Re-Attach Rear Defroster

The wiring to my rear defroster came off from the window and I need to reattach it. What should I use?

hey BryanR. o think they sell the adhiesive at the auto stores. THe whole thing come off or just on the outside edges? contact cement would probley work but the glass needs to be above 50 deg probley to work properly.

It's the wiring and then a piece of metal that looks like it attaches to the window in a spot that has that same shape of the metal outlined.

does it still work? you should be able to find something at an auto parts store just for that. I'm not certain what you would use but not superglue or elmers, maybe the contact cement i mentioned or an epoxy, but the parts place "should" know.

It doesn't work and I went to 2 places and they just showed me something that repairs the lines in the window.

It doesn't work and I went to 2 places and they just showed me something that repairs the lines in the window.

CarQuest has the adhesive you need - it needs to be conductive so don't use anything but the correct stuff. Epoxy will hold but the defroster won't work since it can't pass the power to the grid.

Make sure that you do not let the conductive adheasive over run the intended area. The defroster is not a complete grid, there are breaks in the run so that the grid does not overheat or short out. If you happen to fill one of the intended gaps you may actually cause the grid to overheat and literally blow out the back window. It sounds like you are only going to be working in the one area I would try to apply the adheasive with a q-tip or something like that.

I don't want any one to panic about fixing something like this but I do want to make everyone aware of some posible bad outcomes if care and caution is not taken. And as for the window blowing out I have seen it happen.

P/s I used to install aftermarket rear defrosters, and I have seen the cuts/breaks in the wrong places and have watched the results, I have seen installers melt the power supply wire from switch to window as well as seeing a newly installed grid get hot and actually roll itself up along a window, (adheasive was not yet set).

Hope this helps.