I got a car a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed a strange problem: every 3 or 4 days a strange haze appears on the inside of the windshield. It washes off with window cleaner, but it’s sort of annoying since half the time it’s not noticable until I get into bright sunlight. The stuff, for lack of a better word, wipes up leaving tannish marks on the paper towels.
At first I wondered if there was something leaking around the frame of the windshield, which might explain how the stuff got on the inside- since I don’t leave the windows down over night and I’ve yet to use the AC or vents so nothing from it is blowing up onto the windshield- but we’ve had a lot of rain, and not so much as a drop has gotten in.
I was pretty stumped, but when I mentioned it to a coworker she said she knew someone with this very problem. The cause, he discovered, was that there is some sort of chemical in the dashboard that is released into the air when the car’s interior heats up. If this is the case, it sounds like it could be unhealthy as well as causing a dirty windshield. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know what exactly he did to fix the problem, but seems to remember something about talk of coating the dashboard with something to seal it.
So, are there specific products to coat the dashboard? If not, is there something safe I could use to do the job? Or am I going to have to keep a roll of paper towels and a bottle of window cleaner in the car at all times?
Can’t help you with your problem but I have heard that the above leads to ‘new car smell’ - which I personally find sickining.
It isn’t just the dashboard. It’s the seats, the headlining, the carpets, the door linings and the soundproofing. All of them, and the glues used to hold them in place, contain residual volatiles which will keep evaporating out for months.
You can increase the ventilation in the car by opening windows (keeps temps down, which keeps some fumes down and filters some fumes out), and you can reduce the heat by using a window screen.
You might make it just a little bit better.
Some info.
"What is the major source of this hazy film?
Ford Motor Co. received enough customer concerns about this problem that it issued a Service Bulletin to all dealers in October 1996 informing them that “The fog/film is caused by some of the chemicals used during the manufacturing of the interior trim. At the present time there is no known field fix…” Chevrolet notified it’s service departments in a May 10th, 1972 Bulletin which defined the problem precisely "This film is due to the natural migration of certain ingredients used in manufacturing plastic interior components. These solvents or plasticizing agents are secreted from the plastic components when subjected to high ambient temperatures and subsequently condense on the relatively cooler surfaces of the vehicle such as the windshield and body glass. “Honda Motors addressed this same problem to its dealers in mid 1996. The glass industry calls this phenomena “outgassing”. We see it as a hazy blur.”
http://www.nuviewplus.com/about.html
And, of course, you can buy something to make it easier to remove by treating the glass in advance.
Whenever I buy a new car, I carry a bottle of Windex and a rag under the front seat for the first few months.
This is supposed to be a pretty standard occurence with a brand new car, as others have mentioned, because the volatile solvent chemicals used in the glues, plastics, and epoxies that make up so much of the interior tend to condense on the windows.
But the cause might be more positively determined if you tell everyone:
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Is it a brand new (as opposed to new-to-you-but-used) car?
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Does the haze form on the other windows too, or just the windshield?
I’m only wondering because, as you may already know, a heater-core leak can cause a film of engine coolant to condense on the windshield. The condensation of the volatile chemicals in a new car would be expected, to some degree, on all the windows.