Heated rear window performance

Heated rear window performance

Author
Discussion

Stablinski

Original Poster:

61 posts

132 months

Thursday 3rd October
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Does anyone else have issues with heated rear window performance? I have found mine to be rubbish, worst I’ve had in any car. They are working as you can see something happening but they are so slow and even over the course of a 20 minute drive this morning, the window didn’t clear properly. When it gets icy, I’ll be having some proper difficulties.

Miserablegit

4,170 posts

116 months

Thursday 3rd October
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Yes- rear screen defroster in my PE is rubbish

jont-

121 posts

96 months

Thursday 3rd October
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It works ok, but the timeout seems ridiculously short (maybe 5 mins), where most cars will run for perhaps 20 or so before switching off by which point things have cleared.

Stablinski

Original Poster:

61 posts

132 months

Thursday 3rd October
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Yes, I’ve also noticed it timing out way too quickly. Which is doubly annoying! But I kept pressing that stupid button and the window remained resolutely misted over the course of my journey to work.


Colin P

459 posts

150 months

Thursday 3rd October
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It's pretty typical of a mid engined car.

The rear window is far more prone to misting up and mists up worse because it's being caused by the heat from the engine but on the flip side once the engine bay has fully warmed up it will also clear it. The Alpine does seem to take longer to do this than either of my Evora's did, presumably because of the insulation provided by the Alpine's engine cover keeping the temperature between it and the glass lower.

To be honest I rarely use/used the heated rear windscreen on any of these cars. I'd only ever bother using it to melt ice on the outside (which you may find it does much better) and just use the wing mirrors until the misting sorts itself out.

croyde

23,910 posts

237 months

Friday 4th October
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Started a long day of driving with the cabin rear glass misted over yesterday, so couldn't even see if the rear window was demisting.

A question I've meant to ask as it's early days with my car, does pressing the rear demist button also turn on the door mirror heating?

If it does, it's also very slow.

My old e36 had steam coming off the mirrors within seconds biggrin

Miserablegit

4,170 posts

116 months

Friday 4th October
quotequote all
croyde said:
Started a long day of driving with the cabin rear glass misted over yesterday, so couldn't even see if the rear window was demisting.

A question I've meant to ask as it's early days with my car, does pressing the rear demist button also turn on the door mirror heating?

If it does, it's also very slow.

My old e36 had steam coming off the mirrors within seconds biggrin
Your e36 will have diverted power from the redundant indicators… wink

croyde

23,910 posts

237 months

Friday 4th October
quotequote all
Miserablegit said:
croyde said:
Started a long day of driving with the cabin rear glass misted over yesterday, so couldn't even see if the rear window was demisting.

A question I've meant to ask as it's early days with my car, does pressing the rear demist button also turn on the door mirror heating?

If it does, it's also very slow.

My old e36 had steam coming off the mirrors within seconds biggrin
Your e36 will have diverted power from the redundant indicators… wink
laugh

Stablinski

Original Poster:

61 posts

132 months

Friday 4th October
quotequote all
croyde said:
Started a long day of driving with the cabin rear glass misted over yesterday, so couldn't even see if the rear window was demisting.

A question I've meant to ask as it's early days with my car, does pressing the rear demist button also turn on the door mirror heating?

If it does, it's also very slow.

My old e36 had steam coming off the mirrors within seconds biggrin
Yes it does both rear screen (allegedly) and the rear mirrors.



Miserablegit

4,170 posts

116 months

Wednesday 9th October
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“Save on the expense of an R- don’t use the rear demister and you can pretend you are in the R version of the A110”
It could be an ad in Viz.

Stablinski

Original Poster:

61 posts

132 months

Tuesday 22nd October
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I think I may have an idea why it’s been so bad.

I was cleaning the inside of the rear screen (to get rid of smears and a spiderweb) and noticed something fairly obvious. The rubber trim which was nicely glued down on the right side, was flapping around loosely on the left. As a result, there was no seal of note on that side.

A bit of duct tape was applied, the seal still isn’t seated properly but the test was this morning. Immediately, I noticed much better performance with the heated window but clearly a discrepancy between left and right. But the screen cleared relatively nicely.

As a related aside, I was told by Alpine Liverpool that they have seen a few cases of this detached rubber seal.

s111dpc

1,407 posts

236 months

Tuesday 22nd October
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The detached rubber seal is quite common as I understand it. My 2020 S had the same problem and was replaced under warranty.