Hello. I recently re-soldered the "hot" +12V connection for the rear defrost on our 2001 Monte Carlo. Now when I try the defrost it appears to work ok but I'm not 100% sure its working as well as it should. Right now, when I touch the outside glass above the +12V connection to the Defrost grid it is very warm. Putting a light coat of snow on the back window it does melt some. However, the rest of the glass is not nearly as warm. The entire exposed bar on the side of the vehicle that lost the defrost connector is measuring 12V so it would appear that I am getting good contact. I am a bit confused why the area above and around the 12V connector gets so warm while it doesn't spread the heat quickly out over the entire window.

Perhaps this is the way it is supposed to work but I don't normally drive this car. Can anyone tell me if this sounds like normal operation or even better see if it behaves the same way on their car?

I would say that the solder connection is good. I was going to add more solder(I didn't have any silver solder on hand at the time so I simply heated what was already there). However, given that if I measure the metal contact of the +12V connector it reads the same voltage as the exposed bar on the window itself it would appear that it is good enough.

 

unfortunally it sounds like there might be some of the heat sinks that run across the back window may have some sinks weiring out. they are easy to find how to find them that are not up to par is go by one by one with a volt meater. and see what the voltage is. after that it might be needing to be repaired there is a repair kit for them but it is ocward to use but it does fix it.

 

Just checked my 2002 Monte ss... We have frost on the windows up here in Canada every morning at this time of year... The 2 contact points (passenger & drivers side) get warm, but not hot... I ran the car for 10 minutes and the defrost works evenly across the whole window... Hope that helps...

 

Aren't those coated with some material? Can you measure the actual grid itself with simple contact volt meter probes?

Is the contact on the upper-driver's side of the back window for the antenna? Just curious.

You are implying that I would just check closer and closer to the passenger side contact and I should see the voltage constantly decreasing as I get closer to the passenger side contact right?