I'm wondering about how long it takes for your rear window defroster to:
1. start defrosting the window
2. completely defrost the window


The other day I parked outside overnight, and then in the morning I drove it about 20-30min. on the freeway from point A to point B and it still hadn't defrosted completely. I don't know if it's broken or if I just hadn't noticed before since it got very cold recently, and I almost always park in a garage?

 

okay it will on depend on how much it needs to defrost. are you talking just a little frost? or 6 inches of snow?
mine works pretty quick, defrosted a few inches of snow in a few minutes.
and you said 30 minutes, was the defroster even still on? it shuts off after a few minutes and you have to turn it back on. it usually takes a few times of turning it on to defrost everything.

 

Yes, the defroster was on the whole time. By the time I got to point B (20-30 min. later) it was almost done defrosting.

No snow, just some thickazz frost...

 

Hmmm, actually this is one of the things I like about the car. My rear defroster takes only 2 to 3 minutes. Yesterday I had a thick layer of ice and I ran the car for a couple minutes and most ice was gone, what was left easily slid off in chunks.

 

i would say there might be something wrong then. mine work very well and very quickly.

 

Not to be a smart a$$, but I have no idea how long my defroster would take to totally remove frost or ice from the rear window.

Once the defroster starts to melt whatever is there, I use an ICE SCRAPER to clean the rear window so I can see out of it before I start driving. I actually do the rear window last, and do the other windows first.

 

my defroster clears everything up in 2.5 minutes. its the pieces of snow thats screwing it up

 

seems like something is wrong but I have no idea what...in NH we just had snow and rain that froze. I turned on the rear defroster and let it run for maybe 2 minutes and I could see the lines coming through so I cleared it with a brush.

 

Mine works on clearing the outside great, but last night the ice on the rear window caused condensation on the inside of the window. The rear defroster did clear that.

 

Definitely agree. I always scrape it before getting on the road. But my rear defroster takes a few minutes. Anything longer and some connection maybe loose back there.

I'm just glad the front defroster doesn't enlarge the chip in my new windshild

 

I have noticed the same thing. It has been snowing here like crazy lately and it takes about 15-20 minutes or sometimes more before the window clears up nicely. I have thought about taking it to the dealer but I can only imagine the ordeal I'll have to go through for them to actually fix it if there is something wrong.

 

Well I made an appointment to take it in the day after New Years, so I'll have them check this out among other things...

Thanks for the replies everyone!

 

I have the same problem, it takes forever to remove frost. I brought it in last year to have it checked out and the dealer said after testing it, everything was fine. So i dunno

 

you might want to be a bit hesistant using the defroster if you have tinted windows...

 

why, exactly?

And please don't start with "the heat will crack the window"... ask anyone in the south or southwest and they'll tell you their windows get hotter than hell and they don't break.

I had my tint done in Jan in NH and used the rear defroster to cook the moisture out. Worked fine, no bubbles, no broken window. So why, exactly, should he not use the defroster on a tinted window?

 

no, it wont crack your window. But tint is a thin film of plastic, and with enough heat, it will cause the tint to eventually shrivel up. It happened on my old honda...I was just saying based on experience...maybe it was the tint job, but i got the same guy to do my maxima and I hardly use the defroster and nothign has happened yet. If you use the defroster all the time and no problems, thats a good thing, but my problem happened over time and after about a year and a half or so.

 

a quality job with decent tint will not shrivel up. I've had mine on for over a year and it's gone from over 100 degrees this past summer to 3 below zero... no problems. I also turned the defroster on at 3 below zero and had it heat up and melt the crap off the back window, then shut the car off and had it refreeze... no problems.

Quality tint should not be a problem.

 

Your right, I just asked one of my buddies and he said exactly what you said. He said the summer heat is alot more than what the heat of the defroster puts on your tint. I guess the first time I just got a crappy job. Sorry about being wrong.

 

Mine takes awhile too.. Maybe it's Seattle?

I remember reading about the maxima's defroster being inferior in a road test a long time ago. Maybe they fixed the problem?

 

My window defroster takes too long also. When i leave work it is done defrosting about 10 minutes later, about two minutes before my house.

 

how many of you guys who are having problems with the defroster have tinted windows???

i know mine works like a champ takes about 7-8 minutes to clear the frost fro mthe back window completely...i timed it once

 

True, I have metallic tint on the back window, but that shouldn't affect it right?