Rear Defroster

[RyanR]

So one annoying problem has come up that I've noticed: the rear defroster takes FOREVER to heat up and when it does.. it's not very potent. It took me half an hour to do clear out some water/fog on the out side this morning... not good. Is there anything that I can do cheaply or should I be asking toyota?

Thanks!

I'm also considering wiring up the a/c compressor to a switch since it comes on with the front defroster and kills my gas mileage . Temporary solution is to use the foot heater which is shared with the defroster vent. :\

[campfire9]

I don't know about the rear defroster but do you really want to cut off the compressor just to try to save about a 1/2 mile per? The compressor gives dehumidified air into the car which keeps the windows from fogging up. Even if you put on heat on the system you can expect moisture to get into the car. Imo its not worth the trouble of putting in a switch and cutting off the compressor and have the inconvenience of moisture. Of course being the old guy on the block I dearly love air conditioning.

[RyanR]

It was a thought, not necessarily going to happen. I'm a windows down guy; the ac doesn't work in my other car and it's not a big problem to me.

The larger issue is the rear defroster and snow season coming soon. Being able to see behind me would be nice

[Chinky420]

get a scraper for the rear window. i don't think the rear defrost is very powerful (compared to the front defrost), as it uses the heat that dissapates from the wired-lines on the glass. here in texas, when it's 'cold' enough to fog up the window (not even frost, not even condense enough vapor to create 'dew' or water droplets) the rear defrost still takes a while.

also, instead of a toggle switch, couldn't you just hit the a/c button off, and keep the vent on? wouldn't that be the same thing?

finally, campfire is right, even if you run the front defroster w/o the a/c, it'll still fog it up a bit, since the condensor's job is to take the water out of the air before it gets pumped into the cabin.