Frozen condensation inside 997 Turbo
Discussion
At the moment, there is no room in my garage, what with my 911 RSR in there, another historic racing car project, garden tractors, my daughters hay and horse feed and garden furniture. This morning, there was close to 2mm of ice inside the car on the windows. There are no leaks and the rear footwell carpets are dry. I suspect it may be coming from water evaporating from the air con condenser and then recondensing and freezing on the windows. It does not help that I have not done any long runs in it recently, with its last journey of any length being from Stansted airport back to Sussex, just after Christmas. Is this an inevitable problem for 997's left outside in cold weather? I had the air con serviced at its last major service in October and I hope they would have checked that the drains were clear.
Best bet is to get the large felt bags of silica balls and place under the front seats, they work pretty well. If the drains are clear and door membranes are intact you can do no more. Take the bags out every couple of weeks and leave on a radiator over night to dry out and then pop them back in the car.
Had a similar problem on an old boxster, also worth checking the AC actually works and is the system is holding the gas?
Had a similar problem on an old boxster, also worth checking the AC actually works and is the system is holding the gas?
I would check under all carpets and in the boot compartment, to have that amount of water condensation suggests there is a decent amount of water getting in. I have found that the front windscreen will always act of the draw for condensation as it has the largest surface area, irrespective of where the leak may be. As the carpets are foam backed you may want to get underneath to check the floor it not wet.
Given all the rainy weather of late it could simply be the moisture carried in on wet coats and shoes.
On cold sunny days like yesterday and today any moisture in a car left in the sun will get drawn out of the carpets etc and into the air the car. When the sun goes down and the car cools off the moisture will condense on the glass, first on the glass on the sides of the car away from the sun and then on the rest of the glass.
A bit late for today but if it should be sunny again tomorrow park the car in a sunny spot for a couple hours and then crack a couple of windows by a cm or two for a further couple of hours to let the moisture laden air out. That usually works for me and the moisture is no longer a problem.
On cold sunny days like yesterday and today any moisture in a car left in the sun will get drawn out of the carpets etc and into the air the car. When the sun goes down and the car cools off the moisture will condense on the glass, first on the glass on the sides of the car away from the sun and then on the rest of the glass.
A bit late for today but if it should be sunny again tomorrow park the car in a sunny spot for a couple hours and then crack a couple of windows by a cm or two for a further couple of hours to let the moisture laden air out. That usually works for me and the moisture is no longer a problem.
We actually left the doors open for a few hours in the weak sun this afternoon to try and dry it out a bit. My suspicion still lies with water not draining properly from the air con condenser. Against this theory, I am not getting the dead rat smell that my Alpinas used to get from stagnant water and fungus in the condenser housing. When the air con was serviced in October, it smelt like a tart's boudoir for a week afterwards with the scented disinfectant. Someone else suggested stuck air extractor vent flaps but I don't know where these are in a 997.
Trev450 said:
Check the bottom of the door cards are not wet. Possible if they have been off at all to may be change a window regulator.
I think water is getting into doors as the window drop always freezes but it has done that from new. The only work done on a door was a new passenger's side door lock. I have ordered a couple of 1.8kg silica gel bags in permeable cotton covers. Hopefully that might do the trick. 
My 997 had to go in to have the return spring and spindle replaced on the driver's side inner door handle. When the door was apart, they noticed that it was very wet in there. On further investigation, the seal on the bottom of the steel inner panel, that diverts any water entering via the windows to the door drains, had completely perished. The seal is not available on its own and the whole inner panel has to be replaced. The passenger's door seems dry so its seal is probably OK. It is the driver's door that faces south where my car is parked when at my very sunny French house in Provence, so that is the probably cause. Hopefully, that will improve the damp problem, along with the two big bags of silica gel.
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