This is a new one on me, so I'm wondering if anyone else has ever experienced it:

 

Went out to my car after work yesterday (coldest weather so far this year in Cleveland with a below zero wind chill). There was a little frost on a couple of windows which I scraped off, but when I got to the windshield I realized that the frost was on the INSIDE and covered the entire window. Not wanting a bunch of ice scrapings all over the interior, I sat there for 10 minutes while the defroster slowly cleared it.

 

Of note here is the fact that this windshield was relpaced a couple of weeks ago by Safelite- would that have anything to do with it?

 

Of all the cars I've owned throughout the years, I've never seen anything like this. Does anyone sell a window cleaner that might prevent this from happening in the future?

 

But I have had frost on the inside of the windshield and windows many times, when I lived in city with a cold climate.

I use to get this on my old car when it got really cold, warm car, cold air. If you park inside or have one of those window guard thingys you could leave a window cracked just a bit to get some air. You might also try something like rainx anti-fog..

I get frost on the inside of the windows quite often.

 

I think that this happens when there is residual moisture inside the car, e.g. if the carpets are wet or damp. With the inside of the car warm, as when driving, the amount of moisture in the inside air is high. Leave the car overnight in cold weather, and all that moisture condenses out as the temperature drops, and freezes on all exposed surfaces, including the inside of the windows.

 

A couple of ideas: Keep the inside of the car as dry as possible, especially shake off water or snow from shoes and boots. And lower the heater setting to 'cold' for the last few minutes of driving before parking the car; this reduces the ability of the inside air to hold the moisture, and the ventilation system will bring in colder (and drier) air into the inside of the car; not a very popular trick with my passengers, but it works.

 

And if you park under cover, leave a window either cracked-open, or if possible fully-open.

if you had an over amount of moisture inside that would cause it. You may want to try leaving a small heater running in it overnight to try and dry things out. The suggestion about leaving the window open a little bit helps too.

Having Carpet mats that retain water will not help either. I got some replacement rubber mats from mall mart and then can just dump the water out of them when I get out of the car at night.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

I just thought it was really strange that it was only on the new windshield and not on any of the other windows.

I get the same thing in my Forester when the mats are good & wet. Once I dry the mats it's no longer a problem.

I live in Iceland and this happens all the time. This happens when there is a moisture in side your car when you park it.

Only happens on the inside of my windshield, too. Not the other windows. I wonder if it has something to do with the angle of the windshield glass and heat dissapation patterns.

 

My Saturn did the same thing here in Michigan. ONly the windshield. Drove me nuts.

 

(I don't have a garage)

 

Those deep plastic/rubber mats are nice, they do make it easier to keep things dry.

Happened to me two weeks ago, very frustrating! Spent five minutes scraping and had everything covered with frost shavings. Try running the defrost (turns on AC), this should also help reduce moisture.

I got the same thing this week 3X! Kinda sucks when you are in a hurry to get to work on time. Has anyone noticed that it takes it forever to defrost! I will have to try the cracked window trick.

I dont have a solution, just a story. Used to drive my air cooled VW bugs in the dead of northwest Ohio winter, bugs of course being notoriously poor for heating. The windows would actually continue to build frost inside even after having driven 15 miles at 60 mph! I kept a scraper handy to clear front and side windows while driving!