How To: Fix rear window defroster
 

I did it today, boy it feels good to have a rear window defroster after being broken for about 5 years. I just wanted to know how to do it before tearing into the job, plus I always thought it was the modular itself that was bad, but it's the plug that melts causing the defroster to not work

Tool for the job.

Breaker bar (3/8 drive)
10mm socket (1/4 drive)
1/4 drive socket
3/8 drive socket
t-50 socket (3/8 drive)
Thick pilers
small screwdriver
wire stripper and connecters for no soder



and for sodering
Sodering iron
Thinest electrical soder as possible




Remember some steps are for 2 door models only ;)

1. (2 door model) Use a T-50 to remove the seat belt bolt, use a breaker bar if necessary, it will move





2. Use a small flathead screwdriver to pry out the plastic pin holding in the coat hook.





3. Fold down the rear seat.



4. Gently pull the trim piece away from the body. Work around the edges.



5. (2 door model???) Pull out this small panel. This prevented me from pulling the panel completely off the body. This has the hinge bar going thru for the fold down seats. Just pull and leave hang



6. Now you can see the mod on the "C" pillar



7. Unplug the window connectors



8. Unplug the main plug from the mod. I pulled mine thru the seat belt area.



9. Use a 1/4 drive socket and a 10mm socket to remove the bolt from the body



10. Pull the mod down and out from the seat belt area, and unplug the radio antenna



11. Now both plugs are free



12. As you can see in step 8, the plug is melted away.Now you can cut the plug off and go to Step 13, or you can do this for sodering. Get the small screwdriver you used to remove the coat hook in step 2, and jam into the sides of the remaining plug. If it's melted away, it should be easy to break.





13. To finish the job, a nice beefy pair of plyers to crack the casing off



14. Remove the plug from the wires. You are not reusing the plug so it doesn't matter if you break it, just don't break the connecters inside it.



15. Open the mod around the egdes with the same small screwdriver. I bought another at the junkyard beforehand becuase I though the mod was the problem



16. Take off both sides until you see the board. Don't lose the rubber piece for the window plugs. Be sure to put it back in later



17. You can soder the the termials. The black wire goes on the right side, and the green goes on the left.



18. Be sure to remove as much of the plug from the black wire as possible. Use a small screwdriver, or wire brush to do the job, take care to not damage the plug.



19. While working, you can use the seat back hook to hold up the mod. Just put the wires in the hook



20. I wasn't happy with the sodering, so I cut the plugs off as close as I could, stripped the wires, and put connecters on them. I took care to put the connecters on in such a way that if they disconnected, they wouldn't touch the other side. I also put a small piece of electrical tape around the green wire's connceter.



21. Put everything back in reverse order. Be sure the wires don't come unpluged while putting it back. You can use electrical tape to tape the body of the mod closed, or to tape to the body of the car. Be sure the bolt is tight and the hook is back in the hole. I believe this is grounded here.

It works in my car now, going to keep an eye on it and make sure it's OK!!

After the job is done, band-aids and Neosporin

ah ha! so its the plug that melts!

i've been trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with mine-

thanks a ton, Ken. this winter I will have to pull mine apart to see is same things is wrong with mine.

Pretty nice How To. I had to replace mine also once I got the car few months back. Atleast you were lucky that it was the only plug, mine melted on both places. So for those that have a problem, check first ;)

Wow, ken did a how to!! AND has mostly non blurry pics for small pieces. I'm impressed. Good job,thanks for the addition.

Btw, it's solder not soder. I :lol: at the cold heat though... I hate those things, but good to know some people use them

Yeah, I changed mine about one year ago, But I didnt have a T-50, so I just pried the trim and went under it without really seeing anything, fun stuff.

Mine was also melted in both places, had to change them both.

I will probly run into the same problem again, because I just put a new connector in.

I have a few How To's.

Yeah teh cold heat didn't do a very good job :( Glad I just borrowed it

they(coldheat) are good for joining two wires... and thats it.

and they eat batteries quicker then digital cameras.... :glare:

I just didn't want to use a real soldering iron in the car. Might burn the carpet ;)

Wow nice, I'm gonna have to check mine out... It hasn't worked since I got the car :(

great job!!!!

*UPDATE*

Tried it last night, not too much fog on the windows, but it clearing it up in about 2 mintues. Didn't smell any burning, however I'm still keeping an eye out, or should I say nose :p

:lol: i could just imagine linda freaking out as you crawl outta the driver's seat to go take a look at it... while on a busy highway....

Meh, she doesn't like riding in the Alero, but that would be funny though ;)

sorry about reviving an old thread,

can you just buy the new connectors? do we have a part #?
i dont want to solder.... i know mine has not worked in years...

if you can solder it together... why bother buying the parts? solder is like... 1.69 for a big tube of it. it would take... maybe... 5 minutes.

then have a mini electrical storm behind my seat!!!! what if im doing something!?!?!?!?!

electrical storm? your soldering 2 wires and then just putting a little tape between them to prevent them from touching.

done.

mine got really burnt. it melted the plastic casing and there was melted solder in the bottom of the case as well. Should I try to hook it up to see if it works or should i just get a new one?

If you can get the melted plastic off the prongs and wires, I say solder

Ok thanks for the writeup btw

Just did this, hopefully it worked... I did kind of a shoddy job. the plug was hardcore melted lol. This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. You can just pull to molding off in sedans. No need for unbolting stuff

I'll add my pics since I just did this. In case anyone wanted to see it done a slightly different way.

... If you can't follow the process... slap yourself. This is easy to do.







(Tinned wires.. its kinda hard to see)

Thanks for posting this - the defogger blew at the end of winter this year and I haven't needed it since, but thought that I'd have to take it to the dealership to get this fixed. As it turns out, it'll be just a job that I can handle. It's nice to see that some of the original members here still have their cars. :) Almost 250K Kms and my car's still running as if it were new.

Just did this to my car. man that plug just crumbled when i pulled it off. was an easy fix, just used new plug ends and taped the hell out of it :lol:

Update on mine.

Still works fine :D

im gonna try pulling this done to and if not tomorrow

is that hint of noss I see?...lol. thanks for the write up, I know what im going to be fixing!

^^ No, it's his air tank for his train horns. :)

Oh... Um... Well that works to. Lol. I'm about to go out and fix my defoger right now. Thanks for the write up!

ive gone 3 winters without this. hopefully i remember to do this soon. thanks for the writeup

update, just got it done/fixed, WORKS GREAT! my plug and a large portion of the case was roasted around it... strange, good one GM! ion and reddog- pics helped a ton. thanks!

AH HA! This is whats wrong with my Read Defog! Maybe i can fix this while my car doesn't run

Fixed my rear window yesterday, and now it works great. Thank you to the OP of this thread and to the creator(s) of this forum. Saved me I don't even want to know amount of dollars at the GM dealership.

^Agreed. Iv used this write to up to fix the defogger in 3 aleros so far. Dealership wanted to charge $150 to fix it for a friend. :lol: I just told him to get me a new role of duck tape.

Still works.

Still find it funny that Chris HAD to post up a way to do it. :rolleyes2:

Guy thinks I'm a moron just because I don't have a college degree :rolleyes2:

I have one college degree and I am taking physiology and a few other medicine related classes while working on my second degree...do I get to talk down on everyone yet :p

I met you, you're not a smacked ass ;)

I just cut the thicker wire and bypassed the module all together. Defrost works again.

I left the other wire unhooked too. What does this thing even do? My radio reception has always been bad in this car.

Yeah, not a good idea