

If the recirculate button does not pop out when switching to defrost, make sure the cable (black w/white end) is fully seated into the AC/recirc switch assembly. There are a couple of tabs that can be pried out to release the cable, if these are bent out sometimes the cable can make its way out. (I screwed up my '03 this way at one point. )

The OP has not come back to let us know if any of the suggestions worked. Hmmm. Might be lost in a Vibe's thick interior fog!