Mirror; mirror on the floor you should be on my !#$*in' door

[Crazy Harry]

A day of two parts - had an appointment in Plymouth this morning and had to take the Zed (from Norfolk) a round trip of 673 miles.

A soul less motorway and duel carriage way drive down during the early hours to arrive at 8:00am. Then homeward - as traffic was building around dinnertime rather than taking the M4 to London I continued up the M5 to Gloucester then back through the Cotswolds top down on clear rural roads (most likely faster than motorway traffic this afternoon!) then through Bucks and Cambridgeshire to Norfolk.

Fantastic trip - well almost; except that on the outskirts of Chipping Norton my passenger door mirror decided to stay in the locality - I saw it 'flash' as it fell off and heard the sound of it smashing on the road edge. I can't see any marks on the paintwork but will have a good look in the morning.

I'm left with a rubbery layer over the mirror mechanism



I think it also has a thin layer of adhesive left and the surface is slightly silvered - possibly from the back of the mirror.

So do I need a new glass and adhesive patch? Does it have to be gen BMW? do I pull the rubber off and clean it? All advice welcomed - thanks in advance.

 

[Marlon]

Don't pull the rubber off! (sound advice in other scenarios too )
Buy a replacement mirror with sticky tape and stick it onto the rubber:

https://www.incarshop.co.uk/acatalog/BMW_Z4_Door_Mirror_Glass_and_Wing_Mirror_Glass_Chrome_02_to_08.html

 

[Crazy Harry]

Don't pull the rubber off.
Buy a replacement mirror with sticky tape and stick it onto the rubber

Just been and had another look - I assume I can clean the surface of the rubber, some of the adhesive is flaking off. Have you tried non BMW mirror glasses?

Thanks

 

[metal licker]

Mirror; mirror on the floor you should be on my !#$*in' door
Made me chuckle

 

[Ducklakeview]

Common issue, caused no doubt by the stupid fact that BMW in their "wisdom" chose to have the heaters on all of the time, rather than like ANY other car where they only eat the mirrors when you put the rear screen on! I've contemplated "rewiring" my own to do just that.

Mike

PS, any chance of you upping a vid of the car lift working? How are you finding it, stable?

 

[sw4nny]

A mate of mine fitted a £10 ebay.jobby about 2 years ago and had no issues

 

[Crazy Harry]

A mate of mine fitted a £10 ebay.jobby about 2 years ago and had no issues

I think that's the way I'm going to go - just been looking and ebay have them with change from £10 :lol:

 

[Ducklakeview]

A mate of mine fitted a £10 ebay.jobby about 2 years ago and had no issues

I think that's the way I'm going to go - just been looking and ebay have them with change from £10 :lol:

Just make sure it has the convex bit at the outside edge and isn't just a flat piece of mirror.

Mike

 

[Crazy Harry]

A mate of mine fitted a £10 ebay.jobby about 2 years ago and had no issues

I think that's the way I'm going to go - just been looking and ebay have them with change from £10 :lol:

Just make sure it has the convex bit at the outside edge and isn't just a flat piece of mirror.

Mike

Thanks Mike. I was looking at this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Left-Passenger-Side-WIDE-ANGLE-WING-DOOR-MIRROR-GLASS-For-BMW-Z4-2002-2008-/141730015452?fits=Plat_Gen%3AE85&hash=item20ffc468dc:g:bHgAAOSw1DtXGNql

 

[Ducklakeview]

I think that's the way I'm going to go - just been looking and ebay have them with change from £10 :lol:

Just make sure it has the convex bit at the outside edge and isn't just a flat piece of mirror.

Mike

Thanks Mike. I was looking at this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Left-Passenger-Side-WIDE-ANGLE-WING-DOOR-MIRROR-GLASS-For-BMW-Z4-2002-2008-/141730015452?fits=Plat_Gen%3AE85&hash=item20ffc468dc:g:bHgAAOSw1DtXGNql

That looks fine.

Mike

 

[bmwaddict]

Happened to me on Friday, PITA. New mirror comes with the rubber backing thing.

 

[Mr Tidy]

Sorry to hear your news OP.

Looks like a reasonably painless fix thankfully.

But great heading.

 

[Crazy Harry]

Happened to me on Friday, PITA. New mirror comes with the rubber backing thing.

I'm going to try the cheap ebay route - will post what they send me and how it goes

 

[brightonbimmer]

Don't pull the rubber off! (sound advice in other scenarios too )

David

 

[Silverzedtom]

Happened to me the other day as well. Luckily my mirror wasn't damaged when it hit the tarmac.

I used gorilla glue and clamps over night to re attach. Don't touch the black pad as that's your heating element. I used gorilla glue as it's 100% water proof and also isn't affected by extreme temperatures, so should be fine when the cars running and the mirrors heated.

Holds rock solid

 

[Crazy Harry]

Happened to me the other day as well. Luckily my mirror wasn't damaged when it hit the tarmac.

I used gorilla glue and clamps over night to re attach. Don't touch the black pad as that's your heating element. I used gorilla glue as it's 100% water proof and also isn't affected by extreme temperatures, so should be fine when the cars running and the mirrors heated.

Holds rock solid

Thanks for the tip. One of the DIY shops in town sells Gorilla products - did you use a double sided tape/pad or a contact adhesive?

This looks like the stuff for the job

http://uk.gorillaglue.com/heavy-duty-mounting-tape

 

[Silverzedtom]

Happened to me the other day as well. Luckily my mirror wasn't damaged when it hit the tarmac.

I used gorilla glue and clamps over night to re attach. Don't touch the black pad as that's your heating element. I used gorilla glue as it's 100% water proof and also isn't affected by extreme temperatures, so should be fine when the cars running and the mirrors heated.

Holds rock solid

Thanks for the tip. One of the DIY shops in town sells Gorilla products - did you use a double sided tape/pad or a contact adhesive?

I wanted to use some sort of heat proof glue, as BMW used glue originally (although probably not the best suited for the job) and using tape is going to raise the glass away from the element, meaning moisture behind the glass and on the element and also when using glue you can locate the glass exactly where it needs to be as there is a lip on the edge of the element pad.

I used this I believe:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/gorilla-glue-115ml/54593?kpid=KINASEKPID&cm_mmc=GoogleLocal-_-Datafeed-_-Sealants%2520and%2520Adhesives&cm_mmc=Google-_-Product%2520Listing%2520Ads-_-Sales%2520Tracking-_-sales%2520tracking%2520url&gclid=CIru2b2SqdMCFUFAGwodKLUIpA&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CImZ3r2SqdMCFXAE0wodyXkJAg

 

[markeg]

I used HT silicon glue ( left over from a headlight conversion ) on an eBay special, and then edged with Sugru. Looks excellent, no sharp edges, and this was for the Saab, not zed

I have tried gorilla glue previously. Apart from the mess (its like expanda-foam) I found it went too brittle over time, so discounted it for the wing mirror.

 

[Crazy Harry]

OK so my 'ebay special' mirror arrived yesterday - I ordered it on Good Friday evening so it was delivered first working day after Easter and that gets the from me.

Was well packed and came with two pads of double sided tape - which I had not intended to use.



Needed the Zed today so first thing this morning I cleaned the rubber membrane with surgical spirit - a well known universal solvent and cleaner in our house (and gets dear ticks off dogs).





I used Gorilla double sided tape which has a stated working range of -40 to +120C the instructions said vertical strips because they stick better - I would have gone horizontal normally to reduce the joins but used vertical more than one strip has to fail.



It also said that it has to be used at +10C so with frost on the ground here it was out with the hair dryer to warm everything before sticking the two together.



Mirror off ebay £6.89 including postage; Gorilla tape £6.00 with enough left to do another couple (might buy a drivers side mirror now just in case!). Drove from Norfolk to Oxford and back today and the mirror stuck with me. So I'm hoping that's sorted then

 

[Rich8]

Has this ever happened to anyone with dimming mirrors? Or are they fixed differently and immune?
(I'm hoping the latter).
Seen plenty of these threads, but don't recall any of them ever talking about trying to source a dimming mirror.