Does the rear window defroster ever turn on automatically ...
07-30-2006, 07:47 PM
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'08 AM Vantage V8 - '03 E500
Does the rear window defroster ever turn on automatically ...
... or only when you turn it on manually? I know that it will turn off automatically after umptiump minutes of operation, but will any combination of climate and climate control settings turn it on without human or DWP intervention?
Something is killing my XM MyFi car antennas, and I'm looking for suspects. I mount the antenna, which is about 1" by 1.5", on the rear package shelf just forward of where the glass meets the shelf. They work fine there (unlike, apparently, Sirius antennas) until they die. The first one I mounted there died after about 15 months and the second lasted less than a year. They get very little direct sunlight. However, they contain some circuitry (I opened a dead one) and the mounting position is only a fraction of an inch from some of the defroster wires. I can see how the defroster's current might eventually kill the circuitry. The flaw in that theory is that our car is garaged overnight and it doesn't get below freezing much here, so we never turn on the rear window defroster. So, I'm wondering if it might ever turn itself on.
Something is killing my XM MyFi car antennas, and I'm looking for suspects. I mount the antenna, which is about 1" by 1.5", on the rear package shelf just forward of where the glass meets the shelf. They work fine there (unlike, apparently, Sirius antennas) until they die. The first one I mounted there died after about 15 months and the second lasted less than a year. They get very little direct sunlight. However, they contain some circuitry (I opened a dead one) and the mounting position is only a fraction of an inch from some of the defroster wires. I can see how the defroster's current might eventually kill the circuitry. The flaw in that theory is that our car is garaged overnight and it doesn't get below freezing much here, so we never turn on the rear window defroster. So, I'm wondering if it might ever turn itself on.
07-30-2006, 11:22 PM
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No it does not. Do you have tinted windows? If so, make sure they do not have metal in them as some do interfere, but I've never heard of anything killing it. Keep in mind that the sat radio power is separate from the rest of the system, so you may somehow be getting a surge?
07-30-2006, 11:54 PM
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'08 AM Vantage V8 - '03 E500
Thanks. No tinted windows on our car, beyond what M-B installed at the factory. The MyFi has an internal battery that runs it for five hours or so, and we run it off the car's power outlet only on long trips, so the opportunity for 12V power surges is limited.
What you wrote about power surges got me thinking, though. I read somplace that the MyFi sends it FM modulator signal back up the antenna wire, to improve reception on the car's FM radio. Combine that with XM's recent FCC trouble over allegedly excessive RF power output from the FM modulator of two XM portables, and I'm wondering if the FM modulator is gradually frying the antenna circuitry. Hmmm.
What you wrote about power surges got me thinking, though. I read somplace that the MyFi sends it FM modulator signal back up the antenna wire, to improve reception on the car's FM radio. Combine that with XM's recent FCC trouble over allegedly excessive RF power output from the FM modulator of two XM portables, and I'm wondering if the FM modulator is gradually frying the antenna circuitry. Hmmm.
