There was a heavy frost on the windscreen of my car when i went out to it one morning last week.

I have only owned my Fiesta for about two weeks (it's a used car bought from a Ford dealership) and I am not familiar with the front windscreen defrost set up/controls.

I pressed the defrost at the base of the windscreen button and left it for about five minutes but couldn't see the filaments in the front windscreen heating up and clearing the frost.

I also pressed the max defrost button and left this running for approx five minutes but yet again I couldn't see the ice on the windscreen defrosting.

Please note that the rear window did defrost when i pressed the rear window defrost button.

I realise that it depends upon how much frost you have on your windscreen, but how long approximately does it take to clear the windscreen of frost and ice after pressing the defrost buttons?

Where am I going wrong or could there be a fault?

Thank you in advance for any helpful advice about using the controls to clear the front windscreen of frost and ice.

That picture looks like American spec heater controls. The windscreen defrost button is usually the one immediately above the LCD readout, where this one has A/C. Using the max button still should have worked though.

Check your fuses if you haven't already. Then check fault codes and if nothing there then you'll have to take A pillar trim apart and find any breaks in continuity down the loom with a multimeter.

Going by that picture it looks like you dont have a heated front screen. The max defrost  turns up the heating to high and directs it to the windscreen.

This may be better answered on the Fiesta forum.

Thank you all for your response.

Please disregard the first picture that I attached within my post because I took it from the internet.

I have attached another photo taken from inside my car of the heater controls.

There has only been one heavy frost on the car windscreen so far and perhaps I just need to test out the windscreen defrost again another time to see what happens.

 

Just press the orange max button , this switches both front and rear screen heating elements on, heated mirrors, heating on to hot, full fan speed and I think Aircon. After screens and side windows defrost/demist I switch back to auto . That's in my partners fiesta. On my focus it's manual heater so DIY . 

22 hours ago, iantt said:

Just press the orange max button , this switches both front and rear screen heating elements on, heated mirrors, heating on to hot, full fan speed and I think Aircon. After screens and side windows defrost/demist I switch back to auto . That's in my partners fiesta. On my focus it's manual heater so DIY . 

Yes it should do the aircon too.

Just a thought, did you have the engine running, the front screen draws a lot of current and normally doesnt work unless the engine is running. The rear will run without the engine.

Hi Pragmatix, thanks for your response.

Yes I had the engine running.

I will try again when there is another frost as maybe there is something I am not used to or I just need to be more patient.

If I notice next time the windscreen is not clearing of frost then I will book it in with the dealer for them to investigate further.

Thanks everyone for your response and helpful advice/comments.

@Steve L I found my Mondeo cleared faster than by Current C-max, maybe something to do with a smaller battery, i find i have to increase the revs a little to get the screen to clear, on the Mondeo i just left it ticking over while i cleared the other windows,