Heated Front Screen
 

Hi,

I just bought a 2004 Discovery S. The front windscreen has tiny heat coils in it, suggesting that the car should have the Heated Front Screen feature. However, the button to operate this feature is not there (i.e. the button above the heated rear window button is a blank filler button).

I'm not sure why this would be, but I'm wondering if it could be as simple as purchasing a Heated Front Screen button and installing it in place of the blank switch. I pulled the blank switch out and the green wire connector is there.

Has anyone seen this before? Is it possible that the car would have come from the factory with heat coils in the glass but no Heated Front Screen button? If I installed such a button, might I also have to change a fuse or do something else to get those coils to heat?

Thanks for any advice, as always!

Is the screen plugged-in to the connectors on the scuttle panel under the bonnet?

If it is, you will also need the HFS Relay in the under-bonnet fuse box (R8) and 40A fuses in positions F7 and F8

Additionally, you will need to use a diagnostics device to enable the HFS in the BCU, as it's this that controls the timing of the HFS.

Pressing the facia switch, momentarily earths down a wire to signal the BCU to start the timed period, as does the 'defrost' button on the climate control panel.

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Sounds like someone had the windshield replaced at some point, and they used the wrong one. Might be a bonus though!

PaulMc: Thanks so much for your detailed response.

Does anyone have a picture of what this connection (from windscreen to scuttle panel connectors) looks like? I see a couple of connections coming from the windscreen, but then appear to be for the wipers..

No pic, but they are pretty obvious if they are there... its a large black 2 pin connector with heavy gauge wire. One on each side of the cowl panel.

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All Discoveries, at least the 2003/2004 years have these black plugs on each side, but ones without the heated screen have no wires going into them, for the heated screen, while the heated screens do have the wires going into them. My non heated, 2004, screen has little squiggly wire like things around perimeter of screen, that I once thought were heating elements in screen, but now I think not, so no sure why Rover made screen with that sort of thing in it? My Classic Range Rover had heated screen, with almost invisible elements within the screen, and it worked really well, I might add, but if/when you had to replace the screen, they cost way more than non heated.

The wiper motor connection is to a connector on the main harness (through the bulkhead).


The HFS connectors are a large 2-way connector (Econoseal 250), there's one clipped each side of the scuttle panel (the HFS has left and right 'zones').

Here's a picture of the RH connector (from the perspective of sitting in the vehicle) -

Attachment 38708


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