Just discovered I have had mirror knob in heating position since new. Assume they have been perm on whilst driving so turned knob to 0 position. Hopefully mirrors will heat only when heated rear window is on ?

They're not linked with the rear window so it's just that manual knob I'm afraid. 

I only realised the same a couple of weeks ago. I've never had a car where the heated mirrors weren't linked to the heated rear window.

Yes it's only manual knob and nothing else.Rear window's heaters and  side mirrors  are connected separately.You shall get use to it

Edited 9 December, 20187 yr by zar

I believe they are still on a timer even if the dial is left at the ‘On’ position. So no, they won’t have been on since day 1. 

The only reference to the heated door mirrors that I can see, is on p81 of the handbook which states "Mirror heating (only works when the engine is running)";  there is no mention of a timer. I suppose we can test that out.  On all my cars prior to the Karoq, the door mirrors were only heated while the rear screen heater was on.

Someone with both a Karoq and VCDS should have a look to see if it's on a timer, and what the default setting is.

I just recently discovered that my old Polo has the facility to adjust how long the heated mirrors run from start-up, but it was set to the default, which was infinity. Seems almost to look like built-in failure provocation...

I'll see if I can find my recent post on the subject, but if I remember right, it was in module 09, central electrics, adaptations. 

 

Yep, can also adjust default timing of HRW:

 

Edited 9 December, 20187 yr by Wino

I learn something new every day... I thought the heated mirrors would just activate with rear heating so left dial on... I guess I need to turn on and off. (My Octi's I think always worked that way?)

Edited 9 December, 20187 yr by MJ1
Auto correct is *hit!!!

Skoda have been using the same heated door mirror controls for as long as I can remember.

 

I quite like being able to operate the heated mirror glass independently of the rear heated screen, but a tell-tale warning light would be handy.

 

They are on a timer though so whilst leaving the knob in the heated position means they will turn off after a while, each time you cycle the ignition to turn off and back on the engine they'll turn on again.

 

Early MkI and MkII Octavia's used to suffer from delamination of the mirror glass due to owners leaving the heating on. Took several years though!

You would think there would be a thermostat or a thermal cut out at least to prevent damage.

Surely you would think there would be some form of control condition in relation to the outside air temperature sensor value, i.e. why would you want to heat the mirrors if the outside air temp is +20°C 

Just a thought but then that would be 'Simply Too Clever' maybe? 

There was a thread on the MkIII Octavia forum suggesting that the heated mirrors altered their temperature output depending on the exterior ambient temperature. Nothing to substantiate that though.

 

I'd also imagine that in extremely humid climates, the heated mirror function might be just as effective at demisting / defogging the glass as they are at deicing, which might prove a problem if they're set to only work below a certain temperature.

 

I've known people to use the function to dry their mirrors too in the past. Whilst I doubt that they get hot enough to dry large droplets of water, they might clear a listing misting of road spray, which might be present in relatively high ambient temperatures.

42 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

 

I've known people to use the function to dry their mirrors too in the past. Whilst I doubt that they get hot enough to dry large droplets of water, they might clear a listing misting of road spray, which might be present in relatively high ambient temperatures.

 

 

They’re actually quite effective at drying the mirrors during the rain. 

I use the function regularly to clear the mirror of rain & find it very effective. The heaters do time  out - by checking the "convenience consumer" setting you will see " Mirror heating" when it's actually on, usually above "air conditioning" which is there whether it's on or off !