Heated E39 side mirrors

[speedemn]

I have a quick question about the heated regular E39 side mirrors (the rectangular shaped ones) that come with the cold weather package where the mirror is heated.

Is the heated portion of the assembly in the mirror glass itself or in the mechanism behind it? e.g. would I be able to swap out the mirror glass off a non-heated mirror in to a heated mirror?

[bmw chris]

The element is in the glass itself. But do a search, there was a thread a while back and all NA E39s had heated glass. Even those without cold weather package.

[Qsilver7]

ditto what bmw chris said...all e39s imported to NA had heated mirrors (regardless if it had the CWP or not).

And yes, you can install non heated mirror glass...the heated & non heated mirror glass both just pop on to the four clips on the motor assembly ...and there are 2 wires that hook to the back of the heated mirrors for them to work. If you don't have heated mirror glass...then just pop the glass onto the clips and be done.

The image below is from my old e34 525iT...but the set up is the same on the e39 5 series (unless you have the EC (auto dimming) side mirrors which are very rare in this market on the e39):

[MLue1]

I did a post on this years ago.. prices may have change tho.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ghlight=mirror

[speedemn]

I did a post on this years ago.. prices may have change tho.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ghlight=mirror

This thread eludes to the fact that there is a difference between the heated and non heated E39 side mirrors... so if I bought non-heated mirror glass it would not work in my heated setup (to get heat on that glass surface, that is).