85 hatchback 4X4

rear defogger button light works but nothing happens

i have a voltage meter where do i start ???

fuses are fine

If you have power at the two connector on the rear window, then there is prob. just too many breaks in the heater wire on the rear window. On one sub I just have 3 or so wire that are broke. All the others work. The other sub there is like 20 that are broken and the whole system doesnt work now. Ive seen repair kits that just sortof glue in place over the original, bridging the break in the wire. I havent tried them though. Im not sure how the wire travels from the switch to the rear window, but I suspect that it is pretty well protected. The ground may be a problem that isnt so well protected. And I think a little more prone to failure or loosening.

Good luck

Mike

I used one of those kits and it worked well. ($.02)

i second that. before the kit, i had one line that worked, its an easy brush on, and now i have like 7.

 

-Kelsey

+3 on the kit. Just get the one with the little vial of copper solution or you can solder them too. Get a piece of aluminum foil and attach it to one of your meter leads. Attach the other lead to the main junction point where current comes into the defogger at the base of the window. With the car running and the rear defogger on, set the meter to 20VDC and slide the foil lead along each wire. You should normally see a uniform voltage drop across the wire, but the voltage will drop to zero or close to zero at the breaks in the line. I did this during the cold wet season, so I used a hair dryer to warm and dry each spot before applying the copper stuff. And clean it really good with alcohol. There may be mulitple breaks in each line, but I think you have to wait until the stuff dries before you can test that, maybe not, I can't remember for sure. The kit comes with a stencil for one repair, but I just used tape to mask each one and did multiple repairs at one time. Also, I used a dry-erase pen to circle the break points because it is easy to lose your spot when you go from meter to masking. Good luck, it's tedious, but it's definitely nice having the rear defogger in Washington and Oregon during the winter.

You should read 12v between the tabs on either side of the window. If you don't get anything there, find a good ground and measure both tabs again.

 

If not, pull the cover and make sure you don't have a wire hanging loose that goes to one of the tabs. I've had that happen before.

Thanks this helps me out alot too. I was thinking of asking the same quesion myself..and YES in WA you need a defroster.

I had no luck at all with the silly kit. I had about 150 breaks in mine and that little vial did about 10 of them. Would have cost a lot of coin for enough kits to fix my mess.

 

I used a silver paint pen for electronic work. Maybe not as pretty, but it got most of them working again.

 

Oh - this is on my abused '83 hatch - same body style as your's.

 

GD

I would check the relay after fuses.

Maybe I will try the pen.. Right now it is not working at all. (still need to make sure that the power is there light comes on up front nothing happens.). My other subie 3 lines are not working so not as bad.