Your advice just hit it straight on the nail.

I suspect it's the combi relay, and I ordered another used unit for $20 to mess with.

The rear windshield is perfect, so I don't suspect it's the heater element.

What I did not think about is removing the fuse and putting the meter to the terminals - that would tell me if there is current going to the element (or would at least isolated the relay).

Now here is the interesting thing: Trying to pull out the old combi relay. It's a larger black box inside the fuse box, and it just will not budge! Is there any trick to it?

On one site I read of one incident where a guy pulled the relay, re soldered the connecting pins, and it worked fine again. So I think between the old relay, the $20 unit, and a soldering iron I just bought I might have the problem solved, without having to dish out over $100 for a new relay....

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Henry Bofinger
1989 560 SEL (black/black)
2001 Audi TT Roadster (silver/grey)