Hi all

 

Had a minor prang the other day which resulted in the loss of my drivers side wing mirror.  The whole unit is busted.

 

The person who caused it wants to avoid insurance, and I don't mind doing that.  Obviously it will be much cheaper to buy a used one.  There are some whole wing mirrors on ebay but not the EXACT model.  (The trim of mine is 'elegance' which means there's an extra downlight on the wing mirror unit - not that I'd noticed, admittedly).

 

Does anyone know how I find out the original part number?  I figure this will be the first step to finding the actual part - which is presumably a websearch and/or virtual or telephone trawl around scrapyards.  Grateful for any clues.

VIN of your car?

TMBKG7NE5F0046885

5 hours ago, pab567 said:

VIN of your car?

Not presently in a position to say on account of mislaid log book!  Is there a look up on line against vin numbers?

 

3 hours ago, Getting100 said:

TMBKG7NE5F0046885

 

Can you elaborate?  Is that a part number?  

No, this is VIN.

 

 

 

 

Edited 25 February, 20215 yr by pab567

Is it?  I thought VIN was vehicle identification number.

 

Yes that looks like a wing mirror and I need all of it.  From the mirror glass to the wiring that plugs into the door.  And everything in between.  Unfortunately there isn't a little shop at the end of my street with a window full of Skoda wing mirrors, all in different colours.  How would I go about getting the right one for the car, please?  I presumed I'd start with a part number?  I've been lucky so far, as no bits have fallen off my car that cost 500 Euros to replace I've not had to research 2nd hand car parts before.

If the person who caused it wants to avoid insurance, I'm assuming that means they are going to pay for it to be properly fixed to your satisfaction? If so, I'd take the car to your local dealer or trusted independent garage (Covid permitting), and ask them to give you a quote for a full repair. They'll figure out what parts they need, and get prices for them. They'll also factor in the cost of spraying the new unit (they come unpainted as far as  I know) to match your car. But let them do all the work and then tell the culprit what it's going to cost him / her. If he still wants to avoid insurance, that's his choice. But I can't see any advantage to you doing all the hard work finding parts and trying the repair yourself.

 

I wouldn't buy a used model as you need to be sure that all the electrics will work correctly (heated glass, folding, etc.) and it's only worth scrimping on price if you're paying for it yourself.

 

A similar thing happened to me a few years ago when an artic truck ripped off my passenger side mirror. He took off before I could get any details, so I ended up paying for it myself. I let my normal garage look after it for me, and they had the parts sourced and fitted within a couple of days. From what I can remember, the total price was less than €500.

 

You can usually see your VIN through a little window on the passenger side of the front windscreen btw. Maybe worth taking a pic and noting the number down for future reference.

If you are really determined to find all the parts yourself, you can use something like this site to help. There are other sites that do a similar job if you have a search around. Ideally, narrow the criteria down to your VIN or, failing that, your vehicle year (the link above is looking at parts for Superbs built in 2009 - you can select your own vehicle year here by clicking on Superb and then the year). After that, it's a case of wading through the information and figuring out what you had and what you need (left-hand or right hand, folding, downlighting etc.). It can take a while and there's no absolute guarantee that the information is 100% correct, but it should be accurate enough for most purposes. But, really, I would leave it to a garage to do.