ljn21

I searched but couldn't find my answer. I just purchased an 08 C300 sport for my wife. We live in Wisconsin and we were concerned with the power folding mirros in the winter time. Those that live in cold/snowy/icey climates - do need to worry about the mirrors in the winter time? The scenario that I am concerned about is my wife goes to work in the morning, parks outside (only choice) and it snows or ices while she is at work...she comes out, unlocks and doors and climbs in, fires the MB up and mirrors start to try to fold but are covered in snow or ice...

white46

if you are too worried, just disable the feature which can be found in user manual.
if it breaks, cover under warranty.

since the car is new, i think there is only handful of members who went through last winter.

Rixter

I agree, just disable the auto fold during winter. You dont wanna stuff the mirrors up.

Bokx_350

I live in Boston and I disabled mine for the entire winter just in case. It is very easy to disable/enable the mirror folding feature.

cjh.

I had left my GL450 out overnight a few times this past winter and ice/snow never was an issue when they folded back out. They're much stronger than you would think.

I know this was on the GL, but assume the motors are about the same.

Ted in Toronto

My mirrors froze in the closed position a number of times last winter so I disabled them. Not really as big a problem as the heater fan that also froze up on 3 occasions, driving with no defroster or heat on a zero degree day is no fun. It will be going in to the dealer before winter this year to see if they have come up with a fix (other posts on this forum talked of a temporary fix the dealers were doing last winter). Now if only those folding mirrors didn't make a noise like a dying goat every time I got into the car this summer.......

atiqa

I had my car throughout the entire 07-08 winter season and did not encounter any problems with the folding mirrors, even in the snow. I live in NY and the winters here can get pretty bad, but the mirrors worked like a charm.

Ron Jr

Come on we had one real snowstorm on LI last winter everything else was flurries. I didn't even use my snowblower once in the past three winters, and I like that.

lx Raven xl

The folding mirrors have the function that they are kept warm automatically so weather should not effect it. This has been discussed before on the forums. Search for it. I think this information is correct, Never had a chance to check in the manual yet.

lx Raven xl

Found it .. its in the manual as well.

The convex exterior mirrors give a larger field of vision.

At low outside temperatures, the exterior mirrors are heated automatically.

Ted in Toronto

The mirror heaters only heat the glass surface and only when the car is running. This does nothing to warm the folding mirror joint or motor. Believe me, with heavy wet snow and cold overnight temperatures, the mirrors will not unfold when the resultant ice gets in the joint between the moving parts. I understand that this is severe operating conditions so I turned the function off, no big deal. But as per my earlier post, I do think the frozen fan motor under the same conditions is a serious defect that I have never encountered in about 20 cars I have owned over the past 40 years. So if you are concerned about winter operation, put your worry into the basic equipment needed for safe operation - don't fret about frivolous options like folding mirrors that are easily disabled.

drevil2k2

Thanks, for the heads up; hopefully this winter will be more forgiving.

ljn21

Thanks everyone for the input! I was away for the last week on vacation but I appreciated all the replies upon return. I am leaning towards following the disable option.

jstaneff

Mine have been disabled for quite some time (7+ months). Today I had a loaner, a newer 2008 C300. When I locked the car, it made an interesting racket. I had to take a double-take to realize that it was automatically folding in the mirrors. I'd forgotten about that feature.

Yeah, disable it!

lkchris

Mercedes engineers thought of this, too.