ryanlucas13 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Quick question, not sure if anyone has attempted this or not. I sold my pair of heated mirrors to my friend who has the 2007 2.5i Legacy. His mirror came with just the power mirrors. We took apart the mirrors to use the shell so that the color would match. In doing this, we cut the wires to get the shell off. I spliced all of the wires and taped them together. Tested the mirrors to see if they had power and both moved when I hit the switch. We thought that everything was good to go, but he called me today and said that the defrosters in the mirror were not working (we had frost last night). He drove 25 minutes with the rear defroster on and no change to the frost. Does anyone know what could be wrong?? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCSpecB Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 IIRC its the front defroster than turns the mirror defrosters on, not the rear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGT Dave Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 IIRC its the front defroster than turns the mirror defrosters on, not the rear. No, the rear defrost button controls the heated mirrors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdviper96 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I had the front defroster on when I turned on the car this morning running for over 5 minutes...unless the front defroster is NOT the setting all the way to the right on the dial controlling where the air flows. Also, I checked the fuse in the box under the driver side dash and there was a fuse there and it was fine. Let me know if there's something else that I may need to make this work. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burnout8488 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 No, the rear defrost button controls the heated mirrors. +1, just used it this morning too for the first time, I <3 my Subaru. So you're saying the non-limited 2.5i has the wiring in place for the heated mirrors already and it was a plug-and-play swap? Or could there be a wiring issue? The limited and non-limited cars have completely different HVAC units, so the Manual Climate version may not have the electronics to be able to turn on the heated mirror circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmahh Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Possibly additional relays or fuses not in place? Check the relay/fuse boxes maybe since the car didn't come with heated mirrors they are not installed.. could be an easy fix! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGT Dave Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 There's some more info here: http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77739. However, the OP of that thread never said if he got it working or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meier motor sports Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 No, the rear defrost button controls the heated mirrors. not on mine;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kramm Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 it hasn't been cold enough in Illinois for me to use my heated mirrors yet, but I thought the way I would turn those on was the heated wiperblade button near the VDC control? Anyone know if a 3.0 ltd uses the rear defrost or this button? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slimjoe Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 ^+1 I don't know if it's change from 2005 to 2007 but to turn on the defrosters in the side mirrors, I thought it was with the windshield wiper defrost button (to the left of the wheel by the mirror adjustment). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdviper96 Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 For the record, I checked my 2007 Subaru Legacy manual that came with the car and on page 3-50 it says this: "Outside mirror defogger (if equipped) The outside mirror defogger shares the button with the rear window defogger." I just wanted to clear that up for everyone. I just called my local Subaru parts dealer and the guy never heard of relays for the mirrors (which is according to the other post linked in this forum). So does anyone know of a site that would sell them? I checked the Subarupartsmall.com but they really only sell accessories and I've checked subaruparts4u.com and they apparently don't have a relay for the mirrors. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTS Jeff Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 My 05 2.5i came from the factory with heated mirrors and manual climate control. It is turned on by the rear defroster button. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PeteAWD Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Wire them to the seat heaters, F it. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanlucas13 Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 Does anyone know if there are relays behind the glove box?? The subaru tech said that is where the relay goes for the heated mirrors. Just wanted to verify. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pele Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 For the record, I checked my 2007 Subaru Legacy manual that came with the car and on page 3-50 it says this: "Outside mirror defogger (if equipped) The outside mirror defogger shares the button with the rear window defogger." I just wanted to clear that up for everyone. I just called my local Subaru parts dealer and the guy never heard of relays for the mirrors (which is according to the other post linked in this forum). So does anyone know of a site that would sell them? I checked the Subarupartsmall.com but they really only sell accessories and I've checked subaruparts4u.com and they apparently don't have a relay for the mirrors. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks! So FWIW, I found the same language in the manual for my ''06 Outback and the service dep't. at a Subaru dealer I visited told me Subaru manuals are notoriously poorly written - as in "(if equipped)" .... which he said was ambiguous to many. Sure was to me. I, too, find the array of defroster buttons confusing and less than user friendly. The obvious choice, to me, is the windshield defrost button, but it ain't workin' ....The heated seats work, as does the windshield defroster. I've engaged the windshield button with both rear and front window defroster buttons depressed and still no dice. At first I wondered if the little squiggly insignias were stock (as in standard equipment on all models whether or not they were really equipped with heaters) but the dealer said no, Subaru doesn't put them on vehicles unless they actually have the defroster function. Just to be sure, I also had him look up the VIN in his system to confirm my vehicle *was equpped* with heated side views. He said the system showed it was. I bought this vehicle used (less than 25K) miles and this winter is my first with it. The previous owner, too, told me he could never figure out the button to make them work...So far I'm holding off from spending $100 to have a dealer just to diagnose the problem, let alone the cost of actual repair...I realize this is a "Legacy" forum when I found this string I figured this problem cuts across model lines. Frustrating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanlucas13 Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 Well we got it figured out. After double checking everything and making sure the relay was in the right place, we looked at the next thing I could think of. The wiring harness that came with the heated mirrors. There is one connector that has 4 pins vs. the stock that has 3 pins. So after swapping the harness in the door, mirrors work like a charm. So if anyone is doing the swap from a standard Legacy to add heated mirrors, you will need to also replace the wiring harness in the door as well. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdviper96 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Well we got it figured out. After double checking everything and making sure the relay was in the right place, we looked at the next thing I could think of. The wiring harness that came with the heated mirrors. There is one connector that has 4 pins vs. the stock that has 3 pins. So after swapping the harness in the door, mirrors work like a charm. So if anyone is doing the swap from a standard Legacy to add heated mirrors, you will need to also replace the wiring harness in the door as well. Good luck. Technically, there are 4 pins in the stock and 5 pins in the upgrade (only 2 pins went across the top of the connector while there were 3 pins accross the top and then for both 2 pins on the bottom of the connector, one on each corner). I know it's a little technical but didn't want some one confused if they were looking at pins and realized there were more than what Ryan had said. And lemme tell you...after months of having them installed and not working, it's frickin awesome that they are now! So good luck to all who attempt the upgrade...it's definitely more than just popping in mirrors with heaters attached to the backs of them. One more note...the rear defroster activated them so that should seal up that discussion as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pele Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 So after further checking I have discovered that the way to get the heater element to work in the side view mirrors is to depress *both* the rear defroster and the windshield de-icer buttons. I am happy to have discovered this - but aggravated at the poor design and pathetically inadequate info in the owner's manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdviper96 Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 So after further checking I have discovered that the way to get the heater element to work in the side view mirrors is to depress *both* the rear defroster and the windshield de-icer buttons. I am happy to have discovered this - but aggravated at the poor design and pathetically inadequate info in the owner's manual. I find that odd being that my car does NOT have the windshield defroster installed in my car, therefore, that button is not available. But, my side mirror defrosters are working perfectly. Perhaps it's a design setup when the windshield defroster IS installed? Tho I've never heard of needing 2 different power source buttons designed to make 2 separate devices activate that when combined activate a 3rd device...very strange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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