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240 Snow blowing through air ducts?

wyatt8740

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2017
Location
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Sorry, this is probably a 'noob' question, but I haven't been in a 240 in winter for many years until now:
When I start my car after it's been snowing powder snow, if the blower is on, before the car is warmed up it'll spray that powder all over the car's interior in a fine 'mist.'
I'm wondering if this is normal and I'm just doing something stupid, or of this is something I can fix. It doesn't make driving with glasses on particularly convenient.

Of course, it stops spraying snow after a minute or so of light driving, once there's enough heat to melt/evaporate the snow and (?) once most of the snow is clear from wherever the intake is for the heating system.

Is the intake in the cowl or something?
 
Makes sense to me - the line between the air intake just in front of the windshield throw the blower fan and throw the air ducts to the vents is fairly direct with no filter or anything. Not sure there’s anything you can do, although a snow/air scoop would help keep snow from falling right in...
 
Snow caps will solve the problem, but so will contact lenses or lasik.
 
Would pressing down the re-circulation button stop the blower motor from pulling air from the outside?
 
Quickie edit: ^^^ what he said ^^^

Press the re-circ button until it starts to warm up. There's a big spring-loaded flap on the front of the air box that selects between interior air (from firewall just above your feet) and exterior air through the cowl slots. With re-circ in, the spring holds the flap in the interior position.

Once warmed up a bit, pop the re-circ out. There's a vacuum actuator that closes the flap and draws exterior air in through the AC evaporator and Heater core. Hopefully, the warmed up heater core will melt the the dry loose snow before it gets to the vents. Turn on your AC [snicker] if the windows mist up.

In the Summer time, if you have a vacuum leak in the interior hoses, it can cut off the exterior air coming in but you may still get gusts of fresh air as you slow down and draw max engine vacuum
 
Quickie edit: ^^^ what he said ^^^

Press the re-circ button until it starts to warm up. There's a big spring-loaded flap on the front of the air box that selects between interior air (from firewall just above your feet) and exterior air through the cowl slots. With re-circ in, the spring holds the flap in the interior position.

Once warmed up a bit, pop the re-circ out. There's a vacuum actuator that closes the flap and draws exterior air in through the AC evaporator and Heater core. Hopefully, the warmed up heater core will melt the the dry loose snow before it gets to the vents. Turn on your AC [snicker] if the windows mist up.

In the Summer time, if you have a vacuum leak in the interior hoses, it can cut off the exterior air coming in but you may still get gusts of fresh air as you slow down and draw max engine vacuum

Yeah I sometimes hear that flap squeak when I hit the button. If I have a vacuum leak it's minor (I hear a hiss, but everything still works like it should there).
And the manual says not to use recirculate for heating. Do you know why that is?

I do the AC thing for misting up already.
 
And the manual says not to use recirculate for heating. Do you know why that is?
If you leave recirc on for a long time, the moisture in your breath will eventually fog up all the windows.

The only thing to avoid is leaving the fan off until fully up-to-temperature, and then blasting it with defrost button in. This can crack the windshield, especially if there are pits near the defrost vent outlets. On all my cars, I usually turn the fan on low as soon as the temp. gauge starts to budge, then crank it when up to temp.
 
Is there any affordable snowcap out there? Or should I just improvise with cardboard or something?

I really hate the thought of spending $150-200 on a bit of plastic...
 
Lots of cars do this if you don't brush the snow off the hood and drive off without letting it warm up.
If you do let it warn up a little but don't brush snow off the hood the windshield fogs up from melted snow moisture.
The later one is what I end up doing. Got almost a mile of gravel so I drive slow, then hit the highway get up to 60ish and fog the windshield. Then it's a few miles driving looking right over the dash until the windshield clears up.
A smart, non lazy person would clean the snow off and maybe put it on floor heat for awhile. Or even clean out the dammed garage. ;)
 
Is there any affordable snowcap out there? Or should I just improvise with cardboard or something?

I really hate the thought of spending $150-200 on a bit of plastic...

You might spend that or more on a spoiler and other cosmetic upgrades. Think of it as cosmetic and functional with value added to the vehicle. Like nice wheels for example. Snow caps are worth it if you can get them. But I just usually do what is described above. Clean the snow off. Then letting it warm up and not running the fan till there is some heat.
 
had cars that did this, be dam careful I've had the thermostat open and melt the snow and instantly cover the inside of the windshield in blinding ice
 
Keep in mind that the recirc flap may no even work - if you hear any hiss when you push that button in, then the control pod is leaking and is useless, like mine, and the flap is stuck open (fresh air). I don’t know how hard they are to replace on 240s but on mine it’s impossible, so I took a coat hangar and wired the flap shut until I can tear out the whole air unit...
 
A smart, non lazy person would clean the snow off and maybe put it on floor heat for awhile. Or even clean out the dammed garage. ;)

If my family didn't have their 'nicer' cars ('18 V90, '07 V70R) filling the garage, I'd have mine in there.

You might spend that or more on a spoiler and other cosmetic upgrades. Think of it as cosmetic and functional with value added to the vehicle. Like nice wheels for example. Snow caps are worth it if you can get them. But I just usually do what is described above. Clean the snow off. Then letting it warm up and not running the fan till there is some heat.
I try do do what the manual says and drive my car to warm it up rather than letting it idle. I typically do brush the snow off the hood, so maybe that's why I didn't notice it until I was in a hurry last week.
Once I have dough again I'll likely invest in some caps. Or I'll give up and try to 3D print something to hold me over.

Keep in mind that the recirc flap may no even work - if you hear any hiss when you push that button in, then the control pod is leaking and is useless, like mine, and the flap is stuck open (fresh air). I don’t know how hard they are to replace on 240s but on mine it’s impossible, so I took a coat hangar and wired the flap shut until I can tear out the whole air unit...
I can hear the flap squeaking when I hit the button and I smell the stale air, so I know it's working ;)
 
3d print some snow caps? That would be fun.
Yeah, the school I go to has 3D printers, so if the beds on them are long enough I think I'll try it, with rubber bumpers or something to stop them from destroying my paint. Not sure if they'll hold up with PLA plastic in the wind, though... I think they have that kind of bendy stuff, too. Might try that. Or ABS of they'll let me.

Without any enormous high-res pics of the parts with measurements to go by, I won't be able to make one look exactly like the originals, though.
 
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