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rear screen heater/condensation.

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:30 am
by SoonerV8
It's that time of year, damp and often cold, which have manifested two issues;
1. Condensation!! To me it seems pathetic that the owner of a modern car has to resort to a sock filled with cat litter!
2. The useless nature of the rear screen heater. I drove to a friends last night, 12 miles of rear heater and not one jot of difference. I double switched too. Hell I have a 50 year old MGB which clears a bigger rear screen in 10 minutes!!
Generally I love the car, but these niggles I find difficult to comprehend.
As an aside I thought I would check the fuse and the timer relay. Handbook.................useless! I gave up on that!

Re: rear screen heater/condensation.

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 12:01 pm
by HouseSpider
It sounds like the rear heater is not working at all. Mine is evident to be working within a minute. The only niggle is that it doesn't switch off for at least 15 minutes.
Do your wing mirrors demist when it is switched on as they are all connected?

Re: rear screen heater/condensation.

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2019 5:20 pm
by Gadgetman
My 2017 is exactly the same. Door mirrors heat up no problem, the rear screen works (just) but may as well not bother. As for the front screen, I have two 'cat litter' bags in there but still have to squeegie the inside unless I can spare 6 or 7 minutes to wait for it to have an effect.

In truth, it's enough of an issue to make me not consider another. And no, it isn't leaking.

Re: rear screen heater/condensation.

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2019 6:24 pm
by BWJ
HouseSpider wrote: Sat Nov 30, 2019 12:01 pm It sounds like the rear heater is not working at all. Mine is evident to be working within a minute. The only niggle is that it doesn't switch off for at least 15 minutes.
Do your wing mirrors demist when it is switched on as they are all connected?
rear heater can be set for 15 min. !

rear.GIF


Re: rear screen heater/condensation.

Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2019 11:18 am
by SoonerV8
Yes the door mirrors are pretty good at clearing, but as Gadget man said, the rear screen defogger is useless. Yes it is set to 15 minutes and, as I pointed out, even 30 minutes doesn't do it. You can actually see the heating elements have "warmed" up, but obviously not enough to heat the glass sufficiently.
"In truth, it's enough of an issue to make me not consider another. And no, it isn't leaking."
Those are my feelings too. I would happily sacrifice the heated steering wheel, the lane departure warning (which I turn off anyway) and the fairly useless SatNav, just to be able to drive on a cold damp morning without it taking me 15 minutes to demist the inside of the car first.

Re: rear screen heater/condensation.

Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2019 2:25 pm
by HouseSpider
Weird! In the hard frost of yesterday my rear screen defrosted within 3 minutes. The wing mirrors are somewhat slower but do the job within 10 minutes.
I don't seem to get excessive inside condensation either. I wonder if it's anything to do with inefficient or faulty AC not extracting the moisture out of the air as it should.

Re: rear screen heater/condensation.

Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 12:03 pm
by santa
I have to say, that I also find the rear heater (and wing mirrors as well) the weakest I've ever had in a car.
It works but it's a fair bit slower than my previous cars.