I was curious if anyone has looked into ordering some replacement mirrors for the CANADIAN model, and installing them on the US model. I don't believe that Honda/Acura/Whoever decided that the Canadians needed heated mirrors, but the folks in the US don't... GHEY if you ask me, but anywho.


Omzig10

 

This issue always annoyed the hell out of me. I live in California so I have zero need for heated mirrors. I don't even use the heat inside my car. However, if I lived somewhere that had frequent snow or ice I wouln't have bought a TSX. It is short sighted cheaping out, IMO.

 

To the canadians out there. Are the heated mirrors on all the time or do they switch on with the defroster? Had an A4 that kept burning them out because they were always on - stupid idea. For the record in northeast they are very useful.

 

I don't know for the tsx, but my former 328ci's heated mirrors were heated when defroster is on.

 

According the the manual, there is switch on the door to turn the window heaters on. And, yeah, I could imagine they would be very useful.

Acura cheaped out on this one.

 

There is a dedicated switch on the driver's door beside the knob for adjusting the mirrors. You can turn it on and off at any time.

Should be a standard feature on all cars IMO. In the winter, cars without it spend as much time with half obscured rearview mirrors as with clear ones. I think US customers, short of having it a standard feature on the TSX, should be able to get this feature dealer installed at no charge. You all pay the same (for arguments sake) for the car as we do.

Do TSX buyers in the northern US get it?

 

There is a button to the left of the mirror toggle that turns the mirror heat on...a light comes on similar to the heated seats when the mirror heat is on. I don't believe it is on a timer. I used the heat a few times when the mirrors fogged up. They cleared up almost instantly. This could be a useful feature most anywhere in the US. ps..Rochester and Buffalo get lots more snow than the Toronto area.

 

What's even dumber is that the revised RSX gets heated mirrors in the US.

 

...the Honda ones have a separate switch to activate them, which is the intelligent way to design them, as opposed to ones that are always on whenever you turn on the defrosting system, there are lots of times when you need the defrosters, but your side view mirrors are perfectly clear.
...for those who haven't experienced these critters, they're way cool, they put out enough heat to evaporate water build up on the mirrors as well as mist. For those who live in the regions of California where the 'marine layer', more commonly known as fog, rolls in at the same precise time every evening, they work like a hot damn!!

ps. the Mazda6 I was driving last week has the type that is always on and while I had the car the mirror on the drivers side actually got hot enough to crack the thing...!!

Lorne Miller

 

We have the "marine layer" here in Los Angeles. But, I have to say that I rarely even use the defroster on my windshield. Its so dry in Los Angeles, that the windows don't fog up much. Not enough moisture in the air even when it is cold. I do sometimes have dew on my car in the morning though.

My perspective on this is as follows: It costs very little to heat the mirrors, doesn't add much weight, and is a desirable feature for most drivers. Why not include it?

 

OK, so I have a Canadian TSX with heated mirrors, but honestly, I don't get what the big deal is. I've never had a car with them before, so maybe they are something great and I'm just too plebeian to know it, but the feature seems only mildly useful to me. If you leave your car out and have to scrape all the windows off, it takes like 3 sec more to do the mirrors. So, those that say they are a "must have" (Spud?), why is that exactly? What's so great about them?

 

Hey, you Americans get the Navi....I think that makes up for it

EDIT: AND! You get Carbon Grey!!!

And to major....think about when you exit a very humid, warm parking garage into -30 weather...your mirrors instantly fog up. Also, scraping mirrors can be annoying since they're so much smaller than your scraper (plus, I think I scratched up my EL mirrors by scraping the frost off them...instead of using the heated mirrors!)

 

Actually, they are linked to the rear window defroster switch. Not as good as the independent switch on the TSX, but not as bad as the Audi somebody mentioned earlier.

You might want to ask your pal why he's got the rear defroster on all the time!

Test_Drive

 

Hmmm. OK I get it. Thanks. I've never had that happen but I'll take your word for it. My garage is unheated and so is my parking at work (told you I was too plebeian). I was thinking about the mirrors being frosted, not fogged. It's so dry here that fog isn't something you think about much...

And now for some gratuitous use of the new smilies, just because.

 

I've never been in a heated parking garage....ever.

 

I've actually looked into doing a conversion to get heat mirrors. Ran into a few issues.

1. US entire mirror assembly would have to be replaced with the Canadian one because there are wires that hook into the back of the mirror with a wiring harness into the car.(Remember, if you have CG, you can't get that color mirror)
2. US armrest would have to be replaced so that the module with the button on it was there.
3. I don't have the electrical schematic, but I don't believe the wiring harnesses exists in the US model.

End result... it is a no-go for us.

 

I was studying the service manual last night for this conversion also. The only unknown that I have is if the harness under the dash is pre-wired with heated mirrors. Because this would be the hardest thing of the conversion (unless you run couple of wires from the driver side door to the passenger side door). The door harnesses and the switch can be replaced with Canadian's parts. As for the mirror assembly, I think you can probably replace just the mirror and the actuator/motor. I don't think the replacement of the mirror housing is necessary.

I don't think I would go this far in doing the conversion, but I was just trying to find out if it is possible.

 

I have to agree here. This is my third car with heated mirrors meaning I've had the ability to use heated mirrors since 1998. I can probly count the number of times I've used them since 98 on one hand.

Having said that, if you put them on the Canadian TSX there should have been no reason to leave them off the US model.

 

A must have for a $35K sports sedan for sure. Last thing I want to do in -15 degree weather is spend time tediously scraping ice of the mirrors with a scraper that's too big for the space I'm scraping. Scraping windows is bad enough...

Given that this is a low-tech option, providing it on a car the caliber of the TSX should be a no-brainer. Maybe I'd be surprised if they offered it in a $12,000 Kia...

Hey, do US buyers get heated seats? Doesn't it make the no heated mirrors thing seem even more stupid if their putting heated seats on the car?... WTF!!!???