Hi all,

My heated rear window is nicked and broken. The elements are well past their best and obviously the circuit won't work & therefore neither will the heater.

My question is this. Can I remove the element from the hatch glass? Will it look ok? Can I get a replacement without getting a new hatch? Maybe a stick on thing?

Thanks,
Felix

 

I had seen once before that JC Whitney had a replacement for the rear window elements. I think it would be and entire element replacement and that it would all be on a sort of plastic base. Maybe check that out?

 

Felix,
There are repair kits for the defroster grids which applies new material across any breaks. But if it's as bad as you say (all the grid lines are broken) it would be quite time consuming to repair them all, but would likely be your best bet, as I imagine finding a used hatch over there would be difficult, and getting a new one would be plain expensive.

Pete

 

Thanks guys,

Pete, definitely worth considering a repair kit- possibly can get away with it. I'm vain though so it would have to look 'right'. The main thing is the car is rarely (if never) used over Winter so it isn't a priority. I think I am more concerned about whether it would be easy enough to remove ok? Will it leave marks on the hatch glass? It's just sticky backed right?

Thanks again,
Felix

 

You might want to make sure if the wires are embedded in the glass at all. Im not sure.

 

Felix,

A company in the UK called 'Frost' stock repair kits for this (and also do other nice things like POR-15, anodising kits etc). I haven't tried it myself so I don't know how 'right' it would look.

Their web-site address is http://www.frost.co.uk. One product that might do it is here:- http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?productID=8934

Best of luck!

 

Thanks Gordon, will check it out

Hope all is well & Happy Christmas!

Felix

 

Hey there -
Haven't used one of these repair kits yet either, but I did see a rather detailed explanation of how they work in a book. I think it would not look bad at all. It seems as though you sort of mask off along the original strips and then apply a type of metallic paint or metallic epoxy in a fine line to connect the broken ends. If you mask correctly along each side of the original wire strip, it seemed to me that the result would be a perfect, fine defroster line that would be functional too. I guess I'd recommend learning more about the kits - I guess if it does take some extra work but the end product is just like new then it might be worth the effort. My two cents of course. Merry Christmas!!
Kevin

 

I used the repair kit on a non thirdgen car. It worked very well, but the color of the kit did not match the color of the stock defroster grid wires. The result was that looking from the outside of the rear window, you could see off color lines where repairs were made. I'd do it to my thirdgen too if the defroster wasn't too far gone.