diverej

Hello Q5 world,
I'm having an issue with my mirror defrosters not working. Button turned to defrost, tested when rear defroster is activated and not seeing any heating of the mirrors happening.

Asked my dealer to check it last time I had it in and he told me 1) they won't defrost when the temperature is above 45deg (sounds like a bit of hooey to me, what do you do on a warm and foggy day?) and 2) that they were working. I did a test yesterday sitting in a cold drizzle (41 deg) and saw rear window defrost working great, but no clearing on the mirrors after an extended period and multiple activations of the defrost power.

Anyone else ever had to deal with these issues? I'm getting close to the end of my warranty and want to make sure I get it addressed prior to that.

Thanks for anything you guys can share.
EJ

AlbertaBound

I don't think the side mirror defrost is linked to the rear defroster, they are independent of each other. Also, one thing I found out, is that for the mirror defroster to work, the mirror switch on the drivers door must be set to the upright position (selector pointing straight up). If the mirror selector is set to either the left or right mirror then the mirror heaters will not come on.

Not sure about at what temperature they will automatically come on (don't have the manual in front of me).

spijun

From the owner's manual
- The mirrors are heated (depending on the outside temperature).

Audi Workshop Manuals > A5 > Body > System description - Exterior mirrors > Self diagnosis, V.A.G Inspection Service > Description

Dalancroft

Solution is simple: Just move to California. We've been in the mid to high 60s for more than a week now.

SJGQ5

but you would HAVE to live in CA? Yikes

timlocke

On my Cdn spec 2014 the mirror heat comes on with the rear window heat in winter. Now it may be that there is also temperature activation so that the mirrors don't heat when it is warm and one is just using the window heat to clear rain...I'll check that out.
You are of course correct re the switch position...which is annoying as one is continually using the switch from centre to right and back. I don't have the rear view camera.

bigivn

I live in ON, CND and as per manual they are automatic heating and thats what I observed several times regardless if rear defroster is on or where the windows switch is.

diverej

Thanks for the info guys, I've been doing some more digging too and what I've found is that the mirrors heat when you switch the button (as you said Spijun and bigivn), but have a cutoff temperature so they're not on when it's warmer outside. That is one part that I can't find anywhere, what that temperature is (same for the rear defrost, just says it shuts off at a certain unknown temperature).

Dalancroft, I already live in Mississippi, almost as good as California (lol) but it's been cold enough (high 30's low 40's) that these should be heating and they're not.

I will be calling the dealer and getting this addressed with them, rear defroster was going strong but the mirrors weren't.

Thanks everyone! I'll post when I get a resolution and if I can get an actual temperature from the dealer when these turn on/off.

E

Bob Petruska

These mirrors come on when near 32 degrees F. The early A4 models had the mirrors on all the time, no temperature sensor or switch, and cooked themselves to death, I had countless mirrors replaced during the warranty. After the warranty I spliced into the mirror heater power lines a relay that was controlled by the rear defroster switch. I never replaced a heated mirror after that. The later A4 models had the heated mirrors come on when the rear defroster was activated. I have no idea why the Audi engineers changed this on the Q5. I'm like you that I like my mirrors to heat up even in the summer to dry up the rain drops so I can see better. No way with this Q5. After my Q5 warranty runs out I may just jumper the mirror heater thermistors and once again connect a relay into the heater element power supply lines that is triggered by the rear defroster to make it all work like it should, and be the same as most other vehicles.

timlocke

I was just out at -8C driving into town and back and I remembered to check the mirrors when I came back. They were warm and I did not have the rear defroster on. I would rather have control over the heaters if it were my choice