Can someone enlighten me please. My mate noticed my internal control was in the middle position and said I should leave it up or down (L or R) as the heater was on constantly otherwise! I felt the mirror and it was indeed a little warm, but I'm not convinced it was hot enough for the heater to be on - and haven't tried it again yet). I see in the Octy forum, someone says the heater only works in conjunction with the heated rear window, but there's nothing about it in the Fabia manual and I don't want to burn the heater out by having it on all the time - but by the same token it seems a bit odd having to have it on left or right when it's not in use :confused: :confused:

I should be left on the middle setting, the mirror heater is only on when the back screen heater is switched on.

wrong its on all the time on the middle setting

Really?!

Thats what my dealer told me during the handover, seems a bit crazy.

Well I'll leave you lot to discuss as I'm off home from work now.

Be back tomorrow to find out what the general concensus is!

wrong its on all the time on the middle setting

this is true, I use it to clear rain, when I don't have the back window on.....

yup, in the middle is always on.

heated mirror only works in central position ,irrelevant of HRW operation and therefore shoud be turned to L or R when not required otherwise mirror heating element could be damaged

Don't forget that there are 2 different types of mirror control out there. Both are in the same position but the position of the dial means different things.

Mine is top for heated.

The mirrors heat up upon turning the ignition on.

My heated mirrors have been in the heat position ever since I got the car - Sept 03

(Mainly because I was advised by my dealer that the mirrors only remain on for 20mins upon turning the key on)

The amount of heat they kick out, even if they were left on permanently, i doubt it would damage the element.

Don't know whether i'm making this up or not, but i seem to recall reading somewhere, that if left in the middle position it will auto shutoff after 20 minutes.

edit: Damn it, not quick enough.lol

Mine has a "heated" setting (top), the middle (default) is the setting so both mirrors move at the same time when you twiddle the kn0b :eek: , and then there is a L to move just the nearside one (handy for parallel parking with 17s on )

Really?!

Thats what my dealer told me during the handover' date=' seems a bit crazy.[/quote']

Thats what my dealer said too! :confused:

My dealer said to leave it in the middle 'heater' position too since it didn't remain on constantly anyway. Not sure of details and haven't checked manual.

Interested to see what the concensus is gonna be though!

Well I'm gonna have a play with mine today then....

Like I say, there's nothing in the fabia manual about the heater side of things so I'll stick 'em on, see what happens and report back later.

...I don't want to burn the heater out by having it on all the time - but by the same token it seems a bit odd having to have it on left or right when it's not in use :confused: :confused:

I had heated mirrors on my BMW 525 - they were on all the time and there was no way of turning them off. I leave my in the centre position most of the time because the heating keep moisture as well as frost off them.

I haven't noticed them turning off after 20 minutes - that would be rather odd if you're doing a two/three hour journey in drizzle - I'm sure mine stay on all the time.

The manual just states "The exterior mirror heater only operates when the engine is running".

I think you may find that in the middle setting the switch can be pulled towards you (Towards the back of the car), activating a timed heater in the mirror.

Thats what I have. Mine's a 55 plate VRS, although I had exactly the same on my 51 plate Golf

I think you may find that in the middle setting the switch can be pulled towards you (Towards the back of the car)' date=' activating a timed heater in the mirror.

[/quote']

if this is true ,its my "you learn something new everyday" moment for today, thank you

I think you may find that in the middle setting the switch can be pulled towards you (Towards the back of the car)' date=' activating a timed heater in the mirror.

Thats what I have. Mine's a 55 plate VRS, although I had exactly the same on my 51 plate Golf[/quote']

Can you confirm that's mentioned in the handbook - there's nothing like that in my 54 handbook.

To my best knowledge (as i

Had a play yesterday - it seems as soon as you put the dial to the contre position the heater comes on and stays on. It's not linked to the HRW

Originally Posted by Decron

I think you may find that in the middle setting the switch can be pulled towards you (Towards the back of the car), activating a timed heater in the mirror.

Couldn't see any evidence of this though - no matter what postion the dial is in, you still have the up/down/left/right movement as if you were adjusting the mirrors - and pulling it towards you doesn't seem to do anything.

Now even more confused as there's so many views on this and absolutley bu**er all in my 06 manual.:confused:

My dealer said that the mirror heaters only come on when you activate the Heated rear Windcsreen. Whether this is right or not i guess it doesn't really matter as no-one's mirror heaters ever seem to malfunction. Any one out there had there mirror heaters pack up because they're always on?

I have to say I assumed that they heated up in the same way as my old Mk4 Golf (same switches) HRW On + Mirror Control middle = Heat!

Also, I have only ever seen my mirrors steaming when the HRW switch is on.

Does the left hand mirror move in harmony with the right? The Golf used to do that I remember now, but not tried it on the vRS.

Does the left hand mirror move in harmony with the right? The Golf used to do that I remember now' date=' but not tried it on the vRS.[/quote']

yes it does

Hope this doesn't fog up the issue any further:

Until 04/2002 the heater timer was 20 minutes - after this, the default was untimed (always on when selected)

You can VAG-COM the timer settings for the heated mirrors:

Controller adjustment

STG 09 (electrical system) select

STG Login - > function 11

Note: Before the adjustment a Login has to take place.

Logincode: 21343

STG adjustment - > function 10

- > channel 003 (heatable outside mirror)

Disconnection time of the heatable outside mirrors.

Range of values: 1-253 = 0,66-173 min

Default value (to 04/02): 29 = 20 min

Default value (starting from 05/02): 254 (without disconnection)

Cheers

Bas