'06 WRX rear Defroster Niighhtmare

[Jon H.]

About a week after I bought the car in May I took it aftermarket for
window tinting. Now (5 months later) that its getting cool and damp in
the mornings I notice the rear defroster doesn't seem to be working.
It appears that the S-Balls who did the tinting cracked the male/female
electrical connection which powers the grid. That's right...The male
dingus was cracked off and jammed in the female whatsis rendering both
connectors unuseable. The beauty is that they didn't tell a sole and
stuck it all back together with Crazy Glue!!!! The time of year was
perfect because I had little or no use for it until recently. I had an
electrician friend of mine do a wire & solder job bypassing the damaged
parts...Works OK but I'll be surprised if it lasts. True to dealer form
all they can suggest is replacing the window on my insurance dime and
probably having to go through the idiot charade of actually breaking the
window to assure the coverage, and that would only take care of half the
connection!!! Does anyone have any idea where these electrical parts
can be obtained??
Thanks in advance Jon H.
Pls. post and EMail

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

About a week after I bought the car in May I took it aftermarket for
window tinting. Now (5 months later) that its getting cool and damp in
the mornings I notice the rear defroster doesn't seem to be working.
It appears that the S-Balls who did the tinting cracked the male/female
electrical connection which powers the grid. That's right...The male
dingus was cracked off and jammed in the female whatsis rendering both
connectors unuseable. The beauty is that they didn't tell a sole and
stuck it all back together with Crazy Glue!!!! The time of year was
perfect because I had little or no use for it until recently. I had an
electrician friend of mine do a wire & solder job bypassing the damaged
parts...Works OK but I'll be surprised if it lasts. True to dealer form
all they can suggest is replacing the window on my insurance dime and
probably having to go through the idiot charade of actually breaking the
window to assure the coverage, and that would only take care of half the
connection!!! Does anyone have any idea where these electrical parts
can be obtained??
Thanks in advance Jon H.
Pls. post and EMail

I would think body shops deal with this regularly. I have no idea if the
parts might be available from the dealer, but an online source I've used
is www.subarugenuineparts.com . Also, I wonder if those parts have
changed much recently, a junkyard might have them.

Carl

 

[Dmitriy]

What's the problem with the soldered connection? IMO, as long as the
current can flow through it, and it doesn't short out anywhere... it's
good. If you want, you can probably get a connector of some sort at
Radio Shack and have your friend hook that up.

Like I said, if it works, and doesn't start stuff on fire, just leave
it... it's not worth the trouble replacing the rear window over.

 

[anselmo1]

What's the problem with the soldered connection? IMO, as long as the
current can flow through it, and it doesn't short out anywhere... it's
good. If you want, you can probably get a connector of some sort at
Radio Shack and have your friend hook that up.

Like I said, if it works, and doesn't start stuff on fire, just leave
it... it's not worth the trouble replacing the rear window over.

I had the same problem years back on my 1995 Honda Accord when I had
the windows tinted by Ziebart. The back window defroster didn't work
after their tint job. I had to buy a new rear window, and then take
them to small claims court. I won the case and Ziebart had to reimburse
me for the cost of a new rear window and tint. Total bill came to over
$500.00 which they had to pay. About 6 months later, they went out of
business because of numerous consumer complaints.