BaLLZDeePNYC

Nice you have a couple of side shots?

sf_loft

I was going to get the 3M crystalline 70 myself, but you can spend a fraction of the price for SunTek CXP 70 with 48.9% heat reduction instead at a half the cost. You must have a good installer for the 3M crystalline as they are thicker and harder to install compared to most tints.

sf_loft

Every good tinter will tell you this and make you read a disclaimer about the side effects of tints. It really depends on how thick the manufacturer makes the defroster lines and how thick the tint is. The thicker the worse because the adhesive can not settle / stick to the lines and there will be a falloff gap before the rest adheres to the glass. The thicker the tint material, the harder for it to settle into the fold. This gap turns the tint into a prism and will diffract the light coming through. It gets better over time and is less noticeable on darker tints. I have a 70% tint and it is very noticeable and annoying at first, but it has gotten better over time.

Another issue you will find that is common are the dot matrix (ceramic black dots) around the edges of your window. Similar to the defroster lines, it depends on how thick it is. The thiner and the more spaced apart they are the better the tint will settle. What you will see are pockets of air because the tint will not stick. There are two solutions, glue or paint the dots. This is more tedious and tint shops rarely do it or charge you more for the process. On our cars, the dot matrix is not that thick and you will see slight white over the dot matrix but it's not very noticeable.

Things to watch out for. The B&O amp that is located on the driver side quarter panel. If you open the left compartment in the trunk, you will see it and there is a straight shot for water to go in from the back left window corner. There have been many instances of tint shops using too much water where it shorts them out. Audi will not warranty the AMP if your car has been tinted. There was a bulletin sent out by them when reports started coming in. Make sure to tell your tinter to disconnect / bag the amp. What my tinter did was to bag and stuff towels inside the compartment. Good tint shops will use very little liquid though. Lastly, make sure that your tint shop does not cut around the brake light. It looks bad! Make sure that they know how to disconnect your rear brake light and tint all the way through. If you go with a really dark tint, they may recommend cutting around it as it will defeat the safety purpose of a brake light if you can only see 15% or less of its brightness.

planbs4

From what I heard from tinting shops is that the only "true" cermanic tint on the market right now is Formula one. Wincos cermanic is not really cermanic film and they have a slight bluish fade to their material as well. I highly recommend Pinnacle Formula One 35% all around

Waudi

Thanks for all the comments so far the weather has not been sunny to help adhesion of the tint to the back window. Hope the halo effect will minimize over time..or that i just notice it less.

DPinCT

I have Huper Optik 35 on my 2010 S4...the halo effect is pretty annoying, so I think I may remove the rear tint altogether. I had the tint installed during some cold weather here in the CT, and have noticed some bubbling on the side windows as well...

trentbg

Had the same problem with my previous car, the halos never went away, it was done with LLumar tint products.

BDI

For all that aren't having these "halo" effects, can you take a close up pic of your defroster lines. I want to see if there is any spacing between the line and the tint.

Thanks in advance!!

BaLLZDeePNYC

I hear huper optiks ceramic properties help amplify the halo effect and also the tintman needs to be good. Here in NY I only go to Lorenzo Tint or Infinitint they are quality people. Lorenzo is a lil more pricey but his facility is nice and you get a handwash when all is said and done by detailers that work in that shop as well. He uses anything from llumar to solargard to Madico.

Infinitint is a little less but all he uses is LLumar film and does an excellent job as well. He told me since he got an account to tint exclusively for New country Audi he learned Llumar is the best film to use on the cars and non ceramic because of the Halos.

Lorenzo does not even believe in the ceramic tints unless you live in a desert lol

BDI

Bumping an old thread.

Can I assume that you do not have the Halo effect? I'm looking to go to a new place to remove the tint and reapply. I want to go to a place where I know I won't get the halo(glare)effect.

I was hoping the halo effect would go away in time but it's still there and just as annoying.