Heated Door Mirrors

[janti]

Hi All

I have just brought a 2010 450h Premier which is a high mileage granted but as a typical bloke loves gadgets.

I have noticed that my driver side door mirror doesn't heat up everything else works on it like adjusting the mirror is there anything else I can check??

a new mirror is about 300quid!!  I'm assuming its not I common issue as I thought electric's on these are bulletproof.

[NemesisUK]

Does the passenger mirror heat up ok? The mirror heaters only come on when the rear screen defogger is switched on (on my RC at least)

[janti]

Hi yes the passenger mirror heats up ok once I have the rear screen defogger on

[NemesisUK]

Possibly a broken wire in the mirror housing, if they have been folded a lot?

[janti]

dare I say it is that a easy job to check??

[NemesisUK]

I guess one has to remove the mirror housing and test the connections with a multimeter. I'm new to Lexus but on the Mercedes it was fairly quick and easy (and relatively common...)

[janti]

ok cheers for your input I will see if I can get somebody to look at that if I can  as I'm not sure how to do it

[steve2006]

Just be very careful removing the mirror glass, it pulls off from 2 lugs either side at the bottom and then lifts off 2 hooks at the top.

A cloth slid behind at the bottom and coming out the sides spreads the load when pulling the bottoms lugs out.

[stringbender]

On 10/11/2016 at 0:13 PM, steve2006 said:

Just be very careful removing the mirror glass, it pulls off from 2 lugs either side at the bottom and then lifts off 2 hooks at the top.

A cloth slid behind at the bottom and coming out the sides spreads the load when pulling the bottoms lugs out.

Thanks for that Steve. I've just bought a ( lovely) replacement mirror but wasn't able to get the original one out. Do you know if the mirror on the SE L ( 2005 ) has a different fitting mechanism? I managed to get the glass layer out and remove all the goo that does the dimming. I've now polished up the silver material and can at last see clearly as it's been fogged for some time now. It seems that the auto dimming mirrors don't go wrong very often but when they do you certainly know about it. Now I've got to decide whether to leave it as it is, or get a brand new one (£££) or attempt to glue the new glass onto the shiny backing. 

Alan

[steve2006]

The mirror glass should be bonded to a plastic backplate with all the wiring attached for the heating and dimming functions, the exploded diagram shows very little.

New replacements from Lexus are around £220.00 ( even from Amayama Japan they are £150.00 plus shipping)

 

[stringbender]

8 hours ago, steve2006 said:

 

Thanks again Steve,

it would be nice to have a new part and to keep the dimmer function as it works really well. I think this is the first electrical thing to go wrong with the car in almost 12 years and I might go mad and get it sorted as she's worth it. In the meantime it's very nice to have that shiny  "mirror" back - even if there's no glass there now ! It always seems to be the passenger side that fails. Wonder how that can be ?

Alan

[janti]

on the SE-L 2010 model I have I managed to tease the mirror out as advised by steve too thank for that, I had found that its the glass mirror at fault not the wiring loom as I switched the glass mirrors around and the faulty glass mirror didn't heat up at the passenger door either and the passenger door worked fine on the driver side door. so it look like im after a driver side glass with heated and dimming function cost too much at lexus, any cheaper place I can try?? I looked at Latvia on eBay  who had been selling they for about 60 quid not sure if I should go for that either.

[janti]

sorry mate I hadn't log in for a while but yes that lady in lativa on eBay is OK and good for 60 quid I ended up having to both side but I did also get a biy more discount too so worth haggling too.

[rayaans]

To remove the glass put the mirror all the way up then stick your fingers under it and yank it swiftly and firmly. It'll pop straight out.

I suspect the mirror may have been replaced and not wired up properly as the electrics are indeed bulletproof

[Britprius]

If the heating element has gone open circuit, but everything else is ok you can epoxy resin a couple of ceramic wire wound resistors of about 10 or 12 ohms each on the rear of the mirror, and connect them in series across the original supply wires. This will effectively reinstate the heater function.

If you want less heat use higher value resistors 15 or 20 ohms each.

Resistors 10 ohms rated at 7 watts are available at Maplins for a few pennies. Maplins part number L10R at 39 pence each

John