Goodbye, defroster...

[Kevin Standeven]

So I start my car this morning, and notice the hatch window is completely covered on the inside with condensation. Sweet. So I hit the rear defroster button, and notice tendrils of smoke coming from the middle of the hatch window. What...the crap...
Apparantly one of the defrosting lines decided to short out. I couldn't really tell in the short trip I took afterwards, but it looks like that line is no longer working on the rear defroster.

Is there any way to fix these lines, or is it some kind of special decal you order to replace all of them, or what?

[Fraser Cassells]

Crappy used to sell a repair kit for indivual lines, its like a iron on idea. another thing to watch for is corroded terminals on the hatch wire, they can get hot and break over time.

[Mike Schmid]

You can get paint on stuff too from Lordco.  Comes in a tube with a little line stencil.  I think it's just conductive paint with a fair bit of resistance.

[John Hartman]

yea they use that sort of thing at work for customers cars.

You can do it Kevin

[Scott Girvin]

I got in my car this morning to warm it up and noticed that it had rained and froze over night. When I got back to the car I noticed that the crack in the windshield had expanded the rest of the way across the front. Sucks, but it needed to be replaced anyway.

[Leon Hui]

So I start my car this morning, and notice the hatch window is completely covered on the inside with condensation. Sweet. So I hit the rear defroster button, and notice tendrils of smoke coming from the middle of the hatch window. What...the crap...
Apparantly one of the defrosting lines decided to short out. I couldn't really tell in the short trip I took afterwards, but it looks like that line is no longer working on the rear defroster.

Is there any way to fix these lines, or is it some kind of special decal you order to replace all of them, or what?

Yup there exists.  Go to CDN TIRE or LORDCO (where ever cheaper) and buy the defroster repair kit.  Both places sell the same thing (made by permatex.  Basically it's a small bottle of conductive lacquer and a small paintbrush with a stencil.  

What you do is get some masking tape and tape up the area to paint and then just paint over it, 3 layers total, a layer at a time each waiting for it to dry.

Quite painless actually..

But try repairing it when you have tint on the rear window!!!  :shock:
That's what I had to do...  :!:

[Kevin Standeven]

perfect, I was hoping it'd be that easy.
thanks for the replies