i have a feeling my n/s heated mirror isnt working, is this covered by a fuse for that side or could it be a wire come off behind the mirror? If so how do i get to it?

cheers

RTFM for the fuse allocations, damned n00b! :P

As for checking the wiring, adjusting the mirror so that it's tilted all the way out and/or down should allow you to get at the terminals to give them a wiggle - long-nosed pliers might be required...

Failing that, the colour coded part of the mirror body is fairly easy to remove, it's been covered on here a few times before. Test the element with a multimeter to determine it's condition, if it's open circuit then the element is kaput.

The heated mirrors on the octavia are one of the (thankfully very) few crap things about my VRS. They are pretty puny but it is the switching that really offends me. Why have to twiddle the nozzle round to that stupid position? Why not have it connected to the rear screen heater switch like my last car?????

OK so maybe people will argue that you dont always need the mirrors with the screen - but i'm just not accepting any sensible reasons

Sorry Mike, when i say it was like that on my last car, it was a different make - and the heated mirrors were already (sensibly) wired up to the heated rear screen switch as a factory default.

Just a skoda or VAG quirk i guess.

RTFM for the fuse allocations, damned n00b! :P

As for checking the wiring, adjusting the mirror so that it's tilted all the way out and/or down should allow you to get at the terminals to give them a wiggle - long-nosed pliers might be required...

sorry to bother you but i have checked the obvious fuse there, im checking to see if there is any others that it could have burnt out.

An update tonight it was slow but eventually worked, just wondering if the heater element in the glass has burnt itself out??

Is the mirror moving? Is the Indicator flashing?

http://briskoda.net/ask-tech/wing-mirror-indicator-heating-connection/114561/

Reconnected this and mine worked okay. Either came loose or wasn't reconnected after work was done.

Sounds like the mirror element is not working very well. They do seem to be somewhat variable in efficiency from car to car.

I say this because I had the same problem on my 2006 Octy Estate. Although I even had them changed under warranty they never really worked that well.

However, on my 2008 car, they are significantly improved.

sorry to bother you but i have checked the obvious fuse there, im checking to see if there is any others that it could have burnt out.

An update tonight it was slow but eventually worked, just wondering if the heater element in the glass has burnt itself out??

The mirror heater element is probably burnt. Have you tested it with multimeter like dstev2000 suggested already,

I like the fact it isn't on the rear demister as when driving in the very cold damp around southern Germany the mirrors were misting up when the rear was totally clear.

Hence I could leave the rear off and the mirrors on.

I just leave them on now as I always forget to turn them off.