XerotC

Just putting this out there as one of the quarks about the tC. The thin vinyl cover shade does not block out heat. It feels like heat is literally radiating into the cabin from the ceiling like an oven, and even with A/C it feels like hot and cold air is mixing above your head.

This past week it finally started feeling like summer here in LA. Before that, we were fortunate to have perfect 70-75 degree weather with a nice cool breeze the past month or so. Today when i left my car parked out in the sun, it was the typical hot, stuffy air that is usually in a car left out for that long. but when i started driving and letting the A/C run, it still felt hot. My dad who was sitting in the passenger seat pointed out that he can feel heat radiating from the vinyl cover separating us and the moonroof glass. I touched the vinyl and it was burning hot. if you hover your hand over the vinyl or just had your head below it, you can feel heat radiating from the cover. normally the A/C would mitigate the heat and all would be fine, but today, being hotter than the past month and since i got the car, it felt like the cabin air was mixing the heat from the ceiling and the cool air from the A/C creating a bizarre hot and cold atmosphere. if i hadn't had my a/c running i don't think it would have been bareable. now i'm dreading the rest of summer cause today was not a hot day, it was just hotter than normal. i know LA summers can go for way hotter and longer. also i'm kind of worried about all the heat going directly to my head while the rest of my body is cooled by the a/c, giving me a false sense of not being burned.

i really hope the glass is filtering most of the UV rays cause all that heat going to my head cannot be safe.

i knew the thin vinyl design for the moonroof cover was kind of a bad idea. reviewers in auto websites said they were worried that it was very durable, but now another flaw is the really poor heat resistance the cover provides.

boricua3230

Maybe you should try putting some very dark tint on the glass. Obviously if the sun hits something directly, it is going to get hot which explains why the cover which is getting direct sunlight was hot when you touched it. Having a glass roof, this is something you will unfortunately have to deal with. I live in Miami,Fl so I know exactly how you feel. We have NASTY humidity here as well but to me once the A/C gets going I feel just fine.

XerotC

tinting the moonroof is controversial. ppl say that convection between the glass and the film might cause it to explode while others say its no problem at all.

but what i'm getting at is, this is a design, engineering flaw. the vinyl is not thick enough (or maybe vinyl is a horrible material to use period) to keep the heat out of the cabin, and the glass actually focusing the heat in. i know its a moonroof, ofc this is what i'm getting myself into, but my dad's rav4 has a moonroof and theres no problem with heat because the rav4 has a thicker piece of material between the glass and cabin. can this be fix? no because nothing is broken, this was designed this way, but now we are starting to see the design flaws with this decision to use thin vinyl instead of the regular thicker materials in other moonroof setups.

Blackedout011TC

iTrader: (2)

Welcome to the joys of owning a cheap black car...I feel your pain. Nonstop 100F+ down here for almost two weeks. I could care less about the sunroof. Temp fix would be to trim a heat shield for windshields to fit the hole, shove it in there some kinda way. You would not be able to see it. Ghetto, but I may just give it a try anyways.
Here you go Scion, another 500 dollar option part. Retractable, insulated sunroof cover. Be sure to send me 10% of the profits.

heydan

That "cover" is essentially useless in a car with panoramic sunroof. The cover isn't like others out there. It's flimsy, and if you look at the sides, you can still see sun light through it. It's just the way it's designed. It looks great, but they could have made the cover *better*.

But then the sun directly shining at you through tinted or non-tinted windows, it's still going to feel very uncomfortable.

chicotunner07

just a tip, you can try insulating the cold side a/c piping with pipe insulation from home depot/lowes, if you open your hood you can see the cold side sweating almost as much as you, lol

in super hot weather i think it definitely helps, especially in stop and go traffic, i should have tested with a vent thermometer before and after, but just common sense tells you it should have been insulated from the factory, my 95 civic has the piping insulated, never understood why all new toyotas are not.

KidJustin

agreed, but not sure how much thicker it can be really

keep in mind the double moonroof means that the cover has to roll/wind up for it to work. not like other cars with one moonroof where their cover can just slide/hide

jman07jb

iTrader: (5)

I actually noticed the EXACT same thing today!! Coming out of work going to school i got in my car, extremely hot (101 degrees outside), then i rolled the windows down a bit to let the heat escape a bit, rolled em back up and closed everything in my car and even turned on the AC full blast and it was STILL really hot... That tint idea might be a good idea forsure

donsun

just get a piece of styrofoam cut it to fit and shove it up there lol

MightyP

iTrader: (1)

As KidJustin said, the vinyl is about the only way you can go with the double moon roof. It won't provide as much insulation as a solid moon roof cover (which is really just cardboard with material anyway), but it's really only designed to keep out light, not heat (or cold).

I found pointing the 2 middle vents toward the roof works the best. It reduces the cold feeling you get with the air blowing directly on you while sending cool air where it's needed most. Since cold air sinks, it will naturally mix with the hot air below it and give you a nice ambient temperature.

I do think I'm going to do what chicotunner07 suggested and insulate the ducting. I've noticed the fan is mediocre in stop-n-go traffic.

MightyP

iTrader: (1)

Oh, and if you're gonna insulate the moon roof so you can't open it, go the Northerner route. Simple cling wrap and a blow dryer make great insulation and lets you still see through the glass. Not to mention it's about $1 for "parts"

XerotC

now i'm wondering, what will the heat do to the vinyl cover in the long term. will the heat cause it to tear in the future?

dropzone

Run the A/C on vented(?) air(Recirculate button OFF) when you turn it on and it'll get cooler faster, then roll up windows and put A/C on recirculate to keep cool. Just make sure you're not following a diesel fueled vehicle or one with smoke pouring out the exhaust lol.

KidJustin

I worry about that every day....

or even with the windows open and the wind flapping it around...

even if it doesnt tear..will it loose its elasticity? will it start to droop?

bignoog

I've had my roof limo tinted for almost 3 years and it was the best thing I've done to my car so far. It makes a huge difference in how cool the car stays. It still sucks but it's better than it was before.

DEF3NDER

That's the bad part about having the first model of a new generation. I'm sure the TC2's over the next few years will have addressed these little issues.

NickF127

It was in the 90s and sunny here last week, cant say I had teh same problem. But dude you have a panoramic roof and dark interior. And black exterior. You should have expected this.

XerotC

i should have done and anticipated alot of things in my life, but thats besides the point. its a fallacy to say anyone should have expected anything to happen based on a series of variables.

there are alot of things about this car that is new to me. first car with a moonroof, first BLACK car, hell, its my first new car. i've been on this forum for a good while before buying it and i know alot of the quarks about the 2011 tC before buying it, including the the vinyl cover. i read online reviewers say that the cover seemed flimsy and not very durable. i also know that black cars are several degrees hotter than other cars as well. i was expecting that. but the problem isnt that its hotter than another color car, its that you can FEEL heat waves going through the cover. its short of having a blow dryer above your head blowing hot air at you. also the all glass roof is the same for all color tc2s, its not because my car is black(the top of the tc2 isnt color keyed). i tinted my side windows and they are cooler than the moonroof above my head.

should i have expected this? i guess so, but this hasn't been outright talking about on scionlife, and if i was a new owner doing research i would like to see a thread like this. besides i'm not really complaining, my first sentence said i was just putting this out there.

donsun

for me, the worst feeling in the heat is the feeling of heat radiating from the dashboard after leaving the car parked outside.

keeev

My vinyl has this little wavy form near the plastic handle which I realized after leaving my car in a Toyota Autobody shop to fix my bumper. It was hot for the week that it stayed there and I believe they left the window open which caused it to lose its shape a little.