How effective are visor vents placed over the side windows to allow cracking the windows without risking mold in the interior?
Installation with double-sided tape reportedly requires a very clean surface and placement errors are uncorrectible.
How can I assure a clean surface?
How can I assure correct placement?
I recently acquired a Toyota Avalon, and am concerned about summer heat destroying the instrument cluster and multi-data display.
My prior car, a Saturn SL2, parked in the sun (there are no carports and usually no shade available) with the windows rolled up, OAT 95F, and a reflector in place, routinely reached an interior temperature that boiled water.
I never obtained precise temperatures because air thermometers broke, and meat (spring-loaded) thermometers failed to register. The reflector reduced the inside-outside temperature difference ~20%. Electric fans, and everything else I tried had no noticeable effect.
With temperatures so far only reaching OAT 97F, the Toyota’s interior temperature has yet to boil water, and feels much cooler than the Saturn. Unfortunately, in less than a month, I have 3 times now found the clock (multi-data display) reset when the temperature was in the upper 90Fs.
The battery was tested and reportedly found in “excellent shape”.
I cannot leave the windows down. Prior attempts resulted in flooding damage and mold when common but unforecast storms blew
a gallon(?) of water inside.
Most of the local cars are equipped with vent visors, usually by the dealer.
Though two mechanics said they’ve never heard of instrument clusters destroyed by interior heat, coworkers have informed me that replacing the cluster every 2 years is very expensive and unfortunately not uncommon.
I have vent visors on all three trucks and all previous vehicles and love them.
The VentVisors come with an alcohol cleaning pad plus you can get more in any medical aisle. THIS IS THE KEY to the 3M tape’s maximum adhesion.
Another key;
With the red protective strip STILL ON the visor tape, lay it up over the window where you think it should go.
This tells you several things.
Where it actaully goes ( higher, lower, forward or back ).
Where to clean with the alcohol pads.
Clean the car with the alcohol pads along the line where the tape will adhere, it will dry in short order.
Remove the red plastic srtip from the face of the 3M tape.
– Now, positioning it before sticking the tape takes both hands, one near each end of the visor. –
Trap the visor between thumb ( at the bottom edge ) and finger ( on the top edge ) about a half inch from figer tips.
Using the little and ring fingers to touch the car surface you can hold the visor a half inch away from the surface while you line it up with the area you predetermined it would go.
Now you can gently rest in on that line, then press the visor all along it’s length over the tape to adhere the tape fully.
Nicely effective. 79 pickup, 92 Explorer, 78 cordoba all black vehicles in the four corners sun.
If you get the dirt off the surface, it’s clean enough. I let the bed liner shop I bought em from put em on. Three years and they’re still there. My 02 GMC would be soaked if I had windows open without the vent visors. A drop of water gets through now and then but not enough to worry about.
I think Ken explained it best. I installed ventvisors on my 95 Dakota without any problems (in 1995). My 2000 Blazer had ventvisors when I bought in 2003. They are holding up well and still look new today. They let me keep the front windows open an inch or so year round.
I honestly don’t like the way they look on cars so I’m hesitant to put them on my 2010 Cobalt. I would use the ones that mount in the window channel instead of outside on the door frame. JC Whitney has ventvisors with the option of being painted to match the car color, they are a little pricey so I’m going to hold off for now.
Ed B.
The best ones I’ve seen are WeatherTec…http://www.weathertech.com/
These slide up into the channel and hold up very well. I’ve put them on every vehicle I’ve owned and never had a problem. I just checked and they have them for the Cobalt both Sedan & Coupe. They are also available for the Avalon.
Thanks, I’ll take a look at them. Update, I checked the site and like the light tint for the Cobalt (mine is silver). They also have ones for a Sienna and I’ll have to show them to the Missus.
Thanks,
Ed B.
Thank you all for your responses.
I purchased (70 USD from Toyota) and installed vent visors.
The visors seem to be of more-than-adequate construction in composition and structure.
Despite careful pre-planning (including pre-placement), I failed to recognize the correct installation for the first (due to mechanical distortion by the red plastic strip covered adhesive), but did get a good fit on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pieces. I believe my error will halve(?) the lifetime of the one visor, yet I still expect to get several years service from all of them.
The week prior to installation, a thermometer in the cabin reported temperatures at or above 132oF (max reading) but did not break. The week after installation, no temperature higher than 112oF was observed on the same thermometer. Both before and after, a reflector was placed in the forward unshaded window, and the rear was in shade during the afternoon but not during the morning.
Unfortunately, my electronic display problems continue, though frequency seemed to decline for about 2 weeks (during which outside temperatures rose ~10oF).
Reporting,
I found that even the aftermarket ones easy to install and effective. By the way are you a pilot, hardly anyone uses OAT?
To others who plan to install vent visors, I refer you to the instructions by Ken Green 05/12/2010 4:25:02PM, with only 1 addition. If feasible, examine another car of the same model with the same visors installed.
Now that I have done it once, I suspect I could repeat the installation correctly on the same model car, in less than 20 minutes (not counting time to remove existing visors). The resulting adhesive-filled gap is uneven by less than 1mm. So far, there are no leaks, the visors seem firmly attached at highway speeds, and few if any would notice the, less than 5mm, cosmetic asymmetry.
Without an animation, or 10min demonstration, I can’t think of anything that would improve the instructions.
I think my error, and 10min time, is the difference between professional installation and my amateur installation.
I am a pilot. Are you?
Learning, training and trying for now but someday…someday !!