I agree totally not enough heat on the window and certainly no heat under the wiper blades. You've got to heat the cabin and use an ice scraper. (Don't drive until your windows are clear!!! It's a NJ law now) (I've got a 2011 XLE, Rockland County, NY). Heated mirrors and rear defrost wires are good......

 

Have the same problem this morning with the front windows not defrosting in a timely manner.
And this was after coming back out to the van after taking my child into her daycare. I had to sit about 4 minutes for the front window to ever so slowly clean up.
I just picked up our Sienna this past Saturday, Limited awd, which so far has done ok in the snow and slush.

 

It has the same heating system as m 2008 which is also inadequate. If you send 100% of the air to the windshield or even 50%, your feet get cold.

 

2011 LE - The defrost is horrible. I've also found the heat production does not start soon enough after a cold start. It is the worst I've experienced in any vehcile I've ever owned. I hope Toyota Motor Company reads these boards.

 

agreed, it's slow.. even for southern california morning dew. our temperatue gauge read ~58 degrees and it still took almost 5 minutes to defrost the mirrors

 

agreed, it's slow.. even for southern california morning dew. our temperatue gauge read ~58 degrees and it still took almost 5 minutes to defrost the mirrors

The interior defrost system has nothing to do with the exterior mirrors on your van. If you have heated mirrors and they are turned on and take 5 minutes to defrost there may be something wrong with your heated mirros.

 

Just finding out the exact same issue with new 2011 Sienna SE in Eastern Canada. Was seriously thinking of heading to dealer to see if there is a known issue here. Toyota FAIL on not fixing this.

 

I guess this is as good as a thread as any to ask... how do you keep the mid and back windows from frosting up? We were on a 2 hour drive earlier this week, and the cabin was warm, but they all frosted up. I tried positioning the ceiling vents above the windows to blow on the windows the best that I could, but it didn't help. Any ideas?

On a side note, I heard that people rub WD-40 from a cloth on the rubber seals around the sliding doors to prevent freezing. Is that true or was my buddy FOS again?

 

no.. wd40 will rot your seals.. well.. potentially. Silly-cone grease for gaskets. Probably hidden somewhere in that horrible manual they come with. (really toyota get real with these manuals. Indexes... ever hear of them? 800 pages of crap I'm not looking for)

I don't know if a lot of you have never owned a large interior volume vehicle before, but yea, rear and mid windows will sweat and ice in anything big. Just like they do in your house if you don't have double pane. I've not owned mine for too long and it's been dry, but I haven't had trouble with fogging, and I don't let my car idle to defrost. I just scrape and use my de-ice windshield washer. The defogger keeps the kids and me from fogging up the windows while driving just fine. I don't think interior defrosters were ever designed with getting snow off windshields.. or even serious frost. That's what a scraper is for.

The car does take a long time to heat up it seems though. ((10 times longer if you are trying to do it at idle)). My 4.0 1gr heated up quite a bit faster than this 2gr. I did sleep in the van a couple times on a trip cross country in 30-45 degree weather. when we woke up the windows were all fogged over on the inside. Cleared right up pretty quick. Think its just the rather colossal size of the thing. Still only has so much coolant to spread around.

I do feel the fan is a bit weak. But it always is in these automatic systems.

 

???Anyone in the North East feel the defrosters on the new van are poorly designed / not functional???? I posted on the weekend and the post disappeared ie went away?? It seems that there is not enough air flow to properly melt the ice/snow, I know the idling in the driveway doesn't get the motor hot enough, But I drove the other day with 2 "silver" dollars openings for twenty minutes,.... I did finally pull over and clean but..... . I had it up to the dealer they said nothing wrong I hope this isn't an inherent characteristic. I have never had this before and it issss an important feature that can beeee taken for granted!!! Any input would be greatly appreciated dave from New Jersey

Dave, Noticed the same thing with a light frost/ heavy dew covering the windshield. On AUTO the heater does not kick into HOt mode for a while. I turn up the blower speed with the rear heater turned off. With both, the heat is split and takes a LOT longer. The outside mirrors and rear window, defrost a lot quicker.

Anyone with a 2012 that defrosts faster than the 2011?