foggy instrument cluster

Burint · Burint's Garage

Hi guys
Has this ever happened to you?
The instrument cluster in my 86, 930 has the condensation built up in side.
It happens in less than 30 second after I start the engine.
The moisture slowly disappear after driving for 20-30 minutes.
What's wrong???

billybek · billybek's Garage

Bad windshield seal?
Water getting into the cabin and gauge cluster. Gauges might heat up slightly when car is turned on and you get foggy gauge glass.

Peter Seow · 09-14-2010, 04:50 AM

Water is filtering into your at this rate the carpet should be damp esp in since it's raining everyday. I am singapore I had some fog about seven years ago when i could not get a covered car park at my work place and than i bought a car cover. When the A/C is on. it clears up. Since i ve got a cover carpark it has not happen. It raing every day now and i use it everyday. I will be driving from Singapore to Thailand via ****et, this year nice Country. Any good paint shops i noticed the restored cars over there look great. The paint shops in Singapore are only willing to do a fast over coat no anti rust so it a waste of money doing a paint job here.

Burint · Burint's Garage

Thanks for both advice.
There's no leaking windshield seal.
The interior is always dry.
Forgot to tell you, the moisture gets in on one gauges only.

Peter, please see the link here:
http://thaiporsche.shutterfly.com/
And see the 1973 gulf blue RSR, this is probably one of the top three garage in BKK.
You might have to wait a bit, they are busy garage.
The other option is to go to AAS, the official Porsche importer.
They have their own paint shop behind the showroom.

Peter Seow · 09-14-2010, 05:18 AM

From ONE gauge yes it usually just one it the same one. Mine the water was from the fresh air vents the seals around the fresh air vents was leaking a bit. it the first gauge near the fresh air vents where the water pools it hard to notice cause all the water flows to the out aound the fuel tank just as soon as you move i put powder to test it. and than i found out. I wonder how much are AAS charges do you happen to know? I stripped out all the last few owners of repaint than hand roll the paint myself at least the rust has stopped

Drisump · Drisump's Garage

This seems to be a VERY common complaint with 911's. My windscreen seal doesn't leak either, the car rarely gets wet, but I do live in a humid, cool location. Like you, the instruments usually display this for the first 20-30 minutes of driving. Unlike you however, my car is worse when it's below 20c (in Singapore and most places in Thailand are never that low) and my Targa roof is off. Last winter I removed the instruments from the car placed them in an area in my house that is well ventilated and always 30c or more , hoping that the humidity held within the instruments would eventually equalize to the environment they were stored. Six months later I reinstalled but I have to say, I never noticed an improvement. Some Pelicans have drilled holes in the back of the instruments to alleviate this condition, and claim to have had some success doing so. I haven't tried this, but it doesn't bother me enough to pursue further. Cheers

Burint · Burint's Garage

Peter,
The whole process from striping, rust repairing, painting and assembling is around $6000-$6500 U.S. parts not included (31 baht:$1.00 exchange rate)
I estimate on the high side.

uwanna · 09-14-2010, 06:27 AM

Fogged gauges are endemic to the '66-'89 911 species!! Do a SEARCH on fogged gauges/instruments, and you will find copius dialog on the topic!

Peter Seow · 09-14-2010, 06:28 AM

Thats sound ok with as long as the do the job, over here is Singapore, most dont do the stripping, they will do a light sand down some welding but NO, strip to primer and no recoating of the rust proof so a car looks good here only for a while. Yes it's cheap but dont expect a proper job.

Wil Ferch · 09-14-2010, 08:02 AM

I have a theory why this happens and have not seen anyone confirm. The backside of the instruments are made of and shaped like a galvanized cup and are exposed to the trunk area atmosphere. If you have a bad trunk weather seal ( or just an imperfect thrunk weather seal) ....OR.... if the mastic around the shock towers is missing ( as it needs to be if the car had an alignment) and mositure can enter thru those shock tower areas...then the "cold" air hitting the backside of the gauges can make the air inside the gauges cold and make the gauges fog up. Some people DO solve this in a kludge-sort-of way by drilling a small weep hole in the gauge canister near the bottom, so that seems to help. But this doesn't solve the atmospheric mechanism as to "why" it happens in the first place.

Peter Seow · 09-14-2010, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wil Ferch

I have a theory why this happens and have not seen anyone confirm. The backside of the instruments are made of and shaped like a galvanized cup and are exposed to the trunk area atmosphere. If you have a bad trunk weather seal ( or just an imperfect thrunk weather seal) ....OR.... if the mastic around the shock towers is missing ( as it needs to be if the car had an alignment) and mositure can enter thru those shock tower areas...then the "cold" air hitting the backside of the gauges can make the air inside the gauges cold and make the gauges fog up. Some people DO solve this in a kludge-sort-of way by drilling a small weep hole in the gauge canister near the bottom, so that seems to help. But this doesn't solve the atmospheric mechanism as to "why" it happens in the first place.

interesting theory. i believe your right ever since i changed out all this seals i disappeared for some time.

Rev-it 84 · Rev-it 84's Garage

Mine did it also, on humid days the far left guage would fog up. My sollution was to remove the guage open it up, hair dry from the back and seal openings with elect. tape. I never had a water leak, I figured that the foging was caused by temp differential.

sobamaflyer · sobamaflyer's Garage

Interesting, I too have only my pressure/temp gauge that fogs up. Oddly, since I've owned my car it's been housed exclusively in my garage and since it has no top it's not seen rain.

I do live in southern Alabama which has atmosphere generally like a steam shower but the one gauge fog thing is an oddity nonetheless. I was wondering if this used an electrical sending unit or a hydraulic one but surely it's all electric? Obviously this hasn't been high on my priority list

Rev-it 84 · Rev-it 84's Garage

The temp\pressure gauge is purely elect, they are separately removable from the gauge housing. My concern at first was corrosion of the electrical mechanism, but the fogging never damaged anything. I suspect that the fogging is caused by either the close prox of the left interior vent or the hood seal allowing moisture to being more prevalent there. To get rid of the fogging you most likely need to dry the gauge housing because once in it cant dry on its own (inclosed housing).