When I bought the car, one of the side mirrors was secured by electric tape. The seller didn’t know what was wrong with it but it was secure and worked, so it didn’t overly bother me. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago and I needed to park the car close up against a wall. I nipped round to the nearside to push the passenger side mirror in and…well you can guess what happened. On the one hand I had two broken side mirrors, but on the other hand I had solved the mystery of how the drivers side got broken!
Having just replaced the global lock/unlock switch the doorcard was already off the door, so it wasn’t very much more work to remove the side mirrors. The first inkling that something wasn’t right was when I removed the inner interior foam to find an angry looking torx bolt
Progressing further and removing the side mirror itself revealed an extremely sketchy looking base.
When placing the mirror aside I noticed it rattled. Further shakeing emitted a shower of rust particles, I was surprised there was anything left of the inner workings at all!
The white deposit is oxidised aluminium and it was stuck absolutely fast to the rubber so that the only way to remove it was copious soaking of APC and a carefully wielded stanley blade. Part way through cleaning here.
With both side mirrors removed and the bases thoroughly cleaned we were ready for the replacement parts. Old vs new comparison shows what a state the original mirrors were in.
Fitting was a simple reversal of removal with a careful eye to ensure that everything was seated, lubricated and tightened correctly. A vast improvement to my eyes
Having just replaced the global lock/unlock switch the doorcard was already off the door, so it wasn’t very much more work to remove the side mirrors. The first inkling that something wasn’t right was when I removed the inner interior foam to find an angry looking torx bolt
Progressing further and removing the side mirror itself revealed an extremely sketchy looking base.
When placing the mirror aside I noticed it rattled. Further shakeing emitted a shower of rust particles, I was surprised there was anything left of the inner workings at all!
The white deposit is oxidised aluminium and it was stuck absolutely fast to the rubber so that the only way to remove it was copious soaking of APC and a carefully wielded stanley blade. Part way through cleaning here.
With both side mirrors removed and the bases thoroughly cleaned we were ready for the replacement parts. Old vs new comparison shows what a state the original mirrors were in.
Fitting was a simple reversal of removal with a careful eye to ensure that everything was seated, lubricated and tightened correctly. A vast improvement to my eyes