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I have been having an issue recently which may or may not be related to this other problem that I have been having regarding the heating element in the left wing mirror on my car.

Switch

I have that with the switch in the above position, only the right wing mirror was becoming clearer. Sure enough, when I got out in a car park to have a closer look at them I noticed that the right wing mirror was indeed warm (as it should be) but the left one was still cold and harder to see as a result.

Left Wing Mirror

  • Is the heating element in that mirror broken?
  • If so, is it an easy fix?

I am hoping that this is not the case and that I can kill two birds with one stone by just replacing the switch (which is probably the cause of the other issue I was having) but at this point I really don't know if that would fix both of my problems.

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Max Goodridge
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1 Answers1

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The heated mirrors have a restive heat strip spiraled around the back of the mirror. It works much like the defrost "wires" on a rear car window but since its a mirror, you can't see them. The MkIII Jetta didn't have a control for the heated mirrors - they were always on, and would fail more often than the switched ones on newer cars, but failure does still happen.

To start testing this, you will need to remove the mirror. I really think it just pops off with some force, but verify that for sure... Disconnect the two-pin wiring connector.

Verify you are getting voltage from the car side, and check resistance on the mirror side. Infinite resistance on the mirror indicates a broken heat wire, and might be repairable with a rear-defrost repair kit, but I've never done it. No power from the car could be a bad fuse, bad switch, or a bad connection somewhere. Those possibilities should be checked in that order.

The mirrors are pretty easy to find "used" at a junk yard or eBay if the repair kit isn't a workable option.

JPhi1618
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