Soldering/attaching rear window heater tab/connector

[Igor]

Hi,

I accidentally pulled the connector, small metal tab, off the rear window heater and would need to re-attach it. I tried soldering but it didn't work. It might be the type of solder I used (just a bog standard around these days), I melted solder on the tab and then pressed the whole thing to the heater (not on the empty patch left after the tab broke off) but it wouldn't hold.

Would anyone have any experience with attaching it? I went to few car glass places but they have no idea what to do. I found some adhesive Frost Fighter online but need to order it from the States and no idea does it work at all so before I do that I thought someone might have done it already.

These days I really miss the window heater so would love to sort it out.

Thanks for any advice!

Igor

[TOM 5252]

You probably would have to stick the tab back with superglue or arldite and then scape some insulation from
the element and paint enough of this stuff
http://radionics.rs-online.com/web/c/adhesives-sealants-tapes/adhesives-glues/conductive-adhesives/?searchTerm=conductive+paint&h=s&redirect-relevancy-data=636F3D3126696E3D4931384E44656661756C74266C753D656E266D6D3D6D61746368616C6C7061727469616C26706D3D5E5C442B5C735C442B2426706F3D3926736E3D592673743D4B4559574F52445F4D554C54495F414C504841267573743D636F6E64756374697665207061696E742673633D592677633D4E4F4E4526
across both parts.

I've used a small amount of this RS 101-5621 before to fix one line of a heating element, but you are dealing with the
full heater current so you may have to use a good thick layer of paint over the join between the metal of the tab and
the bare metal of the element.

Good Luck
Tom

[Igor]

Thanks Tom, that sounds like a good approach. I might give that a go. If I scrape off some insulation then maybe it can even be soldered on? When I was soldering I didn't scrape off any insulation off the element, it appeared to me the heat from melted solder would be enough to remove it. Maybe not enough? I've seen people soldering it directly on the window but that heats the window and the rest of the element quite a lot so avoided that.

[Igor]

Just to follow up on this if anyone else will need to do the same. Soldering actually worked in the end. I very lightly sanded with the place to solder with fine sand paper, put some solder on the heater - didn't solder directly but melted a bit of solder on the tip of the iron and then just spread it over the place I want to solder. Added a bit of solder on a cleaned tap and soldered that on. Actually, the way you'd normally solder something. So, it's holding fine.