Heated windscreen not getting warm?

Hi,

it's starting to snow in Austria and I wanted to try out the headed windscreen to get rid off a small layer of snow, but not much happened.

My first thought was, that the windscreen heater doesn't work at all, but I experimented with it during the last few days and it looks like it does get slightly warm after turning it on for 3-4 times (the heater deactivates itself after some minutes).
With slightly warm I mean that it still feels cold to my hand, but not as cold as the area of the glass without the heater wiring.
The the rear glass heater works file and the glass feels reasonable warm when touching it.

Has anyone tried the front screen heater and can tell me how yours behave?
How long does it take to get warm and does it actually get warm?

Because I can't imagine that mine works as intended as it's pretty useless.

I also noticed that, when activating the rear heater, I can hear a click (probably a relay) from the fuse box behind the glove box, but I don't hear the click when activating the front heater.

Thanks, Philipp

Hi Phillip,

i have the same issue. it gets not realy hot.. it works, but sooo slow. The rest of the "heating" equipment works fine ( means quicker).

We've had frost a couple of times and mine works just fine, from turning it on to driving off approx 1 min, screen clear. On my D4 it cleared frost fine but took longer with snow, something I've still got to try with the RRE

Heavy frost here a couple of days ago and no problems clearing the front screen. Sounds like you might have to pay a visit to a service bay SchmidP.

Yes easily within a minute or two it's cleared the front screen, and you can see a thin vertical strip in the middle that does not have an element so is not cleared.

had the same issue, 3 minutes - nothing, then slowly began to melt the 'thin' layer of ice. Disappointing.

was at 5.30am on Tuesday it was -3 here.
So for the first time I used them for something other than demisting... after being impatient for about 2 mins I was about to get out of the car to scrape the screen and all of a sudden the frost all broke up, and within another 30 seconds was melted enough for me to 'wipe' it off.
Was actually quite impressed!

2 points to keep in mind with this:-

1. The heated screen is more designed to melt frost/ice rather than deal with a layer of snow. Snow will contain many air pockets that mean that it will be difficult for the screen to heat throughout a layer of snow.

2. Think about the technology and the circustances of use; usually a heated screen is needed when conditions are cold, dark & the car is also cold and not moving. An alternator puts out more charge when moving - you clearly can't however drive with a frozen screen.

What I am steering you towards with the 2nd point is:- start the car - don't have lights, heated rear screen, heated seats, heater blowing (all these electrical systems on).
More current is availble for the screen and therefore it can work quicker.

Regards

Mark.

good poing Mark, 1st time ive had it spec'd on a car so kinda over critical!