Well, earlier in the week this happened.

 

 

 

 

The damage stretches from half way down the nearside rear door all the way to the rear light cluster.  Most of the marks are down to the metal and the camera hasn't managed to capture all the smaller scratches.

 

I'll give ten bonus points to whoever guesses how it happened.

Well, it looks like rocks or something along those lines have been thrown in some way at the car?

 

Unless the car was being drifted into something?  

Looks like paint to me

Sent from my Galaxy S5

safari park?

Tree

Road gritting machine?

No apparent dents... For all of the damage. Tree or bushes blowing into it in the wind?

The marks were self inflicted and by that I mean the car damaged itself....

Mirror falling off at speed?

Handbrake failed and it rolled into something?

Mirror falling off at speed?

 

Very close.  The mirror glass was ripped off by a particularly strong gust of wind, was initially blown away from the car and then curved back in and smashed on the rear of the car.  It's caused a right bloomin' mess. :'(

Urgh :(

Very close.  The mirror glass was ripped off by a particularly strong gust of wind, was initially blown away from the car and then curved back in and smashed on the rear of the car.  It's caused a right bloomin' mess. :'(

That's a shame mate. Hopefully an easy fix

Oops!

 

I've got a broken rear light cluster that looks like it was broken by a flying branch. At least mine will be easier to repair.

That's a shame mate. Hopefully an easy fix

 

It's already booked in with a local body shop to be resprayed.  It's a two day job as they'll have to take the door car off to remove the handle, the chrome strips & probably the rear bumper to make a good job of it.  Annoying really as I've never known the glass to detach itself from the backing plate before.  To be fair though, it was a very windy day, (gusts of 60mph+ at the time) and this particular gust hit the bridge I was travelling over, causing everyone on it to shift a few feet to the right.

 

Oops!

 

I've got a broken rear light cluster that looks like it was broken by a flying branch. At least mine will be easier to repair.

 

Agreed.  Paint is always very expensive to sort out, especially when more than one panel is involved. 

 

On a more positive note, the genuine replacement heated mirror glass was sourced from Ebay for less than £10.  If only the glass had blown the other way.....

Well, it looks like rocks or something along those lines have been thrown in some way at the car?

 

Unless the car was being drifted into something?  

 

Sorry, I forgot to reply to this.  Coincidentally, the back end did step out yesterday on what is probably the slippiest roundabout in the world.  It's not far from a haulage company and there is always a glistening sheen of diesel on the road.  A combination of diesel, freezing temperatures, cheap tyres on the rear and my relentless desire to find the limits of my capabilities resulted in a very impressive (if unplanned) drift. 

I'm pretty sure it gave the Mk4 Gti behind me a bit of a surprise as the barge like car in front of him took the roundabout like a Nissan 200sx.

The glass is falling out of the mirrors on my dads Jetta, wonder if this is a common fault with VAG? It was a while ago when I noticed that the passenger side mirror was wobbling a bit when he went over bumps, pointed it out and when we looked it was coming away, so we got some superglue and fixed it when it came off a bit more. now the drivers one is on its way out so we've got some electrical tape wrapped round the mirror to stop it falling out if it comes off because you can't get to it to put superglue in with the glass in place.

Not nice. Hope it doesn't work out too costly to put right.

I have seen a few mirror units detach themselves from the backing and you get that 'wobble' described earlier. Probably an age related issue as the bond weakens.

The glass is falling out of the mirrors on my dads Jetta, wonder if this is a common fault with VAG? It was a while ago when I noticed that the passenger side mirror was wobbling a bit when he went over bumps, pointed it out and when we looked it was coming away, so we got some superglue and fixed it when it came off a bit more. now the drivers one is on its way out so we've got some electrical tape wrapped round the mirror to stop it falling out if it comes off because you can't get to it to put superglue in with the glass in place.

Yes common

In the heat of summer the temp gets so hot on the mirror it melts the adhesive sticking the glass to its backing. Heat from heated wing mirrors may also do this

Resulting in wobbly glass!

I superglued both sides on the missus mk5 golf just in time

Prize the glass off carefully with a screwdriver / knife and apply superglue

Was it a genuine OE mirror glass or an EBay / motor factor generic?

It may not just be a Vauxhall thing then.  I've done a bit of reading and it's not uncommon on the Vectra and Signum for this to happen but on t'web it seems that this can affect most makes of cars.  I was unlucky this time but in future I'll be keeping an eye out for the wobble.

 

Just to answer your question jimbof, it was the original mirror glass as far as I'm aware.  I popped into Vauxhall and they seemed to think I needed a whole new mirror casing which would then require painting and fitting at a grand total of £170.  I politely declined and will sort it myself.

There's a whole multi page thread about mirror glass falling off in Octavia II. Oddly, the prevention is to leave the heater on permanently, not to switch it on and off. I did this with the replacement mirror, and also with my FL Octy for 18 months and the glass remained where it was supposed to be. Hardly scientific, but hey. Doing the same with the Leon, so far, so glass.

I'll bear that in mind thanks as I don't want this to happen again.  Bad luck I guess on this occasion and kind of reassuring that it's not the curse of Vauxhall build quality.

I'll bear that in mind thanks as I don't want this to happen again. Bad luck I guess on this occasion and kind of reassuring that it's not the curse of Vauxhall build quality.

Be careful, being a vauxhall it's probably glued on with egg white

Gritter?