Removal of door mirror glass and replacement of mirror caps

[Maniac]

So thanks to TitanTim I thought I'd pop on the carbon fibre mirror caps I bought from him.

What a fiddly and heart in your mouth job. To make the task easier the mirror glass should first be removed.

I wasn't looking forward to that as I expected to break something. Thankfully I didn't as its much easier to remove the glass than you might think. On most videos I've seen you are told to remove the glass by pulling or prizing it out.

Not so here, under the mirror glass are two tiny metal bars. These are hooked into a nub of plastic which when you pop the bars out releases what is essentially a large circlip. You can then pop the glass right out very easily.

Refitting the glass was a journey in that I first tried to apply the glass back in place and then use thin nose pliers to pull each bar into the plastic nub. This was very fiddly. By accident I found out that you can actually put the bars back in place while the glass is out and with a little pressure the glass pops right back into place.

Now to the caps. They are really fiddly to remove and you have to ideally push back four small ridged clips (prongs on the cover and slots/holes on the mirror housing) once the glass has been removed. I used some flat screwdrivers for this but it did take a while before the cap prized off using finger force and a plastic trim remover.

Refit is a doddle so long as the prongs on the caps line up with the holes in the housing. Much easier to see with the glass off.

I did discover a slight discolouration of the passenger cover giving it a slight bronze tint over the clear on the drivers cover. I assume UV damage. That cover also has some weave error right on top of the cover which is annoying but they're second hand and I got them for a fair price so I'll hopefully learn to live with it and keep my OCD in check.

Pics to follow...


The glass out...


The wire/bar/circlip thing you can just see on the back of the glass...



Drivers side (which is a blacker colour)




Passenger side (slightly bronze with some weave defects, you have do compare them side by side to really notice it)




The finished article is super discreet, which I like and will be adding into other elements of the car now I know it doesn't look tacky... Lower intake vents etc..

[Maniac]

Pics now added.

[lux]

I popped my covers off easily with a plastic cycle tyre lever, didn't take the glass out at all!?
They look nice but at the money those things cost I'd expect them to be the same colour.

[Maniac]

I suspect TitanTim didnt notice as they were on a lighter colour car.

[lux]

...and he's eyesight's not so good at his age!!

[andysat]

[TitanTim]

Hi Gary,

Glad you got them on OK, interesting re mirror removal as when I tried to remove the glass I tried a hook tool to prize the glass off the holder like on the 1 Series, glad I chickened out now and just pulled the covers off.

Re the discolouration thats how they were when I first received them and don't think its UV damage, if you look at your bottom pic of the drivers side from a different angle it also looks to have a slightly bronze tinge which may simply be down to the weave pattern and how its reflecting the light. When I took the for sale pic of them side by side I didn't notice any difference but again I think its the angle you view them from with the weave. Looking back I don't think they're the best word in quality, the first pair I had to send back as the carbon weave had split but they were the only company I could find that did them as replacement shells rather than the stick on covers that go over the top of the existing. The BMW carbon performance mirrors for the 1 Series are 500 quid the pair but then the quality is top notch.

Tim.

[TitanTim]

I popped my covers off easily with a plastic cycle tyre lever, didn't take the glass out at all!?
They look nice but at the money those things cost I'd expect them to be the same colour.

They were 300 dollars Steve not cheap but alot cheaper than BMWs carbon bits.

Tim.