Hi,
Does anyone know if you can buy aftermarket heating element pads for door mirrors. I own a 23 year old Rover SD1 Vitesse which is in pretty good nick. The heating elements on the backs of the door mirrors have succumbed to corrosion after all this time, but with winter approaching, fog free mirrors are a godsend.
Any pointers to suppliers (if they exist) greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Chris
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There is one for sale on Ebay complete mirror might be the correct one.
cgi.ebay.co.uk/ROVER-SD1-RH-ELECTRIC-MIRROR_W0QQit...m
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Hi Andy, Thanks for the reply & link
Thing is, there are a fair few of us in the Rover SD1 club that have good electric mirrors, but the heating elements
have gone south - due to corrosion & breakages in the heater elements.
The elements on the mirrors are stuck on, rather then embedded in the glass, and we're trying to suss out if theres anyone out there who will do replacement stick on elements. The odd NOS replacement glass or mirror turns up on ebay, but they are few and far between and usually command high prices.
Cheers
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With the news of the Rimmer Bros haul of all those "new" genuine SD1 parts in India recently, any chance you can get the part you need from them? www.rimmerbros.co.uk/rimmer/rover/sd1_india/intro
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The pads that are bonded onto the rear of the mirror are probably just a length of resistance wire (nichrome) wound around a mica former and then covered with an insulator material.
Measuring the resistance of a good unit for reference then carefully take a duff one apart to see if it is in fact just a heater coil.
You can buy various grades and gauges of resistance wire by the roll and may be able to repair and rebuild faulty units or knock together something similar.
Applying a thin smear of heatsink compound (available from Maplins etc.) between the heater pad and the mirror will also improve thermal transfer.
Kevin...
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Another thought is that you may be able to use standard wirewound resistors if there is enough space to mount them behind the mirror.
Kevin...
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I agree with Kevin, I did this to a BMW 5 er when I was 19 during the early 1990s..
I got some nichrome wire from maplins, and put a long length across the battery and felt how warm it got and kept shortening the length until it was hot but wouldn't burn anything, then I used a stick-on replacement glass from halfords, and carefully stuck the wire on in a pattern so that the wire was in a spiral but no wires touched, I had to insulate the wire that ended up in the centre to bring it to the edge with heat-proof tubing I happened to have from R/C car days, the finished article was then covered with epoxy! It looked perfect, worked better than the other side and saved £80 at 1990s prices.
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Think I might have found an answer......at RS Components.
tinyurl.com/ezc3x
I'm going to try the 12V 4w 75mm circular pad which will fit on the glass without having to remove it from the mounting frame its stuck to (which then clips onto the motors in the housing. Bit worried about its potential max temperature in the specs, but hopefully cold glass will dissipate this. Would a layer of tin-foil stuck to the back of the glass first improve heat spread ?
Not cheap as chips, but if it works, worth it and better than nothing.
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Four watts sounds a bit low to me. I'd measure a good unit first to get an idea of what they are rated at.
Kevin...
BTW. I think you linked to your checkout basket not the item description.
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Slightly of subject but if V8vitesse is interested there is a late model SDi sat on a piece of spare land in Otley West Yorks its been there for a couple of years to my knowledge it did have a for sale sign on it but this has disappeared.
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