Rear Defrost not working.....

[jay917]

My rear defrost not working on my 2000 SLE. When I push the button on and off I hear a clicking noise from behind the panel but for some reason the back window does not defrost. So it doesn't seem like a fuse because the light comes on when I push the switch in and I hear that clicking noise. By the way, Is it suppose to make that noise? I looked to see if there were plugs on the back window to see if maybe they were disconnected, but couldn't find any plug in. Any thoughts as to what might be wrong? Thanks in advance.

Jason

[JoeB]

Jason, I don't know and I'm surely not an expert on this and have no manual with me (on the road). I'll take a SWAG and hope it helps you though.

Unlike the old defrosters where you turn on the switch and it would just keep cooking, many car manufacturers have come up with ways to limit how long the defroster stays on. People would forget to turn them off and defroster lines would burn open. One very simple way is a timer but that wouldn't do for every circumstance. If you have a lot of ice to melt, the defroster grid wouldn't heat to the point of burning because the ice would be cooling it vs. a very light frost which would be gone in a few minutes. So how long do you set the timer? One setting might not melt all the ice and another might still damage the defroster grid.

So another way is to sense the amount of current draw and once it draws a certain amount of current (draws more current as it gets hotter), a switch would shut it off (in case you forgot to). If that was the case, it could be a faulty switch or a short in the wire past the switch causing it to draw too much current. Either of those scenarios might cause that clicking noise you are hearing.

Again, this is all hypothetical and I have no idea if this is right or not. Just trying to help and it sounded good when I thought of it. -JoeB

[krook]

jason:

i too have no idea about the the defroster, but i'm sure of one thing though. this is in the wrong thread.

[ICrazyChrisI]

Have you had any tint removed?

[jay917]

No I haven't had any tint removed. The lines look good. Must be something with the switch I guess. You hear the clicking noise behind the console when you push the button on or off but it never defrosts the window. The light stays on also whenI put the defroster on.