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2017 legacy defroster sucks!!


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Nope. My gal's 2017 Premium's defroster works like a charm as does my 2016 Limited.

Take it off manual and up the fan. I noticed on the drive to a family event Sunday (her car) that her side of the car fogged over a bit. She talks. A lot. I simply turned up the fan on the defroster and all was clear as a bell.

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Nope. My gal's 2017 Premium's defroster works like a charm as does my 2016 Limited.

Take it off manual and up the fan. I noticed on the drive to a family event Sunday (her car) that her side of the car fogged over a bit. She talks. A lot. I simply turned up the fan on the defroster and all was clear as a bell.

 

 

 

I hope my wife ever sees this but I purposefully let it fog up on her side so she can get the hint.

 

 

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are you referring to the rear window defroster? We have already covered this in the other threads, yes it is not going to melt 1" of snow. Yes the top 1/3 of the rear window will not defrost b/c it only has radio antenna not defrost elements. It works well enough for me if i clear the snow and clear the roof of snow.
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I messed around with it and realized it's not as bad as I initially thought. Turn the front and rear defroster on and also make sure to press AC. Also, do not turn on the recirculation and the fog should go away

 

 

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Yeah, if you are talking about the rear window defogger, it's not the greatest.

 

Rear window heating has to be gentle to avoid thermal cracking ... unless someone just happens to like cracked glass. The rear heater's primary purpose is to defog the inside of the window, not to deice or de-snow the outside surface.

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." ~ The Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland)

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If you are using the windshield air as the defroster source, set the heat temp as high as possible if you dealing with snow. This is not the temperature for a comfortable house but to get the air as hot as possible and keep it that way. The rear window electric defroster is a supplement until the entire car interior is warm enough to melt and clear the rear window.
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Well, I've certainly had more effective rear window defrosters.

Maybe now the glass is so thin that Subaru doesn't want the Ford F150 incidents:

 

http://www.f150forum.com/attachments/f38/230002d1370912568t-rear-window-defroster-exploding-rear-window-img_00000399_hdr.jpg

 

Or, the Focus:

http://cdn.carcomplaints.com/complaints/images/c9c28840-b536-1032-b743-4c3114d2dee3r.jpg

 

So, expect to look through the lines a little only when the frost is thick. Snow, forget it.

 

The other thing that some people don't realize is that snow on their boots melts into their car and creates a jungle humid atmosphere. Keep it dry inside as much as is practical and less heavy breathing type behavior.

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I think they redirected the energy to the seats because on mine, they're HOT HOT HOT. (been covered btw)

 

Haha indeed. Seats seem to get hotter than they need to.. Rear defroster not so much. But yes that's been covered here. Particularly the top portion doesn't really do much but according to my dealer that's because of the antenna being inside the rear window. Seems a bit odd design (what's the antenna bump on the roof for then?) but whatever.. Learned to live with it. Definitely can't rely on it to melt a thick layer of ice somewhat quickly. Hopefully they ll improve it in the next generation.

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Haha indeed. Seats seem to get hotter than they need to.. Rear defroster not so much. But yes that's been covered here. Particularly the top portion doesn't really do much but according to my dealer that's because of the antenna being inside the rear window. Seems a bit odd design (what's the antenna bump on the roof for then?) but whatever.. Learned to live with it. Definitely can't rely on it to melt a thick layer of ice somewhat quickly. Hopefully they ll improve it in the next generation.

 

Seat heat, oh yes. In the premium they are HOT. In the leather, much more subdued.

 

The shark fin on the roof is the antenna for the Sirius and GPS Equipped cars. The radio requires a wire dipole loop antenna and is what is built into the upper 1/4 of the rear window.

For decades car builders put the radio antenna in the upper visor section of the front wind shield and had various degrees of success. It's just conjecture on my part but I can see Subaru moving the radio antenna off the wind shield because of Eyesight. The only alternative is a pole installed on the fender, can't imagine anyone being a fan of that. So they put it in the rear window.

Remember, the rear window has a defogger. By design it's not intended to melt off layers of snow and ice. That's what ice scrapers are for.

I long for the day when a rear window defroster would melt off two inches of snow in five minutes.

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  • 2 years later...
I'm finding my 2019 Subaru Legacy (base model) fogs A LOT! Of course, I can put on the defogger but the manual (page 3-65) says not to keep it on for extended periods to avoid the "battery from being discharged." It also says under other circumstances, the defogger will turn itself off to protect the battery (?). This caused a rather dangerous situation today as I was in and out of my car for over 3 hours and the rain was constant (and I was in moderate city traffic). I adjusted everything I could for those three hours but nothing really helped much. Suggestions?!?
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I agree - the newer cars are too tightly sealed, something that I discover makes a huge difference on the Outback I have - closing the tailgate is quite different when a door is open compared to all doors closed.

 

 

It probably is a way for them to try to optimize the aerodynamic drag to limit air entering/exiting the vehicle in points that would upset the laminar flow.

 

 

The emissions regulations is also a culprit - the demand to get the engine up to operating temperature comes at the inconvenience for the driver and actually increases fuel consumption, sometimes because you have to idle until you get the engine warm enough to get the windows defrosted. Later model subies have an electric heater in the defroster, but that heater is far from sufficient, increases fuel consumption and puts additional strain on the electrical system.

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I'm finding my 2019 Subaru Legacy (base model) fogs A LOT! Of course, I can put on the defogger but the manual (page 3-65) says not to keep it on for extended periods to avoid the "battery from being discharged." It also says under other circumstances, the defogger will turn itself off to protect the battery (?). This caused a rather dangerous situation today as I was in and out of my car for over 3 hours and the rain was constant (and I was in moderate city traffic). I adjusted everything I could for those three hours but nothing really helped much. Suggestions?!?

 

Make sure that the AC is on while the heater-based defroster is set to the proper position and that the temperature is set well above what you would have it on for heater alone. Just press the correct defroster button - the fan goes to its highest speed - and leave the AC on and the temperature high. This condenses the moisture that the fan captures moist air next to the windshield. This does not affect the battery - the other button (lower half) is for the heater that drains the battery - don't use it for the windshield. The windshield shape is on the proper button.

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AC needs to be ON in most conditions for it to work best. Don t get confused because there are several ways to put the top air vents on but not all will be for defrosting... 2015 works fine.

 

The A/C will not engage in any meaningful manner below 32F

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And don't forget to CLEAN in the insides of ALL of your windows.

Do this on a DRY day.

I use an old bath towel and buff the windows after spraying and wiping. Think of it like buffing out wax. Use some effort and elbow grease.

And don't use the recirculate mode. Fresh warm/hot air should easily remove the moisture from the windows.

I always laugh when I see someone driving down the road/highway on a sunny nice day and ALL their windows are heavily fogged and they are using their hand to try and wipe them. I guarantee they have recirculate on and don't even realize.

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