Anyone have a fix for the rear defroster? My light on the button/switch turns on and the top two lines on the rear window defrost but that's it. The bottom 8 lines or so, stay fogged up. Any solutions?

 

if there was ever a sticker on the window and someone used a knife to take the sticker off the could have scratched thru the lines so now they dont get power to those lines

 

Well there is tint on the window, but i'm working on getting that all off since it was a crappy tint job.

 

then the the window may have been poorly tinted then the person took the tint of and scratched thru the lines

 

Those defrost lines can be so sensitive that it's recommended you don't wash against them on the inside.

I have one wire that's broke and I'm tempted to try to find where it's broken and see about repairing it. I've heard repairing it tends to be sort of a toss up if it will actually work though.

 

I can see if one line is broke that it won't work, but sheesh, its like 8 lines that don't work. Plus the tint job is bubbly and its not even high quality tint. I'm so afraid to try and remove it because it may damage the defrost lines...

 

I don't know how it's set up but it could be one cut causing them to all not work or it could have several cuts. I still need to see if I can find the damage on mine too.

 

The power for the defroster enters the circuit at the top of the windshield so if any lines are cut all the lines below that cut line wont be part of the circuit anymore thus not defrosting the windshield

 

And the only way to probably fix this is to get a new hatch window?

 

they sell defroster line repair kits, its worth a shot, and pretty cheap.

 

if you want it to work for sure buy new window lol

 

If you connect a voltmeter to the negative terminal of the defogger on the window, and probe DIRECTLY in the center of each line, you should see approximately 6 volts with the ignition switch on and the defogger on as well. Go down and do every line, you can find which ones are bad, and where they are bad as well by moving left to right.

They are repairable, BUT only 1 inch of repair is allowed, if larger, the window needs to be replaced.

To repair it, lightly rub the area to be repaired with #0000 steel wool and then clean with alcohol, mask the line to be repaired above and below (paint will be in between the tape) paint a heavy coat of silver conductive paint, extending 1/8" beyond the area being repaired in each direction and allow 30 minutes to dry, check for proper operation with your voltmeter at the mid point it should be approximately 6 volts, apply another coat of paint and allow to dry for 3 hours before you remove the tape.

 

Thanks. That's a very helpful post. :-)

 

not a problem.