How To Repair Rear Window Defroster Terminal
Minivans are sooo handy. You tin cram nearly of the Free World in the back. Like, for case, that 8-ft. aluminum ladder you just bought. Yous didn't fifty-fifty accept to tie the dorsum door shut--there was just plenty room to close the hatch with the ladder resting on top of a pile of stuff. And it rode across town without incident. Except that information technology shifted backward a couple of inches, into the window and the electric spade lug that carries current to the defroster grid, neatly popping it free of the glass. To add to the injury, the grid is scratched in three places, clear downwards to the bare drinking glass, causing an open circuit that will leave a 6-in.-broad swath of frost across the window come wintertime, correct at eyeball level.
These electrically conductive, heated grids on the rear window are literally painted onto the glass. They're reasonably tough, but it'south possible to damage them by letting cargo rub against the glass, or by scraping off a window sticker or the tinting film. Even a credit menu tin can damage the grid, so limit anything that touches the glass to a clean rag and some window cleaner.
Bad news: A new rear window can be more than $400, including installation. Adept news: You can set it yourself for less than 10 bucks. Really. First past going to the car parts store and picking up a rear-window defroster-grid repair kit and/or a defroster tab repair kit, depending on the impairment you need to fix.
Window Prep
Begin the repair process past using your soft material and window cleaner to thoroughly remove all dirt, dust, dog drool, ice cream smears and greasy handprints from the rear window. Make clean information technology inside and out because you need to be able to see through the drinking glass to discern the breaches in the grid. More im-portant, you demand to give the conductive paint or adhesive a clean surface to stick to. Where's That Scratch?
We removed this Escort tailgate from the car to make the photography easier. Y'all tin pinpoint hard-to-see scratches in the grid by chasing the voltage drop with a multimeter.
You'd think it would be easy to find a scratch deep enough to interrupt the period of current through the grid, but experience says otherwise. So, drag out your trusty voltmeter. Actually, even a 12-volt test light volition work. Turn on the defroster grid. Measuring from 1 side of the filigree to another, you should encounter bombardment (system) voltage a picayune over 12 volts. You marked which line or lines in the grid didn't work on that final cold or rainy morn, correct?
Put the probes of the meter on the damaged grid line at both ends, right where the grid connects with the wide motorcoach bars. Move i probe--information technology doesn't matter which--to the center of the line. If yous now read 6 volts, the scratch is not in between the two probes. If you read the same system voltage, 12 volts or and so, the break is in between the onetime probe location and the new one. Just move the probes until you straddle the location that has full arrangement voltage spanning it. Now information technology's fourth dimension to turn off the defroster filigree and the ignition switch--defroster grids are high-current items. Leaving the grid powered up for more than a few minutes will drain the battery.
If you have a very sensitive ohmmeter, yous can discover scratches this way by measuring the resistance along the grid, without powering up the system. I've done this on windows that were off the vehicle, similar when I checked a filigree on a junkyard liftgate of questionable provenance earlier I lugged it home.
Proceed Within the Lines
Okay, got all the breaks in the grid lines identified? Use a grease pencil on the outside of the glass to mark them. Now clean the surface area you need to patch with lacquer thinner, mineral spirits, rubbing alcohol or inexpensive vodka to remove any terminal oily fingerprints or rest. The kit nosotros bought had a peel-and-stick mask to be applied to the drinking glass. For a neater job, just use some masking tape and make the repair only every bit wide equally the grid. Don't touch the surface or y'all'll leave fingerprints. Shake the small vial of conductive pigment thoroughly, and simply brush the paint over the scratch. Look a minute and add a 2nd coat. Wait a minute longer, and remove the masking. Yous can use the defroster inside xv minutes or then.
Tab A Into Slot B
The procedure for repairing broken-off electric connectors is almost equally straightforward. Similarly, clean the area with lacquer thinner or alcohol to remove any oily residue. We took a small file to remove a couple of burrs, so the tab would lay flat on the glass. Our kit came with a vial of accelerator to complement a small pouch of conductive adhesive. Snap the glass vial of accelerator to release it into the applicator swab, and wet the surface of the drinking glass and the back of the tab. Allow information technology to dry for five minutes. Knead the adhesive pouch for a minute or so, and snip off a corner. Put a couple of drops on the tab, and lightly printing it to the glass for 60 seconds. Don't glue your fingers to the tab or the drinking glass--and don't ask how we know this is a bad idea.
Allow this adhesive to cure at room temperature for 24 hours earlier trying to reattach the wiring harness or using the defroster.
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Source: https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/a2073/4221212/
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