Anyone else seen this?

I was on a long journey at the weekend, hot weather as you remember, and kept the aircon on for the whole time, which i rarely do.

Well, on two occasions, i had this vapour, sort of like the stuff they pump onto the floor at discos (allegedly) come out of the air vents, before it evaporated and disappeared.

I'm not complaining, as i'm sure the aircon is now working a lot better than it was before due to me keeping it on for so long, but the first time it happened i thought i'd blown the engine up!

Anyone else had this? Or know what might have caused it? Ta.

I also had this for the first time at the weekend! Quite a shock to see what looked like smoke pouring into the cabin whilst on the motorway. Had it happen a few times on aircraft too.

Don't think it's anything more than mist.

I'd love to hear a technical explanation of it though....

Mike

Perhaps this should be moved to General Technical - eh Mods.

An explanation of the problem from a Subaru US dealer tech note.

Hope this helps,

Andy.

Dash Vent Mist

If a customer complains of mist coming from the A/C vents when the air conditioning system is operating, it is more than likely a normal condition caused by a number of factors.

The evaporator is probably operating close to or at the freezing point. There may even be a small amount of ice accumulation on the evaporator, but not enough to affect system operation. The outside air is probably very humid, perhaps 85-95 percent relative humidity. When this very moist air comes in contact with the cold evaporator, it causes the moisture in the air to condense into a mist. You have probably observed a similar situation when you opened the freezer on the refrigerator at home. This mist is then pushed by the fan, through the vehicle s ducts, and into the passenger compartment.

We can't change the weather conditions, but a very minor adjustment to the vehicles air conditioning system will correct
the problem. Move the temperature lever on the control panel slightly toward the warm position. This blends a little of the
warm air from the heater core with the outside air to melt the coating of ice on the evaporator. Vehicle cooling will not be
noticeably affected by this small movement of the temperature lever. The customer will have to experiment to find the
position that cures the condition, as it may change based on the weather conditions mentioned above.

Vehicles in areas with low humidity are unlikely to exhibit these symptoms.

Well there ya go!

Thanks for taking the trouble to find that...

Terry

Thanks Bagpuss, interesting stuff. Can't say I'd bother adjusting the controls it's hardly intrusive. :)

Thanks TelBoy for pointing this thread out to me.

I have a similar problem but increaseing the temperature makes the problem worse, not better :

Every now and again I get white smoke coming out of the vents inside the car. Only starts when the car reaches operating temperature and will carry on for one or more trips. Higher the temperature the more visible the smoke (which smells vaguely of anti freeze). Only way to prevent it misting up the windows is to turn the a/c on and set the temp to 20 degrees (which is a touch inconvenient if it's a cold morning). This smoke shows up with or without the a/c on, on recirc or taking air from outside.

Any ideas on what's causing it and more importantly how to stop it?

Currently the morning temp is around 7 degrees c with afternoon temps of high teens/early twenties and not particularly humid.

Had this also the other week on a motorway going at 70 mph oraphiser;) but scared **** out of me & i slowed down to 70 :eek: fort sum flames were about 2 start shooting out engine or sumin but stopped when i turned air con off, i had fort it mighta bin smoke from vehicle infront but this i wooda seen so i was trying 2 kid myself nowt woz rong & having red this i'm now glad nothing is it wood seem:D Phew.
Si

check the heater core

AJbaseBloke - how do/can I do that or is it a dealer only function? If it does it at 20 degrees would it still be using the heater?

Sounds like a small-ish leak tbh (if you can smell anti-freeze esp).

First checks - park up after a run without using the AC if poss - put some newpaper (as white as poss) under the car. if the leak is big enough, you'll find the drips coloured.

If you still get the smell (sounds like you are at this stage already), next step is to take the glove box out to get access to AC/heating bits...unfortunately I have never done this on a scooby...(I had a Skyline years ago that used to drive me crazy with leaks like that).

If it is such a small leak that there is a slow moisture build up while parked up you may have to be patient finding the leak, but it sounds like it is happening when the car is warm, so maybe best to run the engine while doing this...

best of luck.

Oops - should add, you may want to check around the engien bay first, although it is unlikely, you may find the source there - beats taking things apart and then finding the issue somewhere else.

Outside chance, and you have probably done it already, but had to mention that just in case.

I haven't seen anything out of place in the engine bay but then there's not much place to see anything anyway.

The other thing that doesn't make sense it that after a few trips it stops altogether for a couple of weeks. Surely if it were a slow leak of anything it would keep going? For what it's worth I bought some a/c freshener which is supposed to kill off bacteria/bad smells so I'll see if that helps at all.