I was reading the archives and noticed that the heated mirrors seem to stay on all the time and also seem to burn out quite often. Does anyone know of a solution to this problem? Has Audi issued a TSB on this problem. When my 99 goes out of warranty I don't want to have to buy mirrors every year or so.

Yes they will burn out at least once a year if not sooner and will cost you over $100 to replace both every year. The solution is for Audi to come up with a fix to rewire them into the rear defroster system (should be fairly easy) or develop new mirrors that would last at least 5 years being on all the time. I rewired mine to operate with the rear defroster switch but this takes a fair amount of wiring knowledge and time.<p>I wonder if the '99.5's will go back to the rear defroster activation or mirrors that last seeing that there are new looking mirrors in the '99.5 pictures.

i have not taken by mirrors off yet (don't heat, have appointment with dealer) but<p>on a prior car (dodge shadow) i discovered after i bought the car that it did not have a rear defogger (!!!) Pretty significant in canada (TO)<p>went to hardware store (cdn tire) and got 2 kits that allow u to add. Includes paint on type ferric based stuff, and stick on lines.<p>Have u looked at the back of the mirror? is there any chance of jury rigging some kind of custom solution?<p>methinks than even though they will last longer with a switch, i'm expecting maybe 2 years in canada.<p>1996 a4 2.8 qm<p><br>

My appointment is set for tomorrow morning...both mirror heaters dead.<p>I suggested to the dealer that maybe they could wire the mirror heater controls so that the heaters would come on with the defrost switch. He said that for the '96 model this was the case and still they experienced a lot of failures. He said that Audi figures that turning the heaters on and off is actually worse than leaving them on all the time.<p>I figure this will be a good one to argue with the dealer on after warranty is out and three mirrors were replaced under warranty...they'd have to listen. Right?<p><br>DG<br>'97 1.8tqms Pearl

In my last conversation with the AoA area rep, I asked him to authorize the dealer to rewire the mirrors to the rear defroster circuit. He gave me an emphatic NO and said there was no problem with the heated mirrors.<p>Early '98 with 2 new mirrors

I tried to do it but failed. I have miles of my own wires in the car so I feel up to the task, just didn't find out how yet. Can you give some pointers?<p>Sorry for wasting bandwidth, Bob didn't have his email posted.<p>Thanks,<br>- Stan

to AoA directly, via email and written letter, then perhaps they will do what several other manufacturers have done with a component which has a high failure rate and extend the warranty on THAT COMPONENT TO 100,000 miles, etc...<p>For example. The Toyota 4-Runner with the 3.4L V6 had a nasty habit of going through exhaust manifold gaskets. Toyota eventually came up with a new gasket, but it took many years. They ended up retroactively increasing the warrantyh on ONLY the gasket for another 5 years or so and up to 100,000 miles I believe.<p>Kirk<br>Squeeky Wheel gets the Grease

I live in northwestern North Carolina. E-mail me if you want any more information.

NT

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I was sitting at a bank drive-through once, & decided to touch the mirrors to see if mine stay on all the time... almost burned my knuckles! I think they have far more capacity than needed to keep them defrosted unless you live somewhere where sub-zero temps are the norm. If Audi's theory mentioned in an above post that turning them off & on will wear them out faster than leaving them all the time holds any water (I really doubt it though), there may be another solution... wire the two mirrors in series. Each mirror would then see around 7 volts, run cooler, and probably last much longer. If it's easy to find the point where the two mirrors come together (electrically), this should be a very easy mod. Bob, have you seen where the driver's and passengers mirrors wire together?

They basically come together at the #9 fuse wire. Yes if you look hard enough and string a wire from the driver's side to the passenger side you can hook each mirror individually to a relay and maintain the outside temp display. I usually just hit the rear defrost switch if I wish to see the outside temp.<p>The on/off degradation comment is rediculous as just starting/stopping the engine will cycle the constantly on mirrors more than when you use the rear defroster control method.<p>I know many people who have older Audi's that control the mirrors with the defroster switch and the mirrors are still very hot to the touch.<p><br>Bottom line....bad move Audi...go back to the defrost method. Wonder how the 99.5's will be wired?