UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Anyone else find the door mirror demisting pathetic?

Rear window demisting isn't much better.

Pete

Not found door mirror or rear screen demisting to be a problem on my 2020 GTI+.

I find with the rear screen, it helps if the inside glass is really clean. With the door mirrors, the heating elements may struggle to clear ice but if they’re just steamed up, then they clear almost instantly.

I've got a 2022 facelift GTI and the door mirrors demist within a few seconds. The rear screen is about average time wise compared to my last several cars. Though I would agree with SRGTD's comment about keeping the inside of the rear screen clean.

Must be just mine then, my mirrors were still partially misted after 20 mins. Wet morning not iced.

Pete

SRGTD wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 8:23 pm Not found door mirror or rear screen demisting to be a problem on my 2020 GTI+.

I find with the rear screen, it helps if the inside glass is really clean. With the door mirrors, the heating elements may struggle to clear ice but if they’re just steamed up, then they clear almost instantly.

Mines same as SRGTD. Door mirrors are seconds, rear window needs to be kept clean inside. Even the front window demists quickly on my gti, but takes ages on my wife’s r line. Can only assume that as I have the 2L in my gti helps as the climate also warms up much quicker in my car compared to her 1L also.

My lowly 1.0 seems to work quite quickly with the mirrors demisting.. the inside can mist up quickly too though .. if we get in the car and drive of straightaway i often have to stop and let it clear .. It does clear reasonably quickly with AC but am amazed at the moisture thrown up so quickly in the first place

I don't seem to have water ingress

Turns out I was pressing the wrong button for the door heaters.

Apologies for wasting everyone's time.

What a Muppet!

Pete

There are no silly questions or wasting time posts, Pete

I don't have a button to press on my Polo..i have to turn the joystick 180 degrees to turn on the heaters.

Often forget that too

Chivvyp wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:10 pm Turns out I was pressing the wrong button for the door heaters.

Apologies for wasting everyone's time.

What a Muppet!

Pete

No need for apologies, and you’ve not wasted anyone’s time.

In some other manufacturers’ cars, switching on the rear screen heating element also switches on the door mirror heating. I’ve read on other VW forums where owners have switched on the rear screen demister, thinking it’ll also clear the door mirror glass, only to find it doesn’t. I’d personally prefer to have a separate on/off switch for the door mirror heating rather than have it integrated into the door mirror adjustment knob.

grazuncle2 wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:16 pm There are no silly questions or wasting time posts, Pete

I don't have a button to press on my Polo..i have to turn the joystick 180 degrees to turn on the heaters.

Often forget that too

My polo is the same but my favourite trick is to leave it on…..

In my previous car (Audi TT) the mirror heaters were permanently on

lancslad1985 wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 3:38 pm

grazuncle2 wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:16 pm There are no silly questions or wasting time posts, Pete

I don't have a button to press on my Polo..i have to turn the joystick 180 degrees to turn on the heaters.

Often forget that too

My polo is the same but my favourite trick is to leave it on…..

I left them on for nearly 21 years on a Bora, still working though.
A bit surprising, in these times that they are not controlled by the HRS, this is quite common, for years , on Japanese cars I believe.

Johntheo1 wrote: Tue Jan 16, 2024 9:07 am

lancslad1985 wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 3:38 pm

grazuncle2 wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:16 pm There are no silly questions or wasting time posts, Pete

I don't have a button to press on my Polo..i have to turn the joystick 180 degrees to turn on the heaters.

Often forget that too

My polo is the same but my favourite trick is to leave it on…..

I left them on for nearly 21 years on a Bora, still working though.
A bit surprising, in these times that they are not controlled by the HRS, this is quite common, for years , on Japanese cars I believe.

IMHO VW’s method of switching the door mirror heating on / off isn’t the most user-friendly, but it’s always been that way since I first owned a VW in 2002, and probably the same method was used by VW for some years prior to that. I use the dipping kerb view mirror function all the time in my car, so for me, the default position the mirror adjustment control is the nearside / kerbside mirror. Therefore, when I need to use the mirror heating, there’s lots of twiddling of the mirror adjustment control. If I happen to inadvertently turn the control past the mirror folding position to get to the heating position, the door mirrors will fold in while I’m driving along!

I had a Vauxhall in the early 1990’s that had a much better system; there was a small push button for mirror heating on the driver’s door pull next to the mirror adjustment control and a warning light next to the button that indicated when the mirror heating function had been switched on. From memory, it also had an auto switch off timer (I think VW’s do have an auto switch off timer too, but I never leave them on long enough for the auto switch off to kick in).

If Vauxhall were able to design a user-friendly system back in the 1990’s, why can’t VW do so in the 2020’s?

Yes, I went from a 1991 Vauxhall Cav GSI 4X4 - which had the sensible button for the mirror heater, and a timer for the rear window heater, to a new VW Passat 4Motion in 2000, it had the silly rotating mirror switch and no timer on the rear window heater - I did not find that very sensible, plus as I thought that the mirror heaters were only on with the rear window heater, in winter I just left the mirror heater switched on 100% of the colder periods.

That was a bad expensive mistake, it was only after reading about this "feature" on worldwide Passat forums, that I checked the resistance of both the mirror heaters - too late, burnt out, only carbonised circuit board where the heaters had been - it turns out Audi seems to include a thermostat or similar protection, but VW left that bit out along with the rear window heater, when they planned for their slightly cheapened version of the B5 A4!

RUM4MO wrote: Tue Jan 16, 2024 11:47 am Yes, I went from a 1991 Vauxhall Cav GSI 4X4 - which had the sensible button for the mirror heater, and a timer for the rear window heater, to a new VW Passat 4Motion in 2000, it had the silly rotating mirror switch and no timer on the rear window heater - I did not find that very sensible, plus as I thought that the mirror heaters were only on with the rear window heater, in winter I just left the mirror heater switched on 100% of the colder periods.

That was a bad expensive mistake, it was only after reading about this "feature" on worldwide Passat forums, that I checked the resistance of both the mirror heaters - too late, burnt out, only carbonised circuit board where the heaters had been - it turns out Audi seems to include a thermostat or similar protection, but VW left that bit out along with the rear window heater, when they planned for their slightly cheapened version of the B5 A4!

I think the Bora's mirror heaters were 10W.
The HRS default time (I think) is 20 minutes on the 2019 Polo and can be changed, I also saw something about 35C temperature, maybe it cuts out when screen heater reaches 35C?.