'96 850 wagon - fixing heated power mirror?

The passanger side power mirror does not heat/defrost. Otherwise it
works fine and I can change its position.

The driver side works just fine.

Any on what is wrong? If it were a fuse or wiring issue it wouldn't
work work at all, right? I'm thinking it is the heating/resistance
element.

Any advice on fixing this would be appreciated. Since it otherwise
works I'm not inclined to replace the whole mirror.

-Atif
'96 850 wagon 5sp

 

The glass unplugs from the housing,you can measure continuity of the
heater section .
If it is open the glass part can be purchased with out buying the
entire mirror assbly

John

 

Remove the door panel to gain access to the mirror wiring and then check
the resistance across the mirror heater element. If that's open you'll
have to see if you can get the mirror apart for a better look, otherwise
you may need to swap the whole mirror.

 

Thanks for the info...it just got VERY cold this weekend so I might have
to wait until it is a little warmer to try since I don't have a garage.

-Atif

 

On my '96 850 sedan the heater element is bonded directly to the glass
and you can remove the whole glass piece by popping it off.

In your case it could be the element or the wiring which has gone bad.

John

 

How do you pop the mirror out? If I do get it out can I just use a volt
meter to test the continuity across the heating element?

 

As I recall the mirror glass is simply pryed away from the rest of the
mirror assembly. I did the job several years ago, so my memory is fuzzy
on it now. I would think that it might be something to do with the
vehicle in a warm garage rather than in winter conditions as snap-fit
items are a little less likely to break warm than cold.

John