From digest.v5.n578 Mon Nov 18 21:17:40 1996
From: John Knolle/mail+schedule <john.knolle_at_exchangebrk.BARRA.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 09:26:48 -0800
Subject: Rear defrost blowout

Hey all,

O.K., I have never heard of this, maybe one of the more seasoned drivers out there has. Saturday night my girlfriend and I drove to Oakland from San Francisco in the rain to attend my company's holiday party. I had the rear defrost on for about twenty-five minutes, turning it off as we entered the parking garage. Suddenly, I heard a loud "POP" turned around and found my rear window shattered. At first I thought someone had shot it out but upon careful inspection I found the origin of break was the point where the defrost wire connects to the window in the lower left corner. I touched the glass and found this point extremely hot. Any clues?

• -John '90 325is

Rest of the story:
Even though the glass was already starting to fall in, we wanted to make the most of the night so we attended the dinner cruise anyway and stole a half-dozen dinner napkins (you'll see why). Here's a little improvisation that may come in handy: We placed the napkins along the base of the rear window. Then to "patch" the hole, I held the overlapping floormats (passenger & driver) over the entire window opening while she drove us home. Worked like a charm! The mats deflected the rain and glass and more importantly, the small amount of water which made it inside was immediately absorbed by the napkins.