Heated mirrors - Do I or don't I have?

[old-man]

Sorry for the basic question but I can't tell if I have heated wing mirrors or not

I've read what I can find on the site and still can't decide.

The other morning the first frost (minus 2) since I've owned the car and the mirrors don't clear so that got me thinking, do I have them and they don't work or are they not fitted.....

The user manual doesn't make it clear either on one page it says the mirrors activate when the temperature allows and on another is shows a heated mirror symbol (not shown in the relevant diagram), so do you need both for the system to work?

The switch I have shows a left and right mirror with a vertical line in the middle, no sign of the heated mirror symbol.

Any ideas?

Car is 08 2.0Tdi S-Line cabriolet.

 

[NHN]

Well turn on rear demister & this activated the mirrors if installed, also you could find out in 2 minutes flat by removing the mirror glass & checking how many wires are connected & what connections your mirror has

 

[gjwell]

Heated mirrors are not fitted as standard. However the wiring is there. If you remove the mirror glass by gently levering the bottom (be careful especially with the drivers side as it is very easy to crack the glass) you will see two wires attached to the glass in the corner. Unfortunately the contacts on the glass are plastic and are just holding the wires in place indicating you have standard glass. I replaced mine for about £30 ish pounds IIRC. On cold mornings you can tell you have them as you get steam coming off of them J. (BTW they are activated with the rear demister )

 

[NHN]

Well turn on rear demister & this activated the mirrors if installed

(BTW they are activated with the rear demister )

There's an echo in here G, lol

 

[PetrolDave]

Heated mirrors are not fitted as standard.

It depends on the model and spec - some A4s had them, all S4s have them and all RS4s have them.

 

[old-man]

Cheers guy's.

I did try it with the the rear demister as this is how my last car worked but wasn't too sure if the adjustment button need to be in the centre position or not.

I will now investigate the glass... If I can remove it in one piece is it re-usable (ie is it glued on or fixed by some other method).

So does the type of switch you have in the car make any difference to the heated mirrors or is it just dependant on the correct type of glass being used, subject of course to the wires being present?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[pjmspeedy]

In my Wife's Golf Mk5 you have to press the mirror button in to activate.

 

[johnnythepie]

might be worth checking your optional equipment codes (found inside the service manual) at this site
http://igorweb.org/equidec/Default.aspx

before you start buggering about!!!

 

[PetrolDave]

I did try it with the the rear demister as this is how my last car worked but wasn't too sure if the adjustment button need to be in the centre position or not.

On Audi's the position of the adjustment button doesn't matter.

Last winter we thought the heated mirrors on my wife's Skoda had failed, but they were fine and weren't working because the adjustment button was set to the left instead of the centre - so it's not consistent across the VAG range.

So does the type of switch you have in the car make any difference to the heated mirrors or is it just dependant on the correct type of glass being used, subject of course to the wires being present?

The type of switch doesn't matter.

In most cases even if you don't have the heated glass the wires will be there.

As has already been said worth checking the option codes first - removing the mirror glass often breaks it!

 

[old-man]

Checked the codes and as Little Britain would say 'the computer says no' so on the next frosty morning I will try pushing in the button, demister on and every other suggestion before checking behind the glass itself.

Thanks for all the suggestions and one more question, is there anywhere online to buy the mirror glass that could be recommended?

Regards

 

[NHN]

ebay.

 

[gjwell]

There's an echo in here G, lol

oops

The mirrors are not glued in just clipped in two places in the centre and on the side nearest the car. If you takeout the passenger side it's less likely to break as it doesn't have the score line down the middle. I just used the car key and gently prised from the bottom centre of the mirror. Be careful no to scratch your mirror covers though. To put it back just pop it in.

I can’t believe Audi save that much money by missing these out on some models, it’s supposed to be a luxury brand, my golf had them as standard!

 

[Yellowtrophy]

You'll find it much easier to remove the glass if you put the electric mirror in the "up" position as far as it will go. I've done this 3 times now - just placed my fingers behind the mirror, and gently teased it away from the clip. I found that doing it by hand (with a glove on!) spreads the pressure further across the mirror, and it is therefore less likely to break.
As I said, I've done it with 3 sets now (both sides, so 6 mirrors in total) and the glass has never broken.
Don't blame me if you cut your fingers off though!!!

 

[old-man]

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to respond. I tried to look behind the glass last night with it in the up position and I can see two groups of wires, one I presume is for the mirror movement and fingers crossed the other is for the heated glass.

I'll let you how I get on.

Thanks

 

[Dazmo]

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to respond. I tried to look behind the glass last night with it in the up position and I can see two groups of wires, one I presume is for the mirror movement and fingers crossed the other is for the heated glass.

I'll let you how I get on.

Thanks

Yes its easy mate just move your mirror glass down all the way until you have a big gap at the top then simply spread your hands over the glass and gently pull and it will come away as it is only clipped on!

 

[NHN]

If you takeout the passenger side it's less likely to break as it doesn't have the score line down the middle. I just used the car key and gently prised from the bottom centre of the mirror. Be careful no to scratch your mirror covers though. To put it back just pop it in.

Dont even bother with a key, this is not good advice even if it worked for you as if you use the metal to lever against the glass it could very well crack/shatter, use your fingers behind it & prise it of spreading across the top center of glass.

You'll find it much easier to remove the glass if you put the electric mirror in the "up" position as far as it will go.

I always do this in the down position tbh, oooh uuuh

Can use your hand to move the glass to an up/down position which I find is alot better as it will go that slight bit further than the motor will carry it

I tried to look behind the glass last night with it in the up position and I can see two groups of wires, one I presume is for the mirror movement and fingers crossed the other is for the heated glass.

Both sets connected or not? Also may need to turn on heated mirrors in the door modules with vagcom, this is also something to bare in mind.

Yes its easy mate just move your mirror glass down all the way until you have a big gap at the top then simply spread your hands over the glass and gently pull and it will come away as it is only clipped on!

Yeap exactly as I always do, not up but down, seems to work both ways but I find down allows more room & less chance to break, main weight of leverage is in the middle about 3 inches in diameter as this is the size of the backplate motorised part that its clipped into, so slowly prise it of from the gap using this size, take ur time & it takes a fair bit of pressure, dont rush or it will crack, done it about 4 times today whilst playing with my mirrors, havnt broke one in years using this method on 3 different audis now with different shape glass, but each to there own, just gives you few ideas to try mate, not discounting anyone else's ideas.

 

[PetrolDave]

Also may need to turn on heated mirrors in the door modules with vagcom

You sure about that applying to the A4?

 

[NHN]

Thats why I said "may" mate, given 8P has this in the door modules to code on/off, but I cant find a label file for the door module anyway for the 8E, also checked label file for 09 central electrics & nothing in there either, I was sure my B6 had an option for this, but you've got B7 dave, have a look in your logs please as may help them, also what happens when you try 42/52 in your RS4, any connection, I cant remember mine tbh as was 2 years ago.

 

[PetrolDave]

Thats why I said "may" mate, given 8P has this in the door modules to code on/off, but I cant find a label file for the door module anyway for the 8E, also checked label file for 09 central electrics & nothing in there either, I was sure my B6 had an option for this, but you've got B7 dave, have a look in your logs please as may help them, also what happens when you try 42/52 in your RS4, any connection, I cant remember mine tbh as was 2 years ago.

The door modules appear as secondary modules, and there's no way to code them separately. There's nothing at addresses 42 or 52.

AFAIK there's no coding for heated mirrors on the B6 or B7, just wiring.

 

[NHN]

Cheers Dave, as always much appreciated fella & must have been confused then mate, so maybe its standard or controlled by another module, anyway with the info on this thread he should be able to resolve easily.

 

[gjwell]

Dont even bother with a key, this is not good advice even if it worked for you as if you use the metal to lever against the glass it could very well crack/shatter, use your fingers behind it & prise it of spreading across the top center of glass.

Fair play I did brake my drivers side, although I was replacing them so probably wasnt as careful as I should have been.

I fitted mine no coding required partnumbers

8E08575735D and 8E0857536E cost a total of 53.98 from the stealers.

 

[old-man]

Well the original glass came out and the wires were there so I ordered replacement heated glass This arrived today so I fitted it and heh presto I now have heated mirrors.

Thanks again to everyone who suggested ways to find out etc and to pjmspeedy for sorting the parts out.

- Keith

 

[timsp8]

Seeing this thread and damaging my A6's drivers side heated mirror led me to order heated mirrors for my wife's A4 cab (2007/07). I used low-tack masking tape to protect the paintwork on the mirror covers and a sheet to protect the door paint from flying glass. Despite using the hints above both mirrors broke during removal ( mainly I think due to the glass being brittle as it was minus 5 C the night before and still below freezing when I did it ). Everything else was easy and as described above. As on my 2000W A6 the mirrors work with heated rear window activation with no need for vagcom changes.

Thanks to pjmspeedy for the parts (including glass for my A6). He got me the correct parts, at a competitive price and they arrived when he said they would.

Tim