Heated mirrors ?

[swil00]

Is it just my bad luck, or is it common for heated mirrors to fail on VAG cars ?

I had a passat a few years back, the heated mirrors didn't work on it, they adjusted ok,

just wouldn't clear.

Well, now my Octavia is doing exactly the same. Heated window works fine, but the

mirrors don't. A diagnositc check didn't throw anything up a few weeks back.

[Golf-Fiend]

Any idea of the cost of the new heated glass for the mirrors and or a part number? My OS one does heat but ever soooo slooowly. The NS one is still pretty rapid in comparison.

[magic62]

Just to be sure. The round mirror knob is in the right position?

Not on L, not on 0, not on R, but on the small mirror sign?

[swil00]

Yep, Mirror adjustment set to the centre position. I'll try running a diagnostic check to see if its flagging anything now.

[magic62]

If you look at the knob, centre position <0> is at 9 o'clock. Knob should be pointing in the other direction at about 3 o'clock.

(hard to discribe.....)

Edited 11 November, 2009 by magic62

[jzc008]

Maybe it's just that heated mirrors don't have the heating capacity like the rear window. The Passat I had was supposed to have them and I couldn't tell if they really worked or not and the new Octavia seemed to take a long time to clear the glass, so long I'm not sure if they wouldn't have cleared on their own. I'm not sure which position the control knob is in though, why should this make a difference to the heating ?

[Genoa1893]

As Mike wrote, the heating works only when the knob points "forward", if it rests in between L and R mirrors are not heated. Mine works perfectly and do the job rather quickly (a matter of 1-2 minutes).

HTH,

[magic62]

It is all written in the manual

[jzc008]

Ah I see, you have to swithch it with the knob separately. In my Passat I think it was supposed to come on at the same time as the rear window heater. I'd better check they're not on all the time !

[AMB_1]

Weird...I was about to come on here tonight and post about this topic. As the winter has started to set in I have started to need the rear window de-mist and mirror de-mist, from last previous winters I seem to rember that these features seemed to work fairly rapidly like my previous cars however since using them in the vRS the last few days or so something seems to be a miss! The rear window takes an age to demist and often isnt fully done by the time it times out and it needs a second go. As for the wing mirrors they appear mildly warm right in the centre when touched after being left on for 10 mins and are really slow....bit of a pain as I only had the car serviced at the end of the summer and ive gotten them to look at this if I knew it was going to be a problem! Any ideas?

[jzc008]

As for the wing mirrors they appear mildly warm right in the centre when touched after being left on for 10 minsQUOTE]

It does say in the handbook

Do not touch the surfaces of the exterior mirrors if the exterior mirror heater is

switched on.

I don't know whether this is because the glass is (supposed to be) too hot to touch or whether it's because the mirror can get stained with heated fingerprints.

[magic62]

...and bird muck & traffic muck' date=' and acid rain etc etc!

It'll be to avoid a MacD's v Liebeck "Warning Coffee HOT!" type law suit! :confused:[/quote']

What did you want to touch the glass with? :eek:

[AMB_1]

i can rember seeing water vapour rise of the mirrors rise before but this year they seem barely warm at all!

[swil00]

If you look at the knob, centre position <0> is at 9 o'clock. Knob should be pointing in the other direction at about 3 o'clock.

(hard to discribe.....)

I should read the manual more, thanks for the info. Just need to wait on a cold morning to test them now :-)

[jzc008]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jzc008

...and bird muck & traffic muck' date=' and acid rain etc etc![/i']

It'll be to avoid a MacD's v Liebeck "Warning Coffee HOT!" type law suit!

Just to clarify, not originally posted by jzc008 but by simbo99

[james26]

If you're good at car diy try taking the glass off and should be able to cleen the conections and the heating coil. Worked on my last car, geting the glass back in is the hard part! But can be done....

James

[jzc008]

My wife's Polo recently needed a replacment wing mirror and the glass just unclipped from a round plastic moulding behind it. I also saw a BMW without the glass in the mirror and it appeared to be the same. I presume it's similar in the Octavia too and there were two wires which just clipped on to connectors. If you can get the glass off then you should be able to check there is power going to it with a meter and also if the heating element in the glass isn't open circuit.

[GAFF]

Interestng to hear people with Mirror heaters fail, my drivers side one went a few weeks back. I tried to do a DIY job on it but there's very little to solder to, so bought a new one IIRC is was about 70 Euro.

[Jorily]

be careful with quality on some items on e-bay.

[martziniuk]

Bringing this back up again. Say I were to put the wing mirrors into the defrost position, would they come on when I turn on the rear window demister and switch off automatically or are they independent? Also if they are independent would they stay on all they time until I turned them off or are they on a timer like the rear window?

The manual does not state!

[martziniuk]

Of course, Ta

[GAFF]

they're on until you turn them off...

I wonder is that why they don't last, nowt to time them out if left on.

[k.young]

I wonder is that why they don't last, nowt to time them out if left on.

3.43am.................when do you sleep ??

[GAFF]

3.43am.................when do you sleep ??

Shift work

[JohnMorr]

And how long do they stay on? Remember about 10 mins.....?

Edited 8 December, 2009 by JohnMorr