Wing Mirror Obliterated…

tucker266 · Sep 25, 2022

Driving to Snowdon last night and a passing lorry obliterated my drivers side wing mirror (T6 driver side). A quick call to VW indicates it will cost more than £500 to replace the wing mirror unit with original parts. Instead I think I will buy a non-OEM part from eBay for about £200 and ask a local auto electrician to fit it. I assume It’s required to disconnect and reconnect electrics for the mirror motor and the DAB antenna? I don’t trust myself/ can’t face taking the door cards off etc.

The wind mirror is colour matched. I’ll buy a part primed for painting and spray myself. Not too difficult?

Does this sound like a sensible plan?
Recommendations for auto electricians in Southwest London also gratefully received. Thanks!

dripster · Sep 25, 2022

Ouch. That looks worse than mine that got crunched while I was away in Cornwall. I managed to get top and bottom covers plus the glass and replace them myself: https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/thread...-in-cornwall-par-st-austell.41525/post-536597

I think you can also replace the mounting, but it does look like yours is well and truly mashed. If you want to have a go there are some videos on YouTube on replacement of the bracket etc.

RodCouncil · Sep 25, 2022

I've been here before, rebuilt mine after a self inflicted incident with a parked truck. The DAB antenna is a PITA and you need decent soldering skills, I managed to get it all working again but it was hours of work and swearing.

Is the door ok?

Here is my saga

Drivers door mirror snapped off - LHD

Assuming it's a standard Transporter part? Went to swing it up in gold away mode and the alloy mechanism snapped. MY 2012.

vwcaliforniaclub.com

briwy · Sep 29, 2022

Did ours a few years ago with £200 eBay one. Fairly easy job but involved some soldering of wires.
The DAB aerial is crap anyway so I dumped it and bought a stick on one for the inside of the windscreen. Works much better. same for the GPS antenna. £10 quid for one which sits under the dash tray. Biggest problem I had was getting the door locking tab back up through the hole in the door card. Eventually I got some small rubber tube and placed it through the hole and put the tab in the tube. This guided it through the hole as the door card was pushed down.

Alan Andrews · Sep 29, 2022

You can also buy them at EuroCarParts. Look for their discount codes before ordering.....they always have a code displayed on the home page of their website.

Remember that you'll need to get the cover sprayed to your body colour too.

soulstyledevon · Sep 30, 2022

Had that happen to my old van in France in 2016. Any closer and it would’ve been a head on with the Great White who was driving far to fast for the road conditions. Completely ripped off the passenger side wing mirror.
My wife still flinches…

I thought the DAB receiver was in the passenger side…?

Ocean Spirit · Sep 30, 2022

I thought I was the only one

Clearly there is something deceptive about the perceived width of the van as I never aim to squeeze into small gaps. But I've actually hit mine 2 or 3 times. Only once with real force (Passenger side). My glass popped out and I damage the paint on the cover and the black lower moulding. Still you'd hardly know it after some TLC. They are tough things in my experience if the force direction helps it collapse inwards. In the other direction I guess they dont fair so well.
Good Luck OP.

Alan Andrews · Sep 30, 2022

I frequently use the knob to turn in my wing mirrors when in tight spots. But when some idiot is going too fast there is little time to take avoiding action.

ejmoore · Sep 30, 2022

Oooh! Bad luck. We managed to destroy the nearside mirror in Switzerland, getting onto the Lotschburg tunnel train - extra expensive to repair there, but we had no choice. Fortunately there's a VW dealer at Frutigen near the north end of the tunnel. But it added nearly £700 to our holiday costs.

GrumpyGranddad · Sep 30, 2022

I believe this company is quite competitive?

www.wingmirrorman.co.uk/motorhome-mirrors

ScotlandtheDave · Sep 30, 2022

soulstyledevon said:
Had that happen to my old van in France in 2016. Any closer and it would’ve been a head on with the Great White who was driving far to fast for the road conditions. Completely ripped off the passenger side wing mirror.
My wife still flinches…

I thought the DAB receiver was in the passenger side…?

I believe DAB is passenger side on LHD spec and they dont swap for RHD, hence the frightening prices

My claim was £1500 including new window glass and a door respray

Ting Tong · Oct 1, 2022

Actually all that’s broken is the upper mirror casing (about £100 painted) the lower mirror casing (£15), the heated mirror glass (£15) and the top hat metal bracket that projects from the folding motor. Unfortunately VW do not supply the bracket separately from the motor mechanism and the whole unit is including the motor is about £500! However you can get the bracket from a place in Germany and a place in Turkey (link below) and then strip the unit down which involves using a spring compressor and lots of photos so you can remember how it fits together. The brackets that are widely available on eBay are for the non folding mirror and don’t fit.

You don’t need to do any soldering if you take the door card off as you can pull all the wires through with the connectors. You’ll need new door card fixings as some will break. It’s a mass of spaghetti and long job but I’ve done it.

If you’re replacing the whole unit or mirror then can I have your knackered motor unit please as I stupidly damaged the little electric motor inside in the process and it sounds terrible.

Pardon our interruption...

Homemade spring compressor

The motor and mounting bracket, which is the part that breaks. Even this is not available separately and you have to get all the plastic frame it sits in.