[hogweed]

OK… having attempted this job, and spent the best part of a week on it without success (till I gave up and bought a complete new mirror), I found a number of pitfalls and blind alleys which I’d like to save anybody else from falling into if possible. I’ll try and remember the main ones anyway… can't post any more pics as the site limits me, sorry.



Although I would never even have attempted the job had it not been for Trebor’s excellent guide, there is one place where I fell down badly, and you might too. There again, I don’t do lateral thinking, so if there’s an obvious solution to something, but slightly oblique to the method I’m using, I’m unlikely to see it – others might think more creatively.


If you follow the instructions above, I think you will find the bullet cover (chrome in my case) extremely difficult to remove without damaging it and/or the mirror – and, I’d venture to suggest, actually impossible to replace without breaking something, as I did earlier today.


The way to do it, I’d suggest, is to flip the cover off the bottom of the mirror, exposing the bottom 4 screws, and remove them first, separating the mechanism into two halves – then the bullet cover can be removed and replaced fairly easily. Then take the screws out of the top of the motor etc and proceed with everything else in the guide. Unfortunately I only figured this out after I’d broken the @!!*#$! thing.


Other things… replacing the gears may cure your problem, but had no effect on mine, as my motor case (and possibly top) were worn – the hole in the side of the case where the upright spindle located was visibly oval, and this stops the gears meshing correctly.


Fortunately (I thought) you can buy new motor casings and tops on eBay – think Rob has put a link to them above. But they didn’t help me either… when I assembled everything, the motor didn’t move at all, or else badly, then stopped after a couple of rotations. I DEFINITELY assembled it properly, many many times. Then I tried different combinations of old and new parts – gear spindles, casings, tops – no joy, eventually had to admit defeat.


Next tactic was to buy a complete “repair kit” on eBay, advertised for BMW X5, Landrover, and many other models, which looked identical to our units, as indeed it proved to be when I unpacked it – however, it was so badly made that their spindle didn’t even come close to fitting the hole in their case! Shocking quality. But this kit did include a new motor, so I tried it in the other kit of parts I bought – it wouldn't spin the gears properly either.


If you do buy one of these kits, they don’t come with the tiny circuit board which sits on the end of our motors – you’ll have to prise off/desolder etc your own, and use that – then you’ll find that the terminals on the little motor are in ever so slightly a different place, and will short on the casing provided, unless you file it down. So, basically, these kits don’t fit together properly – their motor shorts if fitted in their case, and their gear spindle can’t be forced into its locating hole; you’d need to drill it out!


At this point, I gave up, and luckily discovered somebody selling off old stock of brand new mirrors for £90/unit. He only had o/s ones, and I needed n/s, but I simply fitted the complete new unit to my car, then transferred the working motor from my original o/s to my n/s unit.


It was while fitting my existing chrome bullet to the new mirror assembly that I broke it – correct me if I’m wrong, but it is actually impossible to do this without splitting the mechanism, as mentioned earlier. I think I can glue the broken one on with silicone or something, hopefully, now that I’ve figured it out – I won’t ever be taking it apart again.


Lots of other problems too, but hopefully I’ve covered the worst ones you're likely to encounter. Unless you're cleverer than I, don’t waste your money on repair kits and things from eBay, as I don’t think you’ll get them to work.


As they say in the movies, good luck Meester Bond…