If this is helpful to one other person, I'll be happy. I had an issue whereby the tinter snapped off the negative tab/ribbon so that the circuit was open.
(I've borrowed these two photos as didn't take photos initially.)
How it should look:
How mine looked:
Initially I had no idea that the tinter had done it, it worked perfectly for about a month after getting the rear glass tinted. The car went into Tesla for replacement rear lights (condensation) and then it wouldn't work. I thought well maybe they've turned a function off or damaged a loom... turns out it was an intermittent contact, held there by trim.
What I didn't know and why I initially blamed Tesla, was that when they took the car apart to see what the issue was with the defogger, they showed that the negative ribbon had been knocked clean off the screen.
Tesla's response was predictable- "the only fix possible will be a new glass", circa £700. Well I wouldn't be doing that. I could go back to the tinter and get him to pay Tesla for a new glass. It was an honest mistake, if I could fix it easily myself then I would.
*Of relevance, I knew the risk involved in having the rear screen tinted, if they do a shoddy job and pull the tint away in order to reapply- it can ruin your heating element. A lot of larger companies won't do them, however I found a local place that said he'd done 5x Model 3's and said knew the score, I explained the risk mentioned anyway and asked him to be as careful as he could be and to be fair he did a good job. Sadly, in using the squeege tool around the lower edge of the screen, he's snagged the ribbons - pulling them from the glass.*
I was thinking along the lines of:
1. I don't want new glass if I can help it, seals are never as good as factory.
2. I just tinted it, no way I'd do it another time.
3. I'd have to take the Tinter to Civil claims court for the tint and new glass costs.
4. If it didn't work, I still have the above options available to me.
So... I had no power the the rear glass, no mounting point for a new tab and an unusual way for the conductive surface to be applied. As I said previously, it's 3M applied from factory but will never come free without damaging the element and glass, it's also coated in a plastic lining with the wafer thin metal ribbon held within it, this then connects to the glass element. With me so far?
Initially I looked up the company that make up the ribbon connectors for Tesla- thinking maybe I can just get a replacement connector as they are held by 3M from factory, for reference, the company that makes them is called FEW GROUP, Germany. I did contact them to purchase a single ribbon... they never responded as I well expected lol.
1. First things first, remove the Tesla interior trim from the B pillar back. This means you need to remove the rear upper trim pieces, the rear seats side bolsters, the C pillar plastics and the rear parcel shelf. All of that has no bolts at all unbelievably... it's all pull out (with care) and disconnect the relevant connections for the rear speakers, amp and rear central brake light. Firstly, disconnect the earth cable for the screen, this mounts to the nearside bodywork by the C pillar. It's really obvious, look for gold with a grey 10mm bolt.
Now you can see the screen and the 4 connectors around the glass. The top two are for the radio and GPS I believe, mine were fine, The lower ones are for powering the heated glass and my right side was snapped off. I took the FEW ribbon connector off the loom, this sits just off the glass below the lower rear glass trim.
2. I then made a small pan handle from copper wire, this was soldered to the original Few connector ribbon to give me a cm more fitting room. The ribbon is housed in black plastic, you can scratch this away lightly with a craft knife or a dremel to reveal the metal within.
I will bend the copper wire back on itself for the connection in due course. I also used heatshrink to protect the solder.
3. Next, I CAREFULLY (in stages to check depth) ground the same black coating off of the window contact. Again this is house is black plastic from factory, it houses metal that sits over the heating element subsections in order to carry the current to power the heated screen.
4. So how to bond it to the screen? Not much is strong enough- you'll need this. It's not cheap but is probably the best conductive epoxy out there and dries very strong.
It's called MG CHEMICALS 8331D Conductive epoxy adhesive - Amazon link
5. Reconnect the FEW connector, bend back the copper pan shape back on itself so that it sits exactly over the conductive area you've ground back. You need to use a fair amount of epoxy so that the copper is encased in it.
Allow the epoxy to dry, it says 1hr but it's winter so I left it overnight and covered the screen to prevent frost.
6. Now, go to your Tesla menu on screen, go to SOFTWARE, hold the 'Model 3' text for a few seconds. Release your finger and you'll be asked to put in the password.
The password is SERVICE
now go to windows, you'll be greeted with this menu. you see at the bottom that the rear defroster has been turned off? Enable defrost mode.
7. Check it all works, use boiled water to create condensation and acivate your rear defogger on home screen.
Voila!
(I've borrowed these two photos as didn't take photos initially.)
How it should look:
How mine looked:
Initially I had no idea that the tinter had done it, it worked perfectly for about a month after getting the rear glass tinted. The car went into Tesla for replacement rear lights (condensation) and then it wouldn't work. I thought well maybe they've turned a function off or damaged a loom... turns out it was an intermittent contact, held there by trim.
What I didn't know and why I initially blamed Tesla, was that when they took the car apart to see what the issue was with the defogger, they showed that the negative ribbon had been knocked clean off the screen.
Tesla's response was predictable- "the only fix possible will be a new glass", circa £700. Well I wouldn't be doing that. I could go back to the tinter and get him to pay Tesla for a new glass. It was an honest mistake, if I could fix it easily myself then I would.
*Of relevance, I knew the risk involved in having the rear screen tinted, if they do a shoddy job and pull the tint away in order to reapply- it can ruin your heating element. A lot of larger companies won't do them, however I found a local place that said he'd done 5x Model 3's and said knew the score, I explained the risk mentioned anyway and asked him to be as careful as he could be and to be fair he did a good job. Sadly, in using the squeege tool around the lower edge of the screen, he's snagged the ribbons - pulling them from the glass.*
I was thinking along the lines of:
1. I don't want new glass if I can help it, seals are never as good as factory.
2. I just tinted it, no way I'd do it another time.
3. I'd have to take the Tinter to Civil claims court for the tint and new glass costs.
4. If it didn't work, I still have the above options available to me.
So... I had no power the the rear glass, no mounting point for a new tab and an unusual way for the conductive surface to be applied. As I said previously, it's 3M applied from factory but will never come free without damaging the element and glass, it's also coated in a plastic lining with the wafer thin metal ribbon held within it, this then connects to the glass element. With me so far?
Initially I looked up the company that make up the ribbon connectors for Tesla- thinking maybe I can just get a replacement connector as they are held by 3M from factory, for reference, the company that makes them is called FEW GROUP, Germany. I did contact them to purchase a single ribbon... they never responded as I well expected lol.
1. First things first, remove the Tesla interior trim from the B pillar back. This means you need to remove the rear upper trim pieces, the rear seats side bolsters, the C pillar plastics and the rear parcel shelf. All of that has no bolts at all unbelievably... it's all pull out (with care) and disconnect the relevant connections for the rear speakers, amp and rear central brake light. Firstly, disconnect the earth cable for the screen, this mounts to the nearside bodywork by the C pillar. It's really obvious, look for gold with a grey 10mm bolt.
Now you can see the screen and the 4 connectors around the glass. The top two are for the radio and GPS I believe, mine were fine, The lower ones are for powering the heated glass and my right side was snapped off. I took the FEW ribbon connector off the loom, this sits just off the glass below the lower rear glass trim.
2. I then made a small pan handle from copper wire, this was soldered to the original Few connector ribbon to give me a cm more fitting room. The ribbon is housed in black plastic, you can scratch this away lightly with a craft knife or a dremel to reveal the metal within.
I will bend the copper wire back on itself for the connection in due course. I also used heatshrink to protect the solder.
3. Next, I CAREFULLY (in stages to check depth) ground the same black coating off of the window contact. Again this is house is black plastic from factory, it houses metal that sits over the heating element subsections in order to carry the current to power the heated screen.
4. So how to bond it to the screen? Not much is strong enough- you'll need this. It's not cheap but is probably the best conductive epoxy out there and dries very strong.
It's called MG CHEMICALS 8331D Conductive epoxy adhesive - Amazon link
5. Reconnect the FEW connector, bend back the copper pan shape back on itself so that it sits exactly over the conductive area you've ground back. You need to use a fair amount of epoxy so that the copper is encased in it.
Allow the epoxy to dry, it says 1hr but it's winter so I left it overnight and covered the screen to prevent frost.
6. Now, go to your Tesla menu on screen, go to SOFTWARE, hold the 'Model 3' text for a few seconds. Release your finger and you'll be asked to put in the password.
The password is SERVICE
now go to windows, you'll be greeted with this menu. you see at the bottom that the rear defroster has been turned off? Enable defrost mode.
7. Check it all works, use boiled water to create condensation and acivate your rear defogger on home screen.
Voila!
