rear defrost not working. help!

yewdontknowmeyewdontknowme Band Wagon
in Electronics, Fueling & Air Conditioning
91 civic wagon

So my defrost isn't working on my rear windshield. I'm pretty confident it's not the strips because I replaced the glass with another I found and still getting the issue.
I took a cheap test light to the passenger side wire that runs to the strips(green wire), and turned the defrost on. It lights up so I believe I am getting power to it.
now I could be wrong but I believe the other wire (black wire) is ground.
I thought I might have a ground issue, so I spliced into the ground and found a place to ground it.
Still... No defrost.. I am kinda stumped now.
if anyone has any input it would be much appreciated...

Comments

  • NobiZeroNobiZero New Wagonist
    Hold a light to the rear glass from the outside and look for spots on the grid that the light shines through from the inside. Once you find them, it's just a matter of touching them up with a repair kit and you should be good to go.
  • yewdontknowmeyewdontknowme Band Wagon
    NobiZero wrote: »
    Hold a light to the rear glass from the outside and look for spots on the grid that the light shines through from the inside. Once you find them, it's just a matter of touching them up with a repair kit and you should be good to go.

    Just to be clear. By grid you mean the strips right? Thanks for the quick response!!
  • greenteagodgreenteagod Moderator
    Yes, that's what's meant. Just look for broken strips in the line, though every one of them being broken that would be pretty severe. I unfortunately had a good deal of mine get screwed up when they tinted my rear window.
  • CamoCivicCamoCivic New Wagonist
    You should be able to see the break in each line (as they said above, looking against a light), but if not, you can also use a volt meter to test the resistance across each stripe on the back window. There should be low resistance, but where it's high (it goes to infinity) you have a break. Alternately-you can measure conductance, and it should be some steady, but low number, and when it goes to zero, you have a break in the line, between the two test points on your volt meter. I had to touch up mine last year--all of them were bad but one, and on some lines, it was hard to see the break to do the paint touchup, but on those ones, I always found it with the volt meter.
  • CamoCivicCamoCivic New Wagonist
    I thought of one more tip--once you find all the breaks, use some masking tape to make it easy to keep your painted lines tidy and straight. Else your whole back window will look like you left a 3 year old child with a gold sharpie in the back while you went inside for a beer break.
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