I picked up my car in June, had window tint all around, so i figured the back window defroster may not work. Winter comes around- I was right. I gave it a close look, and there are multiple points in the matrix that are f*ed up.
What are some solutions to this problem? Any homegrown techniques? I was thinking of putting a blower with 12v heater, but i have no clue where to find a heater that would work.
I saw a heater thats made to defrost windows at walmart, it plugs into the cigarette lighter... You'd have to mount it creatively to have it be permanent, but it would work i think.
well pull of the tint and/or they make rear defrost repair kits. its jsut electic-like paste, of course you will have to slightly scrape of sections of tint to apply it but worth a look
My car may run 18s, but I can do your taxes in 10 seconds flat.
JBO lube - they would never have enough in stock and we'd never see RodimusPrime again
I understand (and have) fixed a defroster. I guess what I should have said is, I want to not scrape tint off, and the idea about the 12v heater is what I will probably what I will do.
I Think a 30 amp fuse is a bit weak for a decent heater, so i may and will run a 0awg wire to power anything I put back there, I may make a vent that will mount in the trunck and vent through my back deck, that is, if i can find a heater strong enough.
the distortion/lack of adhesion of the tint to the dot matrix is a common problem. (alot of places will not tint the back window of j-bodies.. however if you get a good tinter they can usually get it to adhere 90-100
.. however it should not affect your rear defroster at all.... so chances are your rear defroster was screwed up before it was ever tinted.... when i had my 89 sunbird the rear defroster never worked so I would simply go out and manually scrape off my back window... if it was still a bit foggy then once my heater was warm i would crank it on defrost setting and that took care of clearing up the back window 100%
When a tinter puts it on, smoothing it out can break the matrix. Many hold no warranty on the back window because of it. Either way, it doesn't work, im thinking about carrying some de-icer spray in a bottle to use on it
Have you checked that it's getting power?
A common problem with J-cars is the green connector by the driver's A-pillar... the heavy guage wire overheats and melts the connector. A jumper wire usualy fixes this problem..
does the dot matrix actually have anything to do with the defroster though???? I never thought it did considering it has no heating element in it...
No, the dot matrix is just there to annoy window tint installers
The grid lines are the only part of the defroster, the dot matrix has nothing to do with it. If you have a volt meter, check at the two terminals for voltage (should be 12 volts across the two with the defroster on). If there's no voltage, the problem is in the supply, not the grid.
Funny story, snowing today, driving around I hit the button for @!#$s and giggles, and about 75% of it was working, one line on top and 3 on the bottom were not.
John, any more info on the common J problem? My fathers 03 Cav's defroster is DOA, with no voltage to it.
Well... you can either test the supply wires with a voltmeter... or check the connector I referred to. Pull back the carpet on the driver's side A-pillar, where the hood popper is. There's a couple of connectors... one big black one, a small black one, and a bright green one. The thick wire in the green connector is the suspect one.
I know exactly what your talking about, Ive run plenty of wire through there....
thanks Lenko!
