[ROADSTER]

Hello All,

Well, once again DriveAccord has proven very helpful to me. When I drove the car home the first night I bought it, I noticed static on the radio when I turned on the rear defrost. Then, I noticed a week ago that my rear window defrost wasn't working right (see pic). I did some searching here and found that the 2 are inter-related in that whoever applied the window tint must have screwed it up.

My guess is that in order to repair it, the tint will have to be removed; but won't that just destroy whatever is left of the heating element (copper paint)? If that's the case, then what? In the picture, the defroster was on for at least 10 mins and it was just condensation on the glass...

 

[Alex9119]

sorry to hear, but the this is with the rear window defrost is when the heating element is cut the whole heating element is destroyed, ive seen dealers where they have to take a rear window out and completely replace it due the the defroster not working

 

[Aviography]

I would find it hard to believe the entire rear window is not defrosting from a tinting related damage in the elements, I am more inclined to believe "maybe" the electrical connector to the elements got knocked loose, so look for that first.

Also check the fuse for the defroster, maybe that has burnt out, however there is usually a good reason why a fuse pops, so if you find the fuse to be bad, and the new one to go bad right away, then you have to start looking for an electrical short somewhere.

 

[mr500cm]

I had defrosting issues with a Maxima years ago due to broken grids thanks to car washes. I bought a repair kit and with the help of a ohm meter I fixed it in about an hour. But in my case the boys with dirty towels caused my problems.

 

[nehonda]

I have the same problem with broken grid wires on my rear window and noisy radio reception when the defrost is on. Usually the damage is done when old tint is removed from the window. It seems no matter who does it (professional or DIY) a few wires get damaged and with the Accord radio antenna built into the grid it makes it noisy. I was able to fix some of the wires with a repair kit but a few "wires" had missing sections too large to repair. Fortunately I dont need the defrost very often as its usually garaged.

 

[Toshbar]

I was told by my tint guy that carbon based tint, rather than the traditional metallic based tints must be used when a defroster is present, or the metallic fibers can short out the defrost grid.