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Basic Car Maintenance: How to repair a broken wing mirror

  Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Busy streets, tight bends and inexperienced drivers can all contribute to broken wing mirrors.  Fortunately, if you haven’t got a load of money spare to pay to have it repaired, it’s one of those tasks that definitely suits DIY if you’ve got the right tools ready to go.

What you’ll need:

• A panel remover lever
• A hooked pick
• Retainer clips (these should be included with your mirror, but may not be otherwise)
• Trim pad remover

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Here’s our step-by-step guide to getting that wing mirror fixed:

1. Buy the right mirror.  Getting a replacement mirror is rarely too expensive, and unless you have a really rare car you’ll find that getting the right part isn’t too tricky.  An online shop like ASM Auto Recycling’s own will have a range of mirrors at good prices.  Obviously check that the model is compatible, and remember that you’ll need to paint the mirror if it’s a different colour to your car (this isn’t actually that hard – mask off the glass and use a can of spray paint).
2. Remove the mirror cover and (if necessary) the door panels.  Panel removal is more likely to be necessary in the case of power mirrors.  The hardest part is actually finding the hidden fasteners which are usually hidden beneath decorative vanity caps and in recesses.  Check out the finger pull area, the armrest, behind speaker grills and in other obscure areas.  Once you’ve found all of the screws, you can use the panel remover lever to pop the panel out. 
3. Remove the three retaining screws that attach the mirror to the door, and the cable containing the mirror’s electrical connector in the case of a power mirror.  From there, you should be able to remove the old mirror and replace it with the new one.
4. Reverse the entire procedure to reassemble the door trim panel.
5. You can then re-insert the Christmas tree shaped panel fasteners, the screws and any decorative vanity caps.

PLEASE NOTE.  Some cars have power mirrors and manual windows.  If that’s the case then you’ll need to remove the window crank before you can remove the trim panel.  You’ll only be able to do this if you have a special door handle removal tool – so ensure you’ve got one BEFORE you start the replacement!

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