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Is this door mirror repairable? (2010 Superb Estate)


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Last night a large bird like a pheasant collided with my door mirror and the metal fixing that you can see in the photo snapped/sheared (it's some sort of alloy). Does anyone know if this component is available separately, or do I need to buy a whole new unit? I could have a go at glueing it, but don't know what's involved, and doubt it would work anyway. It was quite a thump, but the painted plastic housing only cracked slightly which I can live with. No sign of the unfortunate bird! Thanks in anticipation.

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post-40725-0-75555300-1444812076_thumb.jpg

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The part in the mirror section has sheared from the arrowed component. The two parts should be attached. Sorry it wasn't very obvious but I hope this helps!

 

post-40725-0-38076900-1444820080_thumb.jpg

Edited by Knowsley
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I guess you've nothing to lose by trying something like this? http://www.appliancespareswarehouse.co.uk/quiksteel-epoxy-putty-mis132.html?gclid=CNuX68mpwsgCFRSeGwodgEcJyQ

 

If you cant dismantle it, the issues are how you would..

  • ensure the alignment 
  • hold it in place whilst it cures and finally
  • ensure it doesn't squidge out and distribute itself inside too much, thus rendering the fold from working
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The sheared casting holds the spring (base of which is just visible in the picture) under some quite serious compression.

 

The casting is available on its own, I think. The whole inner door trim has to come off to fit it.

 

I don't think any glue will ever hold it.

 

If you are really determined the casting can be drilled/machined to fit a 10mm hollow steel pipe up through it. This can have circlips fitted (into machined grooves) top and bottom. The circips go on while the spring is held compressed. (Difficult!)

 

This is quite a lot of work, and routing the wiring through it is a real pain, especially as the Elegance has so many wires, and involves dismantling the connector ends.

 

Only worth doing if you really enjoy a challenge, have a good selection of tools (ideally a lathe), and about three hours.

 

And some hollow 10mm steel tube, an assortment of circlips, and the patience of a saint.

 

Breakers yard, anyone?

 

HTH

Edited by CombatWombat
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Many thanks for your replies. Having accepted that a repair was impractical or impossible I then had the shock of discovering that a new mirror was £350! By very good fortune however I then found a breakers on eBay had one for £95 which I have bought. I just have the job of spraying it, because my luck ran out when it came down to the colour! I then have to decide whether to have a go at fitting it (easy /hard?) or taking it to my local garage and let them do it.

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Do you need to spray? I had a very similar thing happen to me on an Octavia mk 1.

 

I bought a mirror in a different color and was able to change the painted piece over to the "new" mirror. I forget if i did the base, but in my case that was black rather than coloured anyway

 

Regarding fitting, in the octavia, you simply prised off the tweeter inside the door to reveal the 3 bolts that held the mirror base to the door. It wasnt difficult at all (imho)

Edited by sdenny
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I have ordered some paint, as the housing is cracked, but may be able to swap over if my painting is disastrous! I imagine the elecrical connections are all inside the door? I guess the door card has to be removed?

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ok - well good luck with the painting. In my case the case was intact so it wasn't an issue.

 

Regarding the door card, I definitely did not take mine of. Looking at your photo, it would seem that the wiring connects inside the door. I think (although it was about 8 years ago!) that because i had the mirror in pieces, I fed the existing wiring through the mirror, made the connections there and dispensed with the wiring from the "new" mirror. (Again mine was an octavia anyway, so information my not be relevant anyway)

 

I guess you'll have to decide which is more effort (taking the mirror to bits or taking off the door card)

 

Hope it works out whatever you try

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There are 3 bolts that secure the mirror assembly to the door. At least one of them can't be undone with the door card on.

 

You can see the bolts by pulling back the triangular plastic cover that is inside the door (behind the mirror mount) BUT as the door card is still in place it is very difficult to put the plastic cover back on, as one of it's plastic protrusions is no longer lining up with its hole (due to it being attached to the door card along its lower horizontal edge).

 

The electrical connections are behind the door card.

 

If you search on 'door card removal' or 'door speaker removal' then you'll find some (really worthwhile) guides to doing this.

 

It's not very hard, but first time around it's difficult to believe how much force is needed to overcome the clips that secure the card (they get stuck and sometimes break). And a second person is useful to hold the card whilst you disconnect the lights on the door card itself; it has small, fiddly connectors. But before you do any of this the door switch panel has to come out and the tweeter grill gets removed (etc.) to allow access to screws.

 

My mirror broke in exactly the same place as yours. If there had been one in a breakers at the time then I wouldn't have repaired it.

 

Did the mirror glass fall out when it was hit?  You probably know that that once the glass is out that taking the cover off (to paint) is easy.

 

HTH

Edited by CombatWombat
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