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I had a tad bit of frost once and fog a few a times it worked fine. Fog started to clear up about 15-20 sec after I turned it on. The frost took about a min or so.
we've had it all so far in chicago, ice, sleet, snow, no problems with the rear defroster!
Originally Posted by nn432100
Yea the chicago area is getting pretty crappy this year but I on the other hand like the rear defroster just fine. I just wipe all the snow off and the defroster takes care of the ice in like 2 mins.
+3. Chi has had crappy weather. Obviously it won't melt an inch of snow quickly, but it melts the ice just fine. Get it checked out.
Koz is absolutely right, the defroster on the IS is pretty weak. I live in the D.C. Metro area, so it gets pretty cold. When I go to start my car in the mornings, the rear window will be completely foggy, turning the defroster on will have zero to little impact on fog/frost. It takes on average of about 10-15 minutes for the defroster to do its job. thats just WEAK, I mean the side mirrors heat up real quick but for some reason the rear windshield does not get heated up.
I don't know if there is unit-to-unit variation in defroster performance, or just in expectations. With a thin coating of frost on my rear window, the car takes no more than a minute or two to start forming a zebra-stripe pattern - with clear areas near the wires - giving enough visibility to see what is going on behind me. It takes about 10 minutes to finish the job. Not as powerful as the rear defroster in some other cars I've owned previously, but not terrible either. Compared with my seat coolers which truly are so weak as to be useless, my rear defroster is superman .
I have no tint. Forget about snow, it won't even clear a slight foggy window. It clears about a 16th of an inch. The fog will only clear after the interior heat reaches the rear. This is ridiculous!