Hi to everybody. I have an 1.4tsi dsg Octi 2012. (facelift) for a year now, and am quite happy with it (disregarding few minor bugs).

However, yesterday my wife broke the left side mirror (this is the driver side in Croatia). I've had a deeper look into what's broken and concluded that only the glass and the hidden part of built-in indicator (I believe it's intended to hold it firm to the housing) are broken.

Since replacement of the glass is pretty simple, and the indicator replacement doesn't look too complicated either, I've decided to try fixing it myself.

Called my dealer to check on parts prices, and it wasn't cheap (GBP70 for the glass and GBP 20 for the indicator). I've seen the glass selling on eBay around GBP 10, but am worried about the quality of those. Additionally, when contacting the dealer they asked for car details, so I wonder are all mirror glasses and indicators for the model year the same or are they specific for each car?

Does anyone have any experience with buying those parts over eBay (or similar sites)? Should I invest (much) more money in original ones, or should the eBay ones do the trick, having in mind the car is 1 year old, and I plan to keep driving it for at least 5 more years? I'm worried about the eBay product quality compared to original parts, or is it just Skoda pumping the prices for some parts sky high?

Many thanks

Ive always replaced my glass with ebay ones. Some of them are oem quality. Theres another live thread in this forum at the moment with a link to a reputable uk seller some of us have used.

Adam

Thanks for the info Adam, I'll try to find that thread

Edited 26 April, 201313 yr by njonjo

This is the thread adaml refers to.

Excellent! Thanks a lot, I was struggling to find it. It was much easier with the link provided :-)

From memory £70 sounds right for the glass with heating element from the dealer.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Excellent! Thanks a lot, I was struggling to find it. It was much easier with the link provided :-)

Sorry should have provided the link too but was on my phone and in a rush!!

I'm in a dilema now: should I buy used original glass for GBP 11 or new ebay copy for GBP 18?

Which would you guys choose?

Depends how old the used one us and what condition it is in, I guess.

But I'd go for the new eBay one as the feedback on this forum is pretty good and people seem happy with the OE quality.

That was my concern, how old the used one is (maybe has no visible signs of wear, but can be in bad shape).

I'll give it a try with the eBay one, I just need to check with the seller is there any difference between left hand drive and right hand drive ones, except for the naming driver/passenger side (I've learned so far that the driver side has aspherical mirror, so that is the only thing I am careful about)

Thanks for the quick reply

Having my O/S drivers door mirror ejected with force and smashed, from a door mirror on a Peugeot 206 going in the opposite direction (by woman driver not stopping).

Not cheap to replace (£37.99) as the mirror has a printed circuit on the back for heating.

Having my O/S drivers door mirror ejected with force and smashed, from a door mirror on a Peugeot 206 going in the opposite direction (by woman driver not stopping).

Not cheap to replace (£37.99) as the mirror has a printed circuit on the back for heating.

If it's just the mirror glass you can find one on eBay for approx £10

I still have not bought the mirror glass due to the new confusion, hopefully you guys can help me:

I have contacted the ebay seller recommended from the suggested thread due to dilemma on convex/aspherical mirror on driver/passenger side, since my car is left hand drive.

The info received from the seller was that the mirror is both convex and aspherical.

Until that moment, I was certain that I need to look for aspherical mirror for driver side (convex would be for passenger), but now I am not so sure anymore.

Does anybody know what is the Skoda original standard mirror glass type for the driver side?

Many thanks

Update:

I have run into vw-audi forum where people are having the same dilemma, and looks like all aspherical mirror glasses are actually both convex and aspherical. Is that correct?

I am quoting one reply from there, it makes sense to me:

"An aspherical mirror is composed of two parts: a convex (spherical) inner portion; and an outer portion

that increases in curvature, horizontally (while the vertical radius remains constant).

The two portions are separated by a vertical solid or dashed line that is etched into the mirror.

The reason for increasing the horizontal curvature of the outer portion is to increase the field

of view of the mirror even though some image distortion may occur.

An increased field of view reduces the blind-spots and aids maneuvers like overtaking

and merging."

Edited 2 May, 201313 yr by njonjo