How to install the heater on the mirrors with your own hands?
Ahead is the cold season, which creates additional difficulties for motorists, among which is fogging and freezing of the side mirrors. With such mirrors drive not only uncomfortable, but also dangerous. And every time to open the window for cleaning and wiping – not much fun, especially if the street is cold and rainy.
Many foreign cars are equipped with heated mirrors. It is really very convenient, since it allows keeping mirrors clean in any weather. But only on budget models, as well as domestic cars, such equipment is very rare.
There is a way out of this situation, and not just one:
- Purchase mirrors, in which the heating system is integrated;
- Purchase and installation of factory heating means (film, printed heaters);
- Folk remedies;
With regard to the mirrors, it is the most expensive solution to the problem, in addition, you can not always find the elements suitable for fixing. Factory tools are cheaper, but here you need to pick up the shape. Among the simple folk remedies, you can use an ordinary incandescent car lamp, which is placed in the body of the mirror. This solution to the problem is inconvenient because there must be enough space inside the housing to install the lamp and the base under it.
The most simple and cheap, but the most effective way to heat mirrors is to use nichrome wire.
Installation of ready assemblies
Installation is clear even to a car driver who has recently sat on the wheel.
- Find the device for closing and opening the circuit (relay). Open the hood of the vehicle, find the black box and relay. On the box is labeled, which relay for what. You need to find one for mirrors, remove it. Next, replace the relay with the mirror element, connect the wire, close the hood.
- Remove the old mirrors. Open the doors, unscrew the screws. Find mounting locations for the rear view mirrors. Remove old accessories, disconnect wires.
- Install the purchased accessories.
How to check the presence of the function?
Detail with heating for VAZ 2114
You should not start work on the installation of such a system, if you are not sure that you do not already have heated mirrors. You can check very simply. If you have a heated button in the cabin, or after a couple of minutes after turning on the car mirrors are warm, then you have it.
You can also check to see if the wires go to the body of the mirrors, there is no heating element in them. It’s easy enough to connect the heated side mirrors to a similar system for the rear. This way you can control everything with one button. The main thing – do not mix up the wires.
Procedure
Now you can proceed to the installation of the heater. First, we remove the mirror holder from the housing. On most cars, it is enough to pick it up with a screwdriver or something flat from the bottom and pull it towards you.
Based on the features of the holder choose how to attach the wire. If the inner surface of the holder is flat (as in the photo) then we glue a double-sided adhesive tape on it.
Then lay a section of wire on this surface. This can be done arbitrarily, for example, in a zigzag pattern or something else. The main thing is to place it so that the thread covers as much surface of the holder as possible. The wire should not intersect anywhere. The scotch tape will hold the nichrome thread well.
If the inner surface of the holder has any protrusions or fasteners, the tape cannot be applied. To fix the wire in this case the soldering iron will help. Here it’s simple – put the nichrome wire to the surface and press it with a heated soldering iron. The plastic will start to melt and the wire will sink into it. After it cools, the plastic will become hard and it will hold the filament. But here it is important not to overheat the plastic so as not to “push” it to the mirror. It is enough to “sink” a little wire in it and that is all.
In this way we fix the wire along the accessible surface of the holder without touching the fasteners.
When laying the wire, its ends should be placed to the side of the holder which is closer to the door, so that they do not touch each other. To these ends solder terminals to connect to the wiring or simply the ends of the prepared wires. Then the connections should be insulated.
It remains to provide insulation. If the wire was attached to the tape, then to insulate it, you can simply stick a few more layers of ordinary adhesive tape on top. This will provide thermal insulation and prevent the wire from peeling off and shorting out.
As for the holder, where the wire is fixed with a soldering iron, you can simply fill the entire surface where the wire runs with sealant and wait until it dries. The fasteners will not be touched, making it easy to fasten and the wire itself will be insulated.
Before installing the holder in place, pull the wiring through the mirror housing into the door, wiring to power the heaters. Only then assemble the mirror.
Heating types
Heating on a wire base
It is necessary to purchase tungsten filaments. They should be placed between two layers of insulating material. In this way, a spiral is created. It is necessary to make two leads (for plus and minus). When choosing this heating option, it is necessary to have a good understanding of mechanics. The coil must be insulated and there must be no gaps between the two layers of insulating material.
On printed conductors.
This is a simple option for mounting mirrors with heaters, as every car market has heating devices. They consist of two layers of polymer material, between which there are conductors. Such parts are made to fit a specific model. They can be found to the desired size, for this you need to know the parameters of the car.
To install the heater, it will be necessary to disassemble the mirror housing. This is necessary in order to get to the back side. The inside must be degreased and the board must be glued to it.
The heaters have two terminals on the sides (wires are connected to them), they must be soldered and insulated. The wires are connected to the wiring, and the heating controller on the panel.
Important: The efficiency will be higher if the inner cavity of the case is covered with foil or insulating material.
Film heater
The most reliable elements today are film heaters. Installation is done similarly to printed wires. A small amount of double-sided tape should be applied to the back of the mirrors. Film heaters are commercially available with lead wires. To connect them, you need to connect them to the car’s wiring, take the button out to the control panel. The main advantage of the film base is an even distribution of heat over the surface of the mirrors.
Fotorette Making heating mirrors by your own forces (and improvised means).
REMEMBER THAT ALL OPERATIONS YOU PERFORM AT YOUR OWN RISK.
I must say at once that the idea is not mine. Information taken from Renault-Club, I just repeated with improvised means.
After removal of the driver’s mirror was found that the heating element burned through holes and can not be restored. Therefore, it was decided to make a new one.
What will be needed.
The nichrome wire Scotch double thin (usual office, it is desirable not noname) Scotch double thick good, that didn’t fall off (at me was Rollfix; on a label it is written: working temperature from -40 to +80 ºС; type made in Germany) Pliers small Tweezers Sharp knife Soldering iron Flux F-38H (it is very desirable to have for nichrome soldering) Solder Spirit Multimeter Wires, a button, a safety, a relay (I weren’t necessary). The ability to turn on the soldering iron and a desire to have the end result.
Since the patient was a B4 Passat with electric adjustable and heated mirrors, I didn’t have to worry about wiring.
On removal of the mirrors. The driver’s one was removed without any problems. But the passenger one I pulled a little harder and as a result the glass broke and I broke 3 elements of mirrors adjusting so that I had to restore it long and hard, but that’s another story. Glass can be removed with a hair dryer, as it is written in the Renault report on autobiz.by (see link above).
Nichrome. I had some kind of spiral. We measure a piece of the coil so that its resistance was 12 Ohm. The diameter of the wire I had was 0.4 mm, so the length of the coil was a little small. However, if the wire diameter is 0.8, its length at 12 Ohm resistance will be about 5m (try to put it on the mirror). First, the spiral should be made flat with pliers so it would lie well on the plane of the mirror. Next, solder on the coil chips to connect to the wiring (I ripped them off the old heating element). To solder nichrome use flux F-38H. Acid took one coil, the second only this flux and soldered. Another point. Nichrome wire should be new (or not very overheated). Otherwise it can break, like it happened to me, and I had to start the process all over again (that’s why different dates on the pictures).
My old mirror was no good, so I bought a new one for $5 at the market. On the mirror from the back side glue a thin double-sided adhesive tape, wiped the surface of the mirror with alcohol. Then remove the excess with a sharp knife along the contour of the mirror.
Next, we try on the heating spiral on the mirror and begin stacking.
By correcting the branches of the spiral, we tape them with a thick adhesive tape, pressing and smoothing it well.
Cut off the excess tape with a sharp knife. The result is such a design.
Glue the plastic plate (again wiping it with alcohol), taking the contacts of the heating thread outwards. In the center of the open part of the scotch tape I taped with paper so that the debris, etc. would not stick to it.
View from the front side. It remains only to connect the wiring and put the mirror in place.
This is the driver’s mirror redone yesterday. The passenger one was done about 8 months ago. Warms up pretty good in general. The mirrors are dry in the rain. In the frost thaw quickly. Over this winter the frost did not fall off. Held firmly (tried to tear off). I just want to say that the bazaar glass is very low quality. After winter at the edges began to fray the reflective layer. You can try to put varnish or sealant on the edges of the mirror to the salt did not get there.
Fabrication time is about 1.5 hours with beer and soccer. Realistically, if you do not get distracted for about 40 minutes.
Later take a picture on the car. And in general looks good if the glass is not cut out very crooked.
P.S. Well, at the end of November 2007 my glass started to fall off. Lasted about a year. Let down the thin 2-sided tape. The glass is holding well, but the layer with a heater collapsed. Therefore, the entire structure was remade without the thin tape. I.e. a heating thread is put on the mirror and taped with thick tape and then the frame is glued on. Next time it falls off, we’ll think of something else.
