Destroyed Wing Mirror!!

[Toobie]

Hello Again All

I'm sure this has happened to others - offside wing mirror destroyed - I had only travelled ninety miles from purchase !!

No, of course they didn't stop! I did !!

I collected all the pieces off the road and waited ......... nothing. The next day, to help with the 'grief and fury', I went back to the spot and picked up some more of the smaller pieces. I couldn't understand how it happened, I had my wheels in the gutter and couldn't have been closer to the verge (I drive a big 4x4, so this is my habit on country roads). I sat down with the bits and pieces and started to reassemble them (a sort of therapy I suppose). Guess what I found ... In the end, I had two T5 black lower casing shells and my white self-coloured upper shell. There was no paint transfer (I had my CSi head on by now).

Just my luck, being the SE, there is so much tech in there, including the blind spot assist gubbins, aerial, radar sensors ... Grrrrrrrr.

I'm going to try and rebuild it all and maybe dodge the absolute fortune that the dealer will be looking for.

Ho hum. Happy days ahead eh?

 

[Ghostbuster]

I am really sick of folks just lately especially ‘van man’. I have been showered in stones twice recently and suffered paint damage.
Two Royal Mail vans in a high speed pursuit the first time and the next a delivery driver coming towards me that made me grit my teeth, clench the steering wheel and brace for impact.
I expected for the mirror to be gone but again more paint damage.

 

[Hawthorn37]

I feel your pain, and anger. We drive through lanes around Somerset and Devon on a very regular basis, and so far we’ve had one full contact mirror clash, and a couple of brush-bys. Thankfully the mirror has stayed intact, but with a bit of paint scuffing. We’re also used to lane driving, and hug the hedge. Unfortunately some drivers are both in a hurry, and don’t move over. Wherever it looks like we will have a close encounter, I raise the electric mirror up, but sometimes it just happens too fast. If you look at the damage on delivery and works vans mirrors, you wonder how many bits of broken plastic and glass they’ve left behind!

 

[wildslammer22]

Hello Again All

I'm sure this has happened to others - offside wing mirror destroyed - I had only travelled ninety miles from purchase !!

No, of course they didn't stop! I did !!

I collected all the pieces off the road and waited ......... nothing. The next day, to help with the 'grief and fury', I went back to the spot and picked up some more of the smaller pieces. I couldn't understand how it happened, I had my wheels in the gutter and couldn't have been closer to the verge (I drive a big 4x4, so this is my habit on country roads). I sat down with the bits and pieces and started to reassemble them (a sort of therapy I suppose). Guess what I found ... In the end, I had two T5 black lower casing shells and my white self-coloured upper shell. There was no paint transfer (I had my CSi head on by now).

Just my luck, being the SE, there is so much tech in there, including the blind spot assist gubbins, aerial, radar sensors ... Grrrrrrrr.

I'm going to try and rebuild it all and maybe dodge the absolute fortune that the dealer will be looking for.

Ho hum. Happy days ahead eh?

Happened to me in France, I feel your pain and frustration. I ended up ordering a replacement from the wing mirror company, they had to order it from Germany so it took a while to deliver, they also offer a paint service which was pretty reasonable. So mine arrived in about three weeks, all colour coded and I fitted it myself which was a pain but doable. Saved me £2-300 vs a dealer. Only issue was it was supposed to come with the DAB aerial but it didn’t. Rather than go through the hassle of returning it rescued and reused the one from my shattered mirror.

 

[Lambeth Cali]

Happened to me years ago in France.
The killer cost was having it painted to match the van. It was like £300 extra.

 

[Toobie]

Hello Lambeth Cali
Thank you for sharing my pain.
S&P

 

[Toobie]

Happened to me in France, I feel your pain and frustration. I ended up ordering a replacement from the wing mirror company, they had to order it from Germany so it took a while to deliver, they also offer a paint service which was pretty reasonable. So mine arrived in about three weeks, all colour coded and I fitted it myself which was a pain but doable. Saved me £2-300 vs a dealer. Only issue was it was supposed to come with the DAB aerial but it didn’t. Rather than go through the hassle of returning it rescued and reused the one from my shattered mirror.

Hello wildslammer22

Thank you for sharing, good to hear you did the hybrid DiY thing that I'm intending to do.

All the best
S&P

 

[Perfectos]

If you have folding mirrors make sure you get a replacement that folds (most don't)

 

[wildslammer22]

Happened to me years ago in France.
The killer cost was having it painted to match the van. It was like £300 extra.

I paid £260 including the colour match paint job. It was folding, heated, blind spot mirror and supposedly the DAB aerial but that was missing. As you said VW would have wanted double that in paint and labour on top of the parts!

 

[Hawthorn37]

I think we’ll need to be extra careful when driving through the lanes

 

[KickingK99]

I’ve had my wing mirror damaged this week. Luckily I witnessed the driver who will be covering costs.
However, the wing mirror is still rotating, it’s the clips on the base that are broken so are unable to secure the top cap.
Can the base section be replaced on its own, using VW parts, without the inside workings so as to reduce costs, or is it the whole base unit including motor which has to be replaced?
My local garage say no and have quoted approx 280 for a mirror from vw plus fitting.

Mine is a T5.1 2010 Cali SE

 

[grumpyrs]

Hi, I bought one from Veedubtransporters a couple of months ago.

Genuine VW T5.1/T6/T6.1 Lower Mirror Trim Nearside - Black

Genuine VW Part (part number: 7E1 857 603 B 9B9)

www.veedubtransporters.co.uk

They had both sides I think. £21.99

 

[KickingK99]

Hi, I bought one from Veedubtransporters a couple of months ago.

Genuine VW T5.1/T6/T6.1 Lower Mirror Trim Nearside - Black

Genuine VW Part (part number: 7E1 857 603 B 9B9)

www.veedubtransporters.co.uk

They had both sides I think. £21.99

That’s great.
Have you fitted it - and if so was it straight forward?
To fit a full mirror I was quoted £65. I assume this would involve a lot more fiddling and so time and money.
BTW I wont be doing it, I know I would break something

 

[grumpyrs]

Fitted without any trouble, just a bit of wiggling and taking my time, clicked into place. Was advised to do it on a warm day so the plastic wasn’t brittle.

 

[KickingK99]

So the existing base clips off? no removing the door card or wiring?

 

[B16 JOG]

If all the gubbins is present and correct, you can replace the base (or upper cover) without door card removal

 

[grumpyrs]

Yep, just unclips. Although mine was aided by someone else’s mirror at speed, luckily only the plastic shells, everything else was intact, phew.

Forgot about 2 screws behind the glass. The glass did remove easily.

 

[KickingK99]

That’s such good news …. I’ll look up the parts tomorrow. Thank you

 

[L&R.]

I sympathise with your predicament. Fortunately I have not this experience, yet, but perhaps having a dashcam would ensure you at least capture the 'moment', and the other vehicles reg, would be cheaper than replacing a mirror on your own account?