2011 Nissan Leaf rear window defroster not working

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jeffpolo

Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2018
Messages
6
Hello all! Just purchased my son a 2011 Nissan Leaf and we love it. It has 66k miles and is getting close to 60 miles, 2 bars dropped from what I can tell so think I'm in good shape for a couple years hopefully. Only problem we have is the rear window defroster is not working. The button lights up on the dashboard when you select it but the element in the window doesn't appear to be heating up. For the life of me online, in the manual, etc I'm unable to find anything about a fuse location for it. I did check what I think is all the fuse locations and don't see anything stated rear window defroster. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Jeff
 
First you have to isolate it to the 12V power or the grid. With the defroster on check the voltage at the input. If that is fine then look for cuts in the grid. They sell repair kits but I do not know how well they work.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. May be a bit out of my wheelhouse if it's more than a fuse, etc. I'm pretty weak in that department.
 
You may have missed the 4th fuse box. The fuses for the defogger are located in the
IPDM E/R which is the flat box located under the hood, near the driver side light.
The box is essentially upside down, so needs to be rotated to see the fuses. There
are 2 15 amp fuses in parallel for the defogger(numbers 41,42) . They are located
near the side of the box in a 2x2 set of fuses next to the defogger relay.
As stated earlier the problem may not be the fuses.
 
I absolutely missed that fuse box! Got in and found the 2 fuses for defogger. Both looked in good order but replaced them with new anyway. No luck so it's the more advanced fix it's looking like.
 
@jeffpolo FWIW, you may want to test the connectivity of the defroster grid, as in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9NQ46ckgYw

It's really easy to do the testing and if it turns out only some of your defroster grid isn't working, then it's also easy to fix (also explained in the video).
 
Great video and looks like I have a good weekend project ahead of me. I will let you know how it goes.
 
FYI, if you are getting no defrost happening at all, and the fuses seem OK, then it might just be a grounding issue. It would be unlikely that the entire grid stopped working due to damage, so perhaps the terminal/connector, at the end of the wire that connects to the grid, has come loose.

Good luck!
 
I'm pretty confident that may be the case. I need to purchase the circuit tester still but just looking last night after replacing fuses, it just doesn't look like any of the defogger lines are producing heat. Would you happen to know where that connection would be? Bundled in the rubber cable management on the left & right sides of the hatch door? The car is in mint condition inside and out so I know it was taken care of quite well.
 
Sorry, never done it on a LEAF before, but it's generally somewhere around the window perimeter. If I remember, I'll have a look at my LEAF rear window...
 
Great news all! So using the tester i confirmed no juice is getting to any of the defrost lines . So, took my chances since i'm able to find the connector to the window like i have seen in many cars and pulled away the plastic molding just on one side. To my surprise, there was the familiar receiving metal prong on the window with the cable connector neatly folded down. I connect, but still didn't work until I found the other side in the same situation. Both are plugged in now and all is good! Attaching picture i took if i can find that option. looks like I can only reference http or youtube. Thanks again for all the feedback. Great forum full of great people.
 
jeffpolo said:
Great news all! So using the tester i confirmed no juice is getting to any of the defrost lines . So, took my chances since i'm able to find the connector to the window like i have seen in many cars and pulled away the plastic molding just on one side. To my surprise, there was the familiar receiving metal prong on the window with the cable connector neatly folded down. I connect, but still didn't work until I found the other side in the same situation. Both are plugged in now and all is good! Attaching picture i took if i can find that option. looks like I can only reference http or youtube. Thanks again for all the feedback. Great forum full of great people.

Hi everyone, and Merry Christmas! Dear jeffpolo, I have the same problem with my 2015 LEAF, and, probably, the same reason. I went through all stages mentioned in this forum, except the connector as I, differently from you, wasn't able to find it. Could you, please, describe where it is or ad picture which you mentioned above. Many thanks in advance!
 
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