Group Buy: Drivers Side Heated Mirrors

true glass adhesive has give to it. the glue that comes with stick on mirrors fails often. it dries too hard.glass epoxy lasts forever. in a colder clime thats more important.

Is the glass epoxy your referencing a 2 part epoxy mix.?

Something like this?

http://www.azom.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=4816

those be the one's. while more costly than the cheap stuff,they can be used for a ton of projects in and around the car....and they mostly come in 2 parts. premixed are available but are not as good..i didnt go through the prices on the link u sent. but u can find a good variety at a well stocked hardware store. if your lucky even at depot or lowes.

I just found a Loctite product that they call "Glass Glue" at my local hardware store.
It comes in the familiar small Super Glue size tube and is made specifically for adhering glass to glass and has an operating temp well within the range that this mirror will be operating in.
I'm going to try it on the piece of mirror I bought and glue that to one of the half broken mirror's that I have. I have two with the heating elements intact and hopefully working. All I can do is ohm them out and see if this one works come heating season.
I'll let y'all know how the glue works soon. And report on the Heating portion of this experiment in the hopefully Distant future.

Derek, I'm still interested in a group buy of a manufactured mirror if you are successful.

deekster_caddy wrote:

Sorry to inform you that many of these did indeed have dimming AND heat, mine included. I'm just trying to get a new replacement for what's existing and broken. To my knowledge MOST of them had dimming (if not all), and heat was optional, usually coming with the heated seat option.

Hmmm... They should have informed the writers of the shop manuals.

Just for the hell of it, have you had the glass out of the driver's mirror housing?

no, I can't get it out. It's glued in there something fierce.

Actually, is snaps into the power adjuster links. Putting it back is a delicate operation, but pulling it out is fairly easy. Do you have the factory manual?

Yes, have it out of the housing right now.
The heated mirrors have an additional two wires and once removed from the housing it is obvious that it is heated because the heating elements are very visible.
Also, on the face of the mirror there are 3 squiggly verticle arrows etched in the corner of the mirror.
Sort of the international symbol for heat.

BTW Eldo, how have you been.? Youv'e been gone quite a while. Hope all is well.

I do have the 'mirror' assembly snapped out of the housing, but I was not able to push the glass itself out of the plastic bracket that holds the heater element and glass together.

deekster_caddy wrote:

I do have the 'mirror' assembly snapped out of the housing, but I was not able to push the glass itself out of the plastic bracket that holds the heater element and glass together.

Oh, no, that far into it you can't go... Comprendo.

Rickw wrote:

Yes, have it out of the housing right now.
The heated mirrors have an additional two wires and once removed from the housing it is obvious that it is heated because the heating elements are very visible.
Also, on the face of the mirror there are 3 squiggly verticle arrows etched in the corner of the mirror.
Sort of the international symbol for heat.

BTW Eldo, how have you been.? Youv'e been gone quite a while. Hope all is well.

Hey Rick,

Yeah, I've been absent from a lot of web stuff lately, 'cuz I've had a 2nd operation on my right shoulder, so I couldn't even work a mouse for weeks. Then, I had to spend weeks more just trying to clear out my Inbox...

Thanks for the solid evidence of the dimming/heated mirrors. It really ticks me off that the FACTORY manuals omitted the entire subject. As I've said before, I have the GM SPO electronic manuals for '97 through '04, as well as my "real" paper manuals for my '97 Rivi, and I checked the mirror sections and the rear defogger sections... My family owned a shop for 55 years, and we used to get better data from Motor's and Mitchell/National manuals! Plus, there's no logical explanation for the fact that neither of MY mirrors are heated, even though I have memory, heated seat, and every other option besides the moonroof.

I will stand by one thing I said, though: Liquid crystal mirrors and 140+ degree heaters are not a good match, and perhaps that's why you guys 'blessed' with the combination are suffering failed mirrors while mine is still pristine, even after removing and replacing it twice...

Ciao for now,
Mark

Any of youse guys complete the installation/repair of the mirror yet?

Bert

Yes, I bought the basic replacement mirror glass for $20.00 on Ebay, cleaned and glued it to the heated mirror that had lost the auto-dim fluid.
I found Glass Glue made by Loctite for gluing glass to glass.
Applied per instructions and clamped it on and allowed it to cure.
Installed it in the housing on the car without breaking anything this time.
Tested the heating element the other morning, it was below 30* here, by turning on the rear defogger.
The new glass/mirror didn't fall off yet. Will see how it holds up over the course of a New England winter.

Rick, how was the defogging action?

I could feel some warmth in the glass. But there was no mist or fog on the mirror to tell for sure.
I'll know more soon enough the way the weather has been changing for the worse.
Friggin cold in the mornings heh. The heated seat has been put to use already.

http://www.burcoinc.com/ These guys sell Redi heat grids check em out!

That's the manufacturer of the Redi Cuts mirror I got from a vendor on Ebay.
I have looked at the heating grid also, but didn't really need one as my original mirror is heated.
But for someone that wants to add heat, it should be doable.

I wonder how I would hook up the wires if I don't have heated mirrors now?

I have no idea, the factory manuals don't even have a wiring diagram for the heated mirror's.
All i know is that they are activated when you turn on the rear window de-fogger.

96RIVMANN wrote:

I wonder how I would hook up the wires if I don't have heated mirrors now?

Actually, you'd just have to piggyback a wire onto the output lead of one of the rear defog fuses under the back seat, and run it under the carpet up along the driver's door sill.
Then, after finding a screw under the dash where you could put a crimp terminal for ground, run both leads into the door and up into the mirror... Naturally, you'd have to take of the inner door panel to do that last part.

Lather, rinse and repeat if you want the right mirror heated as well...

Quote :

I could feel some warmth in the glass.

If you can feel a change in temp, that means it's working. This is how some auto manufacturers check the rear window defroster on the assembly line - hand on glass.

Thanks for the report. I'm interested in how it looks compared to OEM. Any pictures?

Looks the same, just won't auto-dim that's all.
I'll try and get some pic's up soon. Should have taken pic's while removing and installing but I never think it about it till I'm done, or the G/F has the camera!!!

Hey guys, been a while.

I tried to follow the progress of this topic, but I let it go for a while and now the amount of posts are mind boggling.

Let me make sure I've got this right. To solve the problem, you guys are just gluing a thin piece of (precut) glass onto the old (discolored) mirror?

You take the interior mirror housing out (by just pulling really hard?) and then glue this new one over the top of the old one using special glass glue and clamping it on tight.

And that's all?

My mirrors have the squiggly "heat lines" on the glass. My driver's side has the purple liquid that exploded inside, and my passenger mirror just broke as well.

That's exactly what i did with my drivers side Heated Mirror.
The replacement's cost about $20.00 shipped.
Cut to fit. No hassles.

EBay Vendor was: hubcaps_plus