Very nicely done, Shade!

 

Why is everyone trying to jerryrig their windows? I like my defroster working and now ford will fix it, the repairs have a 2 year warranty.

 

There's no reasonable warranty coverage available to me.

First, my truck is a 2014 XLT screw boost 4x4, and at 40k miles the bumper-to-bumper warranty has expired.

Second, my OEM replacement window as installed by Safelite is warrantied for 1 year against defects. The shop manager didn't know if a repeat failure caused by the defroster would be considered a warranty event, because it's not a manufacturing defect but rather a design flaw.

For me the choice was simple: bypass the rear sliding window defroster, or risk another incident and a $100 insurance deductible. I chose the former.

 

My truck is out of warranty as well. (2013MY with 63k miles) I could keep running my rear defrost and spend my $250 deductible each time my window explodes, or I could simply unplug it from the system and save myself the future frustration. Nice job Ford, really killed it on the R&D on these trucks that were over 50 grand new.

 

If there is some interest, I'll try to figure out a resistor to put in the circuit to drop the current and heating to 1/2 stock. That should reduce the possibility of the window shattering. I just have no way of knowing if it will eliminate the problem.
It will reduce the defrost capabilities but some is better than none, maybe. I know my mirrors defrost really quickly. I have a topper and live where we don't get much frost so I don't use it much anyway but still I don't want it to shatter.

 

I'm also outta warranty. All I have left is very little powertrain.

I'm also not hacking my wiring up, I just unplugged it. Mirrors still work, they have an auto shut off. I'm annoyed at no indicator light but happy I still have a window and money in my pocket.

 

From what was explained by a owner of a glass company (not one who does this service) is the issue was with the glas as much if not more than the defroster. What he said was causing this issue was "inclusions in the glass". When heated while the glass is cold, the inclusion fails and with tempered glass, it shatters. It it was just the heater element, there would thousands of shattered windows all over the world every day. I am not saying altering it for your own satisfaction is wrong in any way, but the time spent, my lack of being mechanical in any way towards any of my rides, it isn't worth messing with the electrical part of it and not having a rear defroster. For $100 to replace it is a no brainier for me. Since mine got replaced by ford, I will turn it on everytime I use the truck for the 2 years it is warrantied for. If it doesn't break again by then, it should be good to go.

 

FWIW, not necessary to hack up wiring to do the Shadetree mod, just tape the connectors of the yellow and black wires together ...

 

What model year and trim, please?

 

Definitely the way to go if you have warranty coverage.