fins

Help! Tint guy had to remove tint from my rear glass and partially lifted off the 'orange' heat element lines. Question to you experts: Is the actual heat element embedded into the glass or is the lifted off orange line the actual element? Any potential fix for this?

LexVan

That's not good. Can you turn on and feel any heat?

wjk_glynn

Those are the heating elements.

If you google "rear window heater repair" or similar, you'll see lots of videos and products. But they mostly boil down to using a kit to repaint the elements with conductive heating paint.

I've no personal experience, so I've no specific recommendation.

Karl.

fins

I didn't test it. Car was delivered to me. I had installer take it back to the shop. He claims the orange is merely paint and that the element is embedded in glass. The only way to even it out is to strip off the remaining orange lines.

fins

the likelihood of uniformly repainting those lines is nearly impossible based on how hard it is just to merely clean the rear window!

LexVan

Clean the glass. Use denatured alcohol. Run guide lines with closely gapped painter's tape, and give it a whirl. Good luck.

wjk_glynn

Unfortunately he's incorrect.

Attached is picture of the orange lines on my rear window. They are definitely the heating elements, and they are on the inside surface of the window (not embedded in the glass).

fins

Thank you. Looks like I'll be demanding OEM replacement

LexVan

That might depend on what you signed before the tint guy started working. Good luck. Why did the tint need to be removed? Was he trying to fix his work, or someone else's?

fins

He was trying to fix his own work. I specifically requested that he be careful about peeling off the elements. He said he was familiar with removal process. I just priced the rear glass with Safelite, not that I'd go there. The quote was $1059. I imagine OEM will be more...

LexVan

I hope he stands behind his work and makes you whole.

Petza914

My tint guy says if you steam the old tint off you can do it without damaging the defroster element. I hope he's right as I'm taking my wife's 997 in tomorrow morning to have her old, 2-piece, now purple-looking, and blurry rear tint that we bought the car with 50,000 miles ago replaced.

fins

A question I forgot to ask: When I was inspecting the peeled off orange defroster lines on the rear window, there were what appeared very fine wires embedded in the glass directly under the orange painted lines. What purpose do they serve?