A car dashboard icon question

mhardy6647

Lunatic Member
OK, I'm going to cut to the chase on this one. We availed ourselves of a rented KIA Sedona minivan this past week (to the tune of over 1200 miles). The new model is actually a pretty nice and sturdy vehicle.

Driving it home today, we happened to notice a button on the center instrument panel The function of this button 1) isn't intuitively obvious from its little glyph or icon and 2) isn't obviously documented in the rather voluminous manual for the car.

It's NOT related to the defroster or windshield wipers. It's NOT a dummy button... it has a yellow LED in it that turns on when it is pushed in. Otherwise, nothing obvious happens when it's turned "on".

Anyone here happen to know what this button might be for? You can see it towards the bottom of the attached photo, to the right of the "ESC OFF" button (we know what that one does!). The icon/glyph in question looks like the international "windshield" symbol with a zig-zag through it and a pointer or windshield-wiper like thingy angling through the zig-zag.

It'd be easier to decipher in Korean, I think!



thanks!

P8250002.jpg
 
maybe a back window defroster ????????????????? maybe it heats up your winshield wiper fluid during the winter????? new cars have a lot of useless crap on them any more to justify the high prices imho
 
It is not the rear window defroster -- that's located just above the frame of the photo I took.

I am thinking something related to the windshield washer fluid, myself...
 
Fluid level, maybe.

Either that, or there's a hidden camera in the car, and someone is watching to see how long you ditz with the button before you give up. You might be on TV right now!
 
I found it in the manual... it's for the "windshield deicer" (hmm). This is over and above the defroster.
 
Heh. Once you know what it is, it almost makes sense.

Ok, what the heck is "ESC OFF"?

Murray
 
You found it in the manual which you had yet you thought it made more sense to ask a bunch of guys who have never sat in one of these cars what the button does rather then open the manual first.

Kind of like asking a question that a simple google search would find. Yes/no


ESC + a simple Google search of ESC off KIA brings up "electronic stability control (ESC) "
 
I would've never found it in the manual without the 'aha' insight occasioned by the "bunch of guys" comments in the first couple of replies. I looked for a good half hour

It was entirely possible that someone here might actually own one of these things.

While it would be easy to Google "ESC KIA", it would be much harder to Google a description of the button I was interested in. Perhaps, for fun I should Google "the international "windshield" symbol with a zig-zag through it and a pointer or windshield-wiper like thingy angling through the zig-zag KIA" and see if I find anything besides this thread.

(BTW, I FOUND the dang ESC OFF button in the manual, easily!)

G'night, all.
 
umm, Mark, did you actually read my first post? [I edited this a bit, as I was a little too snippy the first time]

I quote:
"Driving it home today, we happened to notice a button on the center instrument panel The function of this button 1) isn't intuitively obvious from its little glyph or icon and 2) isn't obviously documented in the rather voluminous manual for the car." (emphasis added)

That's my wry way of saying "I did RTFM and couldn't find it". The manual is almost 600 pages long and has essentially NO index nor TOC.
 
Perhaps, for fun I should Google "the international "windshield" symbol with a zig-zag through it and a pointer or windshield-wiper like thingy angling through the zig-zag KIA" and see if I find anything besides this thread.


I googled it ... but it told me I was stupid and to go back and drink more Mad Dog!...

Sounds like a plan!....lol! :tresbon:
 
Common symbol for the rear window defogger...even on domestic cars.

Nope.

1) the rear window icon is rectangular
2) the defoggers have little wiggly arrows for the icon

The rear window defogger button is above the ESC OFF button in the photo, with the heater/AC controls.




You learn a lot about this stuff sometimes, when least expected.
 
Last edited:
mhardy6647 said:
Nope.

1) the rear window icon is rectangular
2) the defoggers have little wiggly arrows for the icon

The rear window defogger button is above the ESC OFF button in the photo, with the heater/AC controls.




You learn a lot about this stuff sometimes, when least expected.

And teach some as well...

:yes:
 
mhardy6647 said:
Nope.

1) the rear window icon is rectangular
2) the defoggers have little wiggly arrows for the icon

The rear window defogger button is above the ESC OFF button in the photo, with the heater/AC controls.




You learn a lot about this stuff sometimes, when least expected.
Ah, I was looking at the wrong button! Sheesh...doesn't the owner's manual explain what its for?
 
I know that Mercury Grand Marquis had an electric windsheild deicing feature but the button was labeled "W/S de-ice". An extra heavy duty battery was required with the option. If the Kia does indeed have this feature it would be good in the winter as it will start defrosting the windshield instantly before the engine heats up to operate the regular defroster. Am not sure what technology is used in the windshield de-ice system though.
 
Chad Hauris said:
I know that Mercury Grand Marquis had an electric windsheild deicing feature but the button was labeled "W/S de-ice". An extra heavy duty battery was required with the option. If the Kia does indeed have this feature it would be good in the winter as it will start defrosting the windshield instantly before the engine heats up to operate the regular defroster. Am not sure what technology is used in the windshield de-ice system though.

The Ford system was first offered in 1989 and used diffused metal particles in the plastic layer of the safety glass, passed electric current through them, and heated the windshield. GM also used the system on it's "dustbuster" shaped minivans. You can spot these cars because the glass has a bronze tint.

As I am told the system works well, but insurance companies pretty much killed the option, as the windshields cost over $2000 to replace. Add the fact that this would pretty much be a regional option, (Not much use for it in AZ) and the idea faded away.

A few years ago, a Detroit-area company patented a heated wiper fluid system and licensed it to GM (and the aftermarket) for a few years now. I guess by this point, it has filtered down to some of the automotive knock-offs too.
 
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