Noticed my side mirrors were warm.....

[bmwrocks]

I touched my side mirrors this morning to wipe off some water spots and I noticed they were warm. I'm talking about the glass itself.

Now I know they have a defogging feature but I didn't realize that they were always defogging.

The vehicle had been running for about 15 minutes with climate control system off when I touched them. Outside temp was around 70.

Are yours always warm too? Just wanted to make sure mine were functioning properly.

 

[Akakubi]

I touched my side mirrors this morning to wipe off some water spots and I noticed they were warm. I'm talking about the glass itself.

Now I know they have a defogging feature but I didn't realize that they were always defogging.

The vehicle had been running for about 15 minutes with climate control system off when I touched them. Outside temp was around 70.

Are yours always warm too? Just wanted to make sure mine were functioning properly.

Yep, always warm. They decided to keep them "heated" all the time to prevent from fogging up altogether.

 

[Big Daddy]

On a side note I had a seven series that had heaters in the outside door handles. They were activated when you lifted on the handle. Once one of the switches got stuck on and man did that handle get hot, ouch! As far as the mirrors are concerned, mine too are always warm and Akakubi is correct, always on by design.

 

[epj3]

aparently the lock heaters in the e30's had bad wiring and could catch on fire (?)

 

[bmwrocks]

Thanks all.

 

[MrElussive]

Yeah, usually heated mirrors are always heated. When I had my Jetta, the mirrors would get REALLY hot...like so hot you could only put you hand on the glass for a few seconds. And I was able to turn off the heated mirrors function. To adjust the mirrors on my Jetta, there was a knob I can turn from L to center to R, and then move the knob around to adjust the mirror. Whenever the knob was in the center, that meant the heated mirrors function was on, which I thought was a nice feature to be able to control. Unfortunately, one nice feature did not help the shit-factor of my Jetta and I am so happy I don't have that piece of shit anymore.