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2011 Impala moisture issue

3K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Kdallmann 
#1 Ā·
Hey all,

I have a 2011 Impala, and I've had an issue with moisture forming on the inside of the car, on the windshield and side windows. I haven't checked for certain, but I'm 99% sure it isn't a heater core leaking. I haven't noticed any loss of coolant and because the moisture doesn't have an oily feel to it and it doesn't have a burning sugary smell that I've smelled in cars in the past that were leaking coolant from a heater core (again, not going to swear by it that it isn't the issue).

The weirdest issue (when it was at it worst) I found a wet spot back in the trunk area over on the driver's side, and down in the bumper area (behind the carpet in the truck) I found a big pool of water that was there. Looking around to find a way to get the water out of there, I found a little rubber cap that was up under the car in that area and drained the water, and I thought that was all my issue was and it did seem to get better, but I'm still having the problem (and it's been dry back in the trunk area since).

I took it to my local mechanic to have him check it out because I looked all around the car trying to find out where the issue might be. The day he worked on it, he could see the moisture that had condensed on my windshield (that morning), so he saw the same issue I've been dealing with. He checked everything he could think of that might be the issue as well. My mechanic tried pouring water all over the windshield, back glass, side windows to see if there was a leak around the windows, blew the ac drip hose clean to see if there was water collecting in there for some reason. He also checked the carpet around the heater core and it was dry, and around where I found the water in my truck and everything was dry, nothing. Luckily, my mechanic was pretty cool and didn't charge me for anything since he couldn't find the issue to fix it. The only thing he could think of is there is a duct open to the outside air that isn't closing or maybe a crack somewhere in the vent system. I think he might be right because the other day (about a week or so ago before Christmas), I was warming up the car and had the defroster on and the windshield didn't have hardly any moisture on the glass, but after I fired up the defroster, it seemed to get more moisture on the window than I had before (unless the moisture was simply in the car already and it was condensing on the cold glass šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø).

I will tell you guys, this car is a salvage title car, so I understand that some of you guys will probably point to that as my culprit that its a POS and it wasn't rebuilt right, but I was told by the people I bought it from that the only damage that they repaired on the car was some outer fender bender type damage and that was all. Overall the car seems to be a pretty good reliable car, but this is really the only issue I'm having with it.

Thanks
 
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#3 Ā·
I have the same issue with moisture on the inside of windows my 2012. Do you notice the A/C stinking like a wet sock when you first turn it on? It's a common issue for the A/C evaporator coil on these cars to muck up with mildew and hold nasty water. I'm pretty sure that's what causes mine. It's the water evaporating from the coil, coming up through the air vents and condensing on the glass surfaces. As far as the trunk goes, that could be rain leaking in through the tail light cover. Also a known issue. My rear quarter actually holds water sometimes. When it get's cold, I can hear the ice sloshing around back there.
 
#4 Ā·
Yeah I have a similar smell when I run my AC a little, the car itself has a bit of a mildew smell to it, so it might be the same issue your having, I'll try and check it out (could be more than one issue, and thanks for mentioning it).

I think though, that I might have a possible solution to my problem, or at least one of them, and I can thank Dfelt75 for the help with this. Today I went out and checked my cabin filter to see if it was wet, I didn't notice any moisture on it (it hasn't rained or anything in a few days, so it might have dried out by now). What I did notice though, is that my fresh air blend door was closed, but according to my car it suppose to be open. I tried everything I could to get the door to open and it wouldn't, hitting the indoor and outdoor air buttons on the console. When I went to O'Reilly's I asked those guys what might be my issue and I showed a picture of the amount of moisture I get that forms on my windows (posted below, its not all the time, but usually right after it rains and the sun comes out and it warms up the air in the car). The guys there thought that maybe since my fresh air blend door wasn't functioning, that maybe its collecting moist air in the car and it just keeps recirculating it, making it get steamy and that collects on my windshields and windows when it's cold. So this afternoon I pulled my glove box and started to take out the actuator, and good lord, I know there's worse jobs, but my gorilla hands had a hell of a time getting in there with a stubby socket wrench to unbolt the old one (why put the damn wiring harness right in the damn way šŸ˜¤). I ran out of daylight (that and it was 30 degrees and dropping) so I've decided to finish this up on a warmer day when I have more daylight.

I did goof up though, and maybe you guys might have done this, but the replacement Dorman brand actuator that I bought (cost about 35$). I guess you have to clock the actuator a certain way to put it back on the stud that goes to the blend door. Once you do that (per instructions) you have to disconnect your battery and let the computer reset the actuators (if you don't have a scan tool to reset everything). Well, when I pulled the old one off, I didn't notice it working, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't maybe the wire was bad, so I plugged in the new one and it spun, but then I noticed in the installation paperwork to NOT do that because its preset to a certain direction. I fiddled with the old one and I found that you can pop the tabs up and get in there and move the gears to certain spots so I could reclock this thing. Do any of you guys know where I need to place output gear on the actuator so I can get it realigned, or do you think O'Reilly's might take it back and exchange it for a new one?

Picture of the rear passenger side window when the moisture is real bad, it can look like that throughout the car sometimes (though usually just the windshield).

164027
 
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