HEATED WING MIRRORS

[NigelA]

Questions:
1) is there generic wiring in the car to connect them to?

2) the ones available are in a different colour to my vehicle. Is it possible to change the guts over?

3) Have bought a pair of mirrors (just the mirrors) which have wide angle sections. Will it be possible (somehow) to convert these to heated, by possibly utilising parts from original heated mirror?

[E30Mark]

1) no i don't think so...

2) yes i believe you can

3) no, the heaters are mounted between the mirror and the backing plate

[ian332isport]

Questions:
1) is there generic wiring in the car to connect them to?

2) the ones available are in a different colour to my vehicle. Is it possible to change the guts over?

3) Have bought a pair of mirrors (just the mirrors) which have wide angle sections. Will it be possible (somehow) to convert these to heated, by possibly utilising parts from original heated mirror?

Nigel,

I recently fitted some heated mirrors to my Sport. The only extra wiring is actually inside the mirror itself. All BMW did, is take power for the heated mirror from the back of the electric mirror motor.

If you unscrew the motor from the housing, you will see 4 wires going into the back of the motor. On a car with heated mirrors, there is a couple of extra flying leads from 2 of these connectors that plug into the heated mirror glass.

There is not extra wiring running up to the mirror at all. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the mirror has a temperature dependant switch built into the mirror glass. The contacts will close when it gets cold enough, and the mirror will start to warm up. If I'm wrong and there is no switch, then they MUST be on all the time the ignition is on.

You can either add the extra wires to your existing mirrors, or fit the wiring harness from some heated mirrors. Either will work. The wires in the back of the motor are actually push fit spade type connectors and will just pull out if you give them a tug.

Question 3 is not possible. As mark said, the heater is sandwiched between the backing plate and the glass.

Cheers,

Ian.

[Brianmoooore]

E30 heated mirrors are self regulating, and are powered all the time the ignition is on.
Heater element is connected by two short wires to the black (12V+) and brown (earth) wires at the back of the mirror motor assemblies.
Mirrors with heater elements are a straight swap, and can be fitted to any E30 mirror.
There seems to be two different makes available, one taking much more power than the other.

[NigelA]

Many thanks to E30mar, ian322isport and Brianmoooore for their quick very helpful and conclusive replies. Talk about wrapping it up in one fell swoop. Excellent.