can't see!!

ok the last couple of nights it has been raining where i live (FL) and i work at night. now when ever it rains outside my car's windshield foggs up like a m/f and everyone i'm sure knows about how bad the windsheild defroster is on saturns ( alumien block with a 4 cylinders, looks good on paper but sucks at deforsting) now i have tired the rain x interior glass cleaner/ help's elminate fogging now. that justs left me with mad streaks that i could not see through did not fog up all the windshield just where the vent is. now has anybody found a solution to this or can help me. seeing while driving i belive thats a good thing. not being able to see= bad thing.

do u have a/c in your car???

what would that have to do with the window's fogging up

The AC unit alters the humidity by decreasing the amount of moisture in the air blown out. The fogged windows are essentially just covered in a light dew caused by a temperature differential, high humidity, and the dew point. I don't remember the exact physics, but you could look it up, it's something like that anyway.

On my sisters old camry, you could blow hot or cold air over the windshield until you froze/baked but the fog wouldn't go away. It had a separate button for the AC. Hit that button, and the fog goes almost instantly away.

Most manufacturers automatically have the AC unit come on when you set it to defrost. Maybe you have a bad switch, b/c I would assume in the summer you would know if your ac unit is busted. Also, make sure that you system is not set to recirculate the inside car air, because when you exhale it increases the moisture in the air and builds up. If it's raining though, you may be better off to have recirculate on so it doesn't pull in humid outside air. Not sure about that.

One obvious thing to check: does it blow air out the defog vents??

I'm not sure what you mean by the aluminum block. Are you implying it's not hot enough? I can assure you, it is plenty hot enough if the engine is running at the right temperatures and the heater is working correctly.

well with i read on some other saturn forum that becuase of it's allumion block gets rid of the heat faster then a steel one and the heater gets it's heat from the block/coolent. every time i have the defrogger on i never have the ac button on sometimes the recurilate one. i do it the way the handbook tells you how to

Your probably right, because aluminum does dissapate heat faster, but not fast enough to decrease the heat enough for the defogger not to work. The water in the heater core is still at least 200 degrees if not higher.

If it's raining outside like you said, when you get in the car with a wet umbrella and wet clothes and start breathing the H2O levels rise rapidly causing fogging. The AC unit condenses the water out of the air, so the air is dryer reducing the fogging. If it is already fogged up, use the heater at the same time and it should go away faster. It works perfectly on my wifes SL2.

If your car has AC turn it on when you try to defog the windshield. My 92 SL would not clear the windshield unless I turned on the AC. My 01 SL1 turns on the AC automatically when I select defog and it clears the windshield very fast.

k, This is right from saturn /gms website: Defrost/Defogging Windows: This setting directs the air through the windshield defroster outlets onto the windshield and past the front side windows. Use this setting if windows are fogged or icy. This setting will also help defog the front side window. Set the control knob to defrost and set the temperature to full hot (far to the right). To quickly clear the windows, put the fan control switch to high and push the A/C button. (An indicator light will go ON.)



Important
To keep the glass fog free, the mode select knob should be positioned between Heater and Defrost. The Recirc button should be left OFF. The mode knob should be used to regulate air flow depending on driving conditions.

Replies had right info on defogging, that's what I do. Now, about Florida and Rain-X (any silicone)... regardless of your car brand, I tried both Rain-X and TripleEdge wipers and both were a disaster when it comes to the typical humid mornings and evenings we have in Florida. It made all that fine water more evenly coat the windshield and I couldn't see in a matter of seconds. I stopped using any silicone and couldn't wait until it wore away with untreated wipers and whatever else I could use to get it off (it takes time). My best advice for the humid times is just use your intermittant wipers at whatever speed gets the job done. Oh yeah, with the silicone on the glass, even the intermittant wouldn't do it. The glass instantly re-fogged between wipes.