Had my mk4 superb estate for a little while now and this morning was the first time I needed to use the heated mirrors to clear condensation, after waiting for a few mins I found they had not de-misted at all so cleared them manually.

(Previous car was a MK3 Octavia in which the mirrors would clear within a minute. )

I then left them on for my 20min journey to work to see if they would kick in, on arrival I checked both mirrors with my hand and they were still stone cold.

Was about to ring the dealer to book in for a warranty repair but thought I’d have a play around on the infotainment first to see if there was a setting that I missed. I found nothing relating to heated mirrors specifically but after much searching I found that changing the climate setting on my custom drive mode profile from “eco” to “normal” both mirrors fired up and got warm quickly.

Is this “normal” behaviour on other peoples cars? Seems odd that Eco mode would prevent them heating completely?!

As far I know the car is on the latest software (built June 2025).

Edited 7 November, 20257 Nov by steve-l

Does the Mk4 mirror control rotary selector switch have a mirror heat position? I.e. L; R; Fold and heat.

Yes it does, despite turning the switch to the heat position they just did not work in Eco mode.

That would seem to be going far into extreme hypermiling territory to the point of stupid if that's what VAG have done!

Clear external mirrors are a basic safety requirement - does your heated rear screen behave the same?

Thank you for posting this steve!

Few days ago I had the identical situation, mirrors were quite foggy so I turned heating on. After 15 minutes basically nothing happened so I stopped and cleared them manually. Was also driving in eco mode.

For me it looks like a bug, it makes no sense that eco mode would prevent heating, this is just the option a driver can turn on (like wipers) and at least there should be some kind of the information if heating is intentionally not enabled. (like an e.g. crossed out heating-mirror-icon)

And foggy mirros are also a security related thing, so nothing should prevent heating 😅.

2 hours ago, Warrior193 said:

That would seem to be going far into extreme hypermiling territory to the point of stupid if that's what VAG have done!

Clear external mirrors are a basic safety requirement - does your heated rear screen behave the same?

Yes, I can’t believe the behaviour is by design, I could understand maybe a timer in eco mode where it would turn them off after a period of time from setting off.

Not tried the heated rear screen yet to be honest will give it a try and see.

1 hour ago, vranisimo said:

Thank you for posting this steve!

Few days ago I had the identical situation, mirrors were quite foggy so I turned heating on. After 15 minutes basically nothing happened so I stopped and cleared them manually. Was also driving in eco mode.

For me it looks like a bug, it makes no sense that eco mode would prevent heating, this is just the option a driver can turn on (like wipers) and at least there should be some kind of the information if heating is intentionally not enabled. (like an e.g. crossed out heating-mirror-icon)

And foggy mirros are also a security related thing, so nothing should prevent heating 😅.

Glad to see I’m not the only one!

As per my original post I was able to get round it by setting the climate option to “normal” and have the rest of the options set to eco in the customisable drive mode so as to retain the eco engine behaviour - shouldn’t have to do it that way but seems best way at the moment, although given some of the earlier software horror stories I’m content with just living with this minor bug I think!

Edited 8 November, 20258 Nov by steve-l

that explains why mine didnt defrost this morning!

into the settings we go!