De-Icing

Reaper;5923 wrote: buy a small 12v fan heater and then use the plug for the HT to power it. it will slowly warm up the rear screen and help demist too!

OOh, wot? Like this:-

Where did you get that from?
Best 'Add On' Ive seen yet, everythig else pales into insignificance compared with this.
Over exuberance could be caused by the misted rear screen problems I am experiencing. Means I have to have the lid down most of the time.
Tiresome!

Mike

I watered the rear window this morning and it worked a treat. Thank you

Excellent Soph!

As for cold hands I tend to adopt the 'one hand hot, one hand cold' method. One hand gets a nice warm leather glove and the other other one gets the cold but can smoke a cigarette treatment!

Yeh!
But what do you do when driving?

Mike

KUON;5940 wrote: Yeh!
But what do you do when driving?

Mike

The nice warm hand goes on the steering wheel (& provides better grip because of the leather glove) and the cold hand just gets colder because I'm still smoking! :yves: :lol:

Yves Adele Harlow;5942 wrote: The nice warm hand goes on the steering wheel (& provides better grip because of the leather glove) and the cold hand just gets colder because I'm still smoking! :yves: :lol:

This could get rude!

Mike

KUON;5927 wrote: Where did you get that from?
Best 'Add On' Ive seen yet, everythig else pales into insignificance compared with this.
Over exuberance could be caused by the misted rear screen problems I am experiencing. Means I have to have the lid down most of the time.
Tiresome!

Mike

I got the 12v ceramic heater from our good friend Mr E. Bay.
The MG badge is one I had lying about and just stuck it on. to be honest I got sick of the badge shining in the mirror and took it off again. Here's the original post from way another forum back in April 2008:-

OK,
I've made a couple of mods to the mgf's interior. The first is simply to fix a badge onto that horrible blank plate where the passenger airbag would fit.


What do you think?

The second mod was inspired by Sheila, who was saying 'What a shame it doesn't have a heated rear screen, as sometimes it mists up.'

Mmmm, thinks I, well I'm not paying for a glass screen + fitting just so that once in a while we can demist the screen.
I saw somewhere that a guy was using a little plug in fan heater on top of the inspection cover to demist/defrost his plastic screen and that set me thinking.

I didn't want wires trailing to the cig lighter as I thought that was a bit naff, but remembered that, of course, there is wiring already in place for the hardtop HRW. Could I make use of that? Course I could, not only that but If I got the switch and the relay it would look really neat.

SO:- I ordered a 12v fan heater (£9.99) and the mk2 HRW switch and relay(£20).
While waiting for these to arrive I studied where I wanted to fit the heater.

Sudden thought, if, rather than mounting it over the inspection cover, I mount it on the Tbar in front of the windstop and between the seats would it also act as a back of neck heater?

Well to cut it short the bits arrived and I stuck the heater temporarily in place and tried it. Hey presto, yes it would give some heat to your neck as well as demist the screen!!!

So I fitted it in permanently by removing the tbar and drilling three holes( scary) two for fixing bolts and one to feed the cable through. Fixed the heater in place and replaced the tbar after feeding the cable across to the HRW wiring. I spliced in a couple of connections (leaving the HRW plug in place - just in case we ever do chicken out and buy a hardtop).

Connected the hrw switch and installed it in the dash, fitted the relay and started car. Press switch, ooh warm air!

Can't wait for a frosty morning to see how good it is at shifting that off the screen. The heaters are not exactly super hot, but I could definitely feel an improvement in the neck area whilst driving TOP DOWN today.

Had another MG badge so finished off the job by sticking it on the heater and here it is:-




The heater isn't volcano hot, but it does blow warm air onto the window, and it does the job. The advantage of using the HRW circuit is that it also has a built in timer, so that the heater switches off after 20 minutes.

I'm very tempted, but I would be terrified of drilling into my car. I'm not good with drills. Is it as simple to fit as it sounds?

I have a HRW button in the car, but I have no idea if it is actually connected to anything?!

Alias;5953 wrote: That's cunning like a fox! I might give that a go



I'm very tempted, but I would be terrified of drilling into my car. I'm not good with drills. Is it as simple to fit as it sounds?

I have a HRW button in the car, but I have no idea if it is actually connected to anything?!

The wiring will be there, you might need the relay. If you don't want to drill into the Tbar you could just sit it on the top of the engine cover.

This is the relay and where it goes.

Another old post.

When I bought a heated rear window switch and relay from ebay, I was surprised that the relay was not a model specific item , but just a common 40 amp auto relay, such as available at Maplins or Halfords.
I had bought a relay from Maplins for fitting some spotlights, and when my HRW one arrived they were identical! Only the one from maplins was only about £2.





Fitted in place and working fine.

Think I'll definitely give that a go, thank you very much

I have put together a 'How to' on this and put it into my guides.:snow:
I have also added a proviso. i don't want people getting carried away.:time out:

'Don't expect a fast demist, this is no way as good as a proper Heated rear window.'