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Thread: PSA / Instructional: Safe Door Mirror Removal

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Little Rock, AR
    Posts
    2,651
    My Cars
    98 Roadster 2.8L

    PSA / Instructional: Safe Door Mirror Removal

    I've noticed over the past few years that many Z3 owners have broken their mirrors attempting to remove them. I wanted to take a little time and provide two methods, one of which I now feel is safer to our aging ABS mirrors than the common method recommended.

    NOTE: I have borrowed from many other threads to create this, so I am not taking credit for it... just putting it one thread

    Method 1 - "Pull & Twist" (May NOT be safer than Method 2)
    This is the most common method recommended

    Many people have broken their mirrors trying to remove them in this manner... I'm pretty sure the problem is rooted in attempting to twist the mirrors without first pulling them away from the base. The swivel is sometimes corroded and the result is ripping the internal metal structure away from the ABS housing. Regardless, this is how you are supposed to do it:

    Here are instructions:
    1) You access the allen head mounting bolts that connect the mirrors to the body from the outside of the door by:

    • Pulling the mirror out a few millimeters from the base
    • Then gently turning the mirror down and away (90 degrees) from the direction the mirror glass is facing
    • You can actually turn them up or down, doesn't matter which way... pick the way that gives first

    2) Now you can access the mounting bolts with an allen wrench





    Method 2 - "Disassemble Internals"
    Due to the fragile ABS mounting points inside the mirror, I feel this is safer, even possibly for this with mirrors that rotate freely. Over time, these mounting points will undoubtedly break with age.

    This is also the only way I am aware of to get access to the allen bolts if the mirror has been shipped to you in the original 'locked' position like this:



    (1) Remove Mirror Glass by tilting the mirror glass all the way up to get a small screw driver to separate the black teeth from the white base tabs (circled in red). I believe some have also broken these tabs, but I feel this is still safer than Method-1. Also separate the heating element wires connected to the tabs circled in yellow/yellow.



    (2) Unscrew 4 phillips head screws from the blue locations



    (3) Unscrew 4 T10 torx head screws from the orange locations



    (4) ABS Mirror housing is now completely free and can be rotated out of the way exposing the allen head mounting bolt holes circled in green.

    NOTICE: Look at the upper right mounting point in the ABS... destroyed... and the other 3 were also cracked... will have to epoxy that back together.



    NOTICE: Look at this massive spring you are pulling/twisting against in Method 1. All of your pulling and twisting force is applied at those last four little ABS mounting points circled in orange above.

    Last edited by kojohns; 09-18-2013 at 10:20 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Arida Zona
    Posts
    30,107
    My Cars
    z3
    Kurt,

    Saw this linked to in another thread and wanted to chime in with some input


    I put my mirrors in that position to take pictures for a customer and they are indeed quite hard to pull back to the open position. However it is not by any means impossible and removing the glass is not strictly necessary for someone who has their mirrors in this position and just wants to rotate them back. Simply use one hand to pull the base of the mirror one way, and your other hand grabbing the mirror end pulling and twisting the direction they need to go. It can be quite a faff but it is entirely possible, and you will only have sore forearms for a few hours

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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Little Rock, AR
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    2,651
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    98 Roadster 2.8L
    I think it's a case by case situation. The silver mirror I am working on here obviously originally arrived in the locked position... I worked on it for about an hour attempting to get it into the twisted position doing as you and others have mentioned. I stopped and started looking for an alternate method after I had obviously broken one of those little ABS screw mounting points inside. I knew I had broken it because the outer shell had become loose.

    There is risk removing the mirror glass as well... I broke a little black tab on it and had to epoxy it back as well. Can still buy OEM glass replacements with new tabs affordably... but mirror shells and bases are a different story.

    These old plastic mirrors are just fragile as many of us have found out.

    If only they could have over-engineered the differential-to-subframe mounting like they did this mirror swivel ;-)
    Last edited by kojohns; 12-13-2012 at 07:45 PM.

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