Hi,

I have a 1993 940 Volvo, with heated mirror's. The driver's side mirror defroster was working fine, but now it take a long time before it starts to defrost, and usually it doesn't seem to start working until I turn the defrost switch on a couple of time, but even then it takes a while for it to start defrosting and it's very slow to defrost. (The passenger side mirror defroster works great and quick!)

Is there some sort of contact that needs cleaning? Is it very difficult to take apart to fix?

Thanks!

Michael

Michael:
Open the window and move the mirror all the way to the outside with the adj. switch. Now fold the whole mirror housing towards the front of the car. Look between the back of the mirror glass and the mirror housing with a light and you should see a connector on the top and bottom of the back of the glass. Pull them
off with needle nose pliers and clean the contacts and replace. Now wait for a cold morning and see if it helped. Let us know.
Rob.

Hey Rob,

Well, my heated mirrors worked great the other day after I did all that work to them, but then today we had a very frosty morning, so I turned on the defrosters, and the passenger side heated-mirror defrosted fast, it was even steaming, but the driver's side mirror the one I worked on, didn't do a thing. After about 15-20 minutes or so one my way into work, I noticed that they started to defrost. But they never defrosted all the way. The defroster switch turned off automatically, so I turned them back on, but it didn't seem like the mirror started to defrost again.

What do you think is wrong? Is there something loose in there? Do you think the heating element is going bad? Is there a fuse or a relay that could be faulty?

Thank you!

Michael

Hi,


To recap what I did:

I position the mirror as you mentioned so that I could work on it. I had to use a flat-head screwdriver to pull the connectors off the contacts because there didn't seem to be enough room to use a needle-nose pliers. I could get the needle nose in there and grab the connectors, but there didn't seem to be enough room to pull them off with them so I used the flat-head screwdriver.

After getting the connectors off, I noticed that the contacts seeemed clean. No rust or corrosion. But I scraped them off anyway with the flat-head screwdriver. Then I sprayed some WD-40 on the contacts and wiped them off. I then put the connectors back on.

This morning was foggy and the mirrors were all fogged up, so I turned on the defrosters and guess what? The mirror that I worked on, defrosted fast just like the other side did. I'm excited! Thank you for all your help!

Michael

Rob,

I followed your directions, but I had a hard time using needle nose pliers in such a small space. I was able to clamp down on the connector, but to pull them off would require putting too much pressure on the mirror. It seemed that you had to use some force to get them off. (Maybe some mirrors turn farther than mine). I ended up using a couple of flat head screwdrivers to work the connectors off. It was easy that way. The contacts actually looked good. I didn't see any rust or corrosion but I cleaned the contacts anyway by scraping them with the flat head screw driver. Then I sprayed some WD-40 on them and wiped them off. The connectors have a heavy wire on them so they didn't drop far from the contacts when pulled off. It was easy to line them back up with the contacts and push them back on with the flat-head screw driver.

I just did this last night. We had a dry morning, and wasn't really able to test the heated mirror. The back window had a bit of fog on them so when I turned them on, I noticed that some finger prints on the mirror started clearing up fast. I think this repair may have worked. As soon as I get a good test, I will let you know the results.

Thanks again for your help.

Rob,

Thank you very much for this information. I will definately give it a try, maybe some time tomorrow (Monday). Could I ask what you would recommend to clean the contacts with? Maybe some rubbing alcohol or some fine sand-paper?

Thanks,

Michael

Yes the rubbing alcohol should work fine but I don't know if you can get in there with the sand paper. Try scraping them with an old knife of something. You can also get aerosol spray contact cleaner from a auto parts store or radio shack, from what I am learning about these cars this is something that every Volvo owner should keep handy.