Hi everyone,
It is HOT here on the west coast and I can't seem to keep my car from turning into an oven when it is parked outside. I have a BCP with Lluma tint at 15% on the four windows and hatch and I use a sunshade made for the tC for the windshield. Is there anything else I can do? I keep all of the windows and moonroof closed but I noticed that some cars in the parking lot have their moonroofs tilted open. Would this help?
It seems like most of the heat is coming through the glass roof and moonroof shades. I wonder if there is any way to put a reflective material between the shades and the glass of the moonroof to keep some of the heat out? Any ideas anyone? -Jayme

 

maybe you can try to put a car cover and let us know if it works :D

 

Im in SoCal, Riverside to be exact. Its been in the hundreds the past few days. I crack my windows and open the moonroof to the first position. It helps, but not much.

I have the OBX shift **** and I burnt the palm of my hand the first day I had it, a little over a month ago. I now have som crappy ___-ed open-finger gloves I throw on when it gets that hot. Some have suggested getting something to cover the shift **** but I would forget to put it on when I leave the car.

Its definately hot when I get in it at the end of the day, but run the AC for a minute with the windows cracked - to push the hot air out of the car - and then turn on recirculation when it starts cooling off and the cab will cool quickly.

As for the specific question, does opening the moonroof help? I'd say yes, if you crack it a little it will allow some of the hot air to escape, but don't expect it to keep the cabin cool.

 

Too paranoid about a car cover scratching my car, don't know how much that would help either unless it was reflective or insulated. -Jayme

 

It might be a good idea to leave your windows cracked a little bit to allow the hot air to escape. With everything closed up it kind of becomes a convection oven in there. The moonroof in the tilted open option might work as well, again allowing the hot air to escape. All depends how comfortable you feel not leaving your car sealed up tight. Other than that, like NJ said, the car cover could be an option but that would get old real fast. Just my opinion...

 

I move my car around the parking lot and keep the moonroof cracked open. Basically try to park in the shade - in the morning it's behind my office then at lunch I move it over on the other end of the lot where we have couple of trees - it's too far, so nobody parks there.

The car cover would help a lot, but it's a pain to put on and take off. You might get used to it, though.

 

park in a garage? Next to a BASUV?

I agree with the thinking that the heat is coming from the suncrack. I'm 1/2 tempted to put some blackout tint on it.

 

Wow, Zoltiz! That is determination. I have found the perfect parking spot where nobody parks next to me, but unfortunately, it is in the sun for a good part of the day. Shady spots are few and far between as our building is only one-story and there aren't very many trees around. -Jayme

 

I have a garage at home, but at work, it's just huge open parking lots. "Suncrack"? I thought about tinting the top of the car but have heard conflicting reports about this. A couple people have claimed that it will cause the glass to break. I don't remember where the threads are on this, but it sounds like it could be a no-no. -Jayme

 

Leave the sunroof tilted AND close the vinyl shade. The shade has vents in it, and it will stop the sun from hitting the dark interior. But in any case we are screwed - you have a BCP, I have a BSP. B is a bad color for hot sunny days. But it looks too sweet ;)

 

The sun shades that you place inside the front window will lower the temp of the car dramatically.

I have a car cover I use which actually keeps the car pretty cool when I get in during the afternoons. It's insulated and has a metallic finish on the exterior. If you're interested in the cover, I bought it at Cabe Toyota (562)595-7411.

-Steve

 

Check Target for a product called SPV - Solar Powered Vent. It's a little fan powered by a solar panel. It comes with a hardened plastic track that goes over the top of the window and then you roll the window up pinching it in the crack. The track keeps you from having a big open gap when the window is down slightly. It needs to be on a window thats not tinted, they say, but might still work some, depending on how much light is still getting thru. It pushes air out with its little fan which will draw fresh air in from the cars normal venting points. It's not going to be a huge improvement, but it seems to help when I have time to put it on in the AM.

Also, when you first get into the car, roll down ALL the windows and let the AC start. Just a few minutes of air flow generally cools the interior of my Box a lot faster than trying to make the AC unit do it. AC doesn't really cool things, it removes heat. So the lower the heat of the air going in, the quicker things will start getting colder

BTW, the SPV runs about $20...

 

Come up to S.F. some time. The weather has been foggy and cold almost the entire summer! I'm actually hoping there would be a little more sun so I can show off how my flint mica shines

 

Come to Tracy on Saturday, you'll get all the sun and heat you can stand... :D

 

I used the tint on my benz....had the same style sunroof and it help soooooo much Good luck..

 

Did you by chance have a C class sportcoupe? There are complaints over on the BenzWorld forum about that car's panoramic roof because of the same creaks the Scion roof demonstrates (see previous thread).

I hope Toyota researched the tint they specified for this car and used what they considered the best compromise between insolation and visibility. The problem with the tC roof is that there is no way to have a solid inner sliding sun shade like other cars have. The tC's sun shade has no space to slide, so instead they have used a thin piece of vinyl that rolls up between the two openings in the roof. If I get one of these cars the first thing I'll do is get a 1/2" thick piece of styrofoam sheet and cut it to fit exactly in the space below the front skylight. Then I'll close the sunshade to hold it in place each time I leave the car in a sunny location. That might help absorbe some of the heat. Sort of like one of those folding cardboard windshield shades that you put on your dash.

 

I am an architect and I'm sure other architects on this forum would agree that the best way to control the heat is to keep it out in the first place. Clear glass lets the heat come in and all you can do is use ventilation to remove it. Tinted glass absorbs the heat and re-radiates much of it into the car when it has absorbed all it can. Skylights on buildings always use architectural double-glazed panels so there is an air space between two layers of glass to help absorb the heat and keep it from radiating into the interior. The surfaces of the glass within this airspace are tinted and/or coated with materials that absorb or reflect light and heat. Reflecting the heat is the best way to deal with it but that has aesthetic implications.

The tC roof is black--that doesn't reflect much. Here are some ways to reflect heat:

 

I have had 2 and not a sound out of either....but let me say the AC was ice cold and that did make it awesome....never heard a sound...and I would have taken it in...it was such a quiet car....the only problem is how much they lost in value.....but still thinking a getting another or the new slk in dec....

 

how about getting a sunshade? i have a silver reflective (rolled up when not in use) that i bought from target a couple years back.. it really cuts down on the heat.. The other trick if toyota does it too, is that on my old Honda Civic if you leave the recirculation mode in fresh air (outside air) it causes a convection to set up and lets air into the car and out the back end.. maybe toyota has this too??

have you tried leaving it in fresh air mode?

i think also the sunshade (any kind) would help cut down on the heat... try both of those and see if that is any help..

 

LOL Welcome to my life. Consider yourself lucky that you aren't in the 110 degree Arizona heat like I am.

I was going to suggest a sunshade specifically for the tC, but you said you have one. You could always put an auto start system in your car, so when you are leaving home/work you can start the car a few minutes before you get in it, to give the AC time to circulate.