rear defrost

[Edmond]

The lower 1/3 of the rear defrost is not working. The rest of the defrost lines are working fine. Is this a common problem?

I'm going to get my windows tinted soon and I want to take care of this problem before I go and do that.

Has anyone had any conflicts with tinted windows and the rear defrost?

[Zandro]

The rear defroster won`t be big problem when youre
tinting your window, just as long as you clean the
window propperly before you do it there wont be any problem.
As for the broken lower 1/3 of the defroster some of the threads
are probably burned of, this can be fixed with a defroster repair kit

So clean the window, repair the defroster, tint the window

[Cyorke]

Yeah some of the threads as you call them may have been scratched. The reapair kit Zandro is talking about is more or less a paint atht conducts electricity. Get some of that and give it a shot. IF there are several lines that are not working it is more than likely going to be the side that is damaged. Where the electric plug is and then runs into the window. The main band that runs vertical on the window. Look for scratches that may have gone all the way through the original and try touching it up. If you can not repair it this way you may call a glass shop and see if they ahve any ideas. I think the only other way to repair it is to replace the rear window. I may be wrong though.

[Edmond]

It is like 3 or 4 of them in a row that aren't working. It's mostly the lower ones. For $15, I'll try touching it up to see what happens. The thing is, I just don't see how they can get scratched because nothing is back there. It is very rare that I will even have a passenger in the rear seats so I don't think anyone else could've scratched it.

As for replacing the rear glass, that is out of the question because I can't justify spending the money on that when my car is worth less than $1,000.

[Zandro]

You just need to look at the threads very closely, i can guarantee that
you will find tiny fractures in the threads, my gen2 Camry had 3 threads
that wasnt working and i needed a magnifying glass to locate them,
only needed a minute amount of the defroster repair paint to fix them.
They where probably burned off over time because of poor conductivity
leading to overheating in that spot.