Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Problems with Ice

Recently, it got cold here in Southern Ohio , and I started having a problem with my car. Frost, sometimes a thin layer of solid ice freezes on the driver's side front and rear windows, the winshield, and sometimes even the rear window. It also freezes the driver's door shut. That's not the problem though, the problem is that ice is freezing on the inside of the car. I also started getting massive amounts of condensation inside my car on warmer days. I'm talking about every square inch of glass on the driver's side of the car is covered with water. I run the defroster, even if no ice is present, to keep the interior moisture free. It doesn't work. I tried running the defroster, and then turning the climate control off when the car was parked. I tried not running the defroster, and several other things, including no ventalation period. All of them were to no avail.

Now the strange thing is, about a month ago, my weather stripping over the driver's and rear driver's side doors started to peel. Three four inch long strips an eighth of an inch wide tore off my weatherstripping. The tears are located at the bottom of the weatherstripping on the roof, close to the inside door frame. However, no leaks are present even in the heaviest rains, and no noticible wind noise increase either. My car is a 1999 SE with the Sport Package, 2.5L Duratec and the CD4E. Currently the odometer reads under 26,000 miles.

I'm just wondering if the tears in the weather stripping are causing my problem, or if it's something else.

Any thoughts or ideas would be appriciated.

It sounds like you have a leak or hole or something letting air getting in. In my past experiences (i.e. leaving the windows open over night in the summer ) this has caused the interior window to get water all over them from the condensation. This could explain why you have ice inside (the condensation freezes) I am not sure how big of a hole or leak you would need to cause this but check all four doors for holes. HTH

Feel around the carpet under the dash and elsewhere for wetness - in the trunk too. It takes a fair amount of water evaporation to make the interior glass sweat. Leaks are common from air the conditioner and places around the windshield, as well as the trunk. This can make the carpet or insulation damp up by the firewall.

Put it in a garage with all windows open and a fan blowing through it to dry it out.

See, that's the thing, nothing except the glass is wet. It's wierd, because even if I park in a garage, it gets wet. I really don't know what to do. I can't take it to FORD, because they'll screw it up even worse. I guess I'll just have to replace the weatherstrip.

The glass condenses because it cools quickly from thermal radiation. Sometimes leftover humidity will make the plastic damp. If I use my Green Machine to clean the apholstry the same thing happens in the evening if the car is closed up. Put a humidity gauge in the car. It should register about the same as outside. If it's high like %80 you have a lot of water in the insulation/carpet/upholstry.
This means water is leaking in, and I doubt it's at the door seal.

I have heard of the same thing happening if there is a pinhole in the heater core. How's the cooling system? Has it been serviced or pressure tested recently?

I used to have the same problem where the inside of all the windows would frost up in my 1991 Ford Escort. To prevent this from happening I just kept the driver's side window barely open when I parked it for the day or night (I had the window open less than 1 cm and that did the job).

I have no coolant loss, period. As for the interior humidity, I can't believe it's really high. When my chrysler convertible developed a leak and the humidity got up to more than 30% outside, it smelled very musty inside the car, especially in the winter. One time, I left the top and all the windows down, it rained and flooded the car till water ran over the door sills. I vacuumed it up as best I could, put the top and windows up and let it dry. I didn't get condensation nearly as bad, and the carpet squished when you got into the car. I guess I'll have to try leaving my window open.

my 95 has serious problems due to the flooding that took place recently. unfornently I got a new car a few days later and found out a month later that it did and it started molding in my trunk and the floors, Still haven't got it all cleaned up but make sure you keep the car clean and dry always and whenever possible.

One thing you don't make clear.....does your A/C compressor cycle on/off in the Floor/Defroster or Defroster positions (amount of cycling dependent on temperature settings) while vehicle is running? Does ventilator louver output temperature setting vary w/ temp selector lever position? Maybe the air mix (temp setting) is screwed up? Maybe A/C compressor is not cycling & the interior is not drying correctly?........my $.02