Rear defroster on Solara Convertible weak?

[kevdog]

I have a 2007 Solara Convertible and the rear defroster is about the worst on any car that I've ever owned. It barely works at all. I had the dealership check it out and they said it works fine. Anyone else experienced this or know of a fix?

[Rich C.]

Kevdog,
We have had the same problem!! We have had 3 tops installed on our 2007 Solara Convertible since may of 07. Good thing we bought the extended warranty at $3000 a top these things are not cheap. Just picked up the car today from its latest top install. They finally figured out the tops are defective from the manufacturer. One of the dealerships tried to tell us nothing was wrong too so we took it back to the dealership we bought it from CARMAX Toyota of Laurel, MD. Great customer service and they tested it three ways to sunday before and after installed it and figured out the problem of "bad tops". If your dealership won't listen to you have them call CARMAX and talk to their service guys they know the scoop. Hope you get it taken care of. See Ya. Go Pats!!!!

[gemini11]

Mine is a non-convertible and is pretty bad as well. Up here in Canada we need that feature a lot in the winter.

However its a small thing for me to complain about. the car has been great otherwise..

[bbooth]

We have had three tops on our 2005 SLE Convertible as well. This last one has now stopped working and we are out of warranty. The dealer here could not tell us why the problem kept happening and claimed they hadn't hit it before. Glad we aren't the only ones out there. I guess I will be the defroster for my wife's car.

[JHC]

I thought it was just mine! I can tell that it sort-of works, but I have had LOTS of cars with rear window defrosters, and I've never seen anything as weak and ineffective as this thing. This is the original top and glass on my 2001 convertible. It is obviously not a broken filament or wiring issue, as you can see that it is doing "something" albeit awfully little. It must be that it is not getting the proper voltage or amperage. I have had several other Toyota's that had great rear-window defrosters (most recently a 2004 Tundra). It must be something specific to the convertible.