2020 Leaf Rear Window Defroster Offline

[FinnishCoffee]

Is that a capacitor? I didn't notice. Wouldn't that block the current though? It's literally in line with the power feed.

Car components are tricky thing sometimes, from what I can tell off of the circuit diagrams in the service manual (2011 one but still) the capacitor has two connectors for the positive side (those wires connected to it) and is grounded to the chassis via the mounting bolt.

 

[knightmb]

Interesting, so the capacitor is serving as a voltage stabilizer I guess? Perhaps to help filter out radio interference when it's switched on? I think I seem to remember some issues with my wife's old ICE vehicle where switching on the rear defroster killed the radio reception.

 

[cornbinder89]

Noise I think is what the manual says. (radio noise)

 

[Bombastinator2]

This is a bit out of left field as I think people are talking about issues with other things but the way rear defrosters work is there is electroconductive paint on the window that acts as a heater. If that paint is scratched away the circuit is broken. Are there any broken points in the paint? May have already been looked at and dismissed. The thread is long though and I may have just missed it.

 

[tekkie]

Thanks for the detailed post @knightmb. I have the same issue with defroster not working. Is removing the rear hatch a tough job? From the pics, it looks like there were several pieces, where is the best starting point?

 

[knightmb]

Thanks for the detailed post @knightmb. I have the same issue with defroster not working. Is removing the rear hatch a tough job? From the pics, it looks like there were several pieces, where is the best starting point?

All the panels are clipped in, so you will need a plastic pry tool to help. I used one I had from a bicycle inner tube repair kit. With the hatch open, the panel in the middle closest to the center brake light is the best starting point. Once you have that piece out, the others around both sides can follow much easier. You just have to "pull" all the pieces out. Once you get to the last piece (that covers mostly all the wires and wiper motor), it has several clip in tabs near the inner handle that need to be removed first, followed by the inner handle itself. The inner handle is snapped in, so you need only pry it out from either the top of bottom of the inner handle. Once all of those are removed, then you can starting pull the large, main piece off from the door. It has like a dozen snap points, so it takes some carefully "pulling" to get it to come out.

When putting it back together, that same inner handle you remove makes a convenient hole to use a flash light to make sure all the tabs snap back in later. Also, make sure you snap the inner handle back in the correct direction, I did it backwards the first time by accident when putting everything back together.