Lift gate window exploded

[Rocket Man]

Never had this happen, but the tabs for the rear defrost that are welded (or soldered) to the rear glass so the rear defrost can function keep snapping off. I've soldered each one back on twice now.

However, it is currently winter and very cold in Ohio and one is currently popped off, not allowing my rear defrost to function. Because of the potential of this happening when I go to solder it back on in the cold winter weather I have held off in doing so. Really don't want to go through all of winter with no rear defrost but if that's what I have to do to prevent this from happening I will.

Frost Fighter is the only product I’ve found that works to epoxy those tabs back on, especially once the mounting surface has been damaged by previous repairs.

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[Rocket Man]

Tempered glass can explode at any time if there’s a tiny impurity in it. As for temp doing it- only if it has an impurity in which case it’s going to break sooner or later. I have used hot tap water to clear ice and snow off my vehicles for 50 years, I never use an ice scraper unless there’s no hot water available. Never broke a single piece of glass, not even a windshield which is a weaker type of glass (laminated).

 

[Tonyrodz]

The rear window shattered on my S10 back in the day. It was during the winter too.

 

[phottomatt]

Finally got the truck back today, no fault on the dealer since it was over the holiday weekend. Anyway, turns out the aftermarket heater connection over heated and melted itself which must have been what I was smelling, I bought it used and this was my second winter with it. $1900, covered by insurance, including the wiring fix.

 

[Rocket Man]

Finally got the truck back today, no fault on the dealer since it was over the holiday weekend. Anyway, turns out the aftermarket heater connection over heated and melted itself which must have been what I was smelling, I bought it used and this was my second winter with it. $1900, covered by insurance, including the wiring fix.

What aftermarket heater? You didn’t mention anything aftermarket until now.

 

[zbad55]

Finally got the truck back today, no fault on the dealer since it was over the holiday weekend. Anyway, turns out the aftermarket heater connection over heated and melted itself which must have been what I was smelling, I bought it used and this was my second winter with it. $1900, covered by insurance, including the wiring fix.

OK what is an aftermarket heater connection, and why would you need something like this,

 

[phottomatt]

Sorry, I'm only talking about the connection, not the heating elements. Apparently these connectors are prone to fail and you can buy a replacement for them.

 

[Rocket Man]

Sorry, I'm only talking about the connection, not the heating elements. Apparently these connectors are prone to fail and you can buy a replacement for them. View attachment 388969

Aha. It probably got corroded which caused an intermittent or loose connection which resulted in it getting hot due to the high current needed for the defroster element combined with the loose connection. If tempered glass has a small area that gets real hot while the surrounding area is real cold, that small area expands while the area around it is trying to contract which will result in it exploding as you experienced. It’s like putting a torch or soldering iron onto the glass and then putting a big ice cube on the surrounding glass. Something is gonna give.

 

[Rocket Man]

I’m now going to check my defroster connections on both my trucks.