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this question comes up from time to time so i thought i would do a little walk through

step one.
adjust mirror glass so its pointing down.
step two.
i use two plastic trim tools for this but you can use your finger tips if they are thin enough.
apply an even pressure on the top of the glass from behind pushing the glass outwards and down this should unclip the top of the glass. then adjust the mirror so the glass is pointing up and now you should be able to unclip the bottom with your fingers. you can unplug the wires to the glass.
step three.
now unscrew the mirror motor, three torx at roughly 11 o'clock - 3 o'clock - 7 o'clock. now unplug the motor.
step four.
now open the door and remove the plastic cover on the inside behind the mirror.
i use a trim tool for this but again you can use your fingers, this just unclips. now undo the large silver torx. from the outside pull your door mirror down and out, this will be tight as the black mounting plate is tucked behind your rubbers. once the mirror is removed(but still attached at this point by the wires), remove the two small torx from behind the black triangle mounting plate. now re-attach the mirror to the door with the large silver torx, dont worry about tucking the top part behind the rubber just tuck the bottom in and nip up the torx just enough to hold the mirror.

step five.
with the mirror temporarily re attached, now undo the torx holding the metal motor mount plate in. now time to separate mirror casing from the mount.
i use my trusty trim tools again, using the forked wedge end gently tap it into gap between mirror casing and base this will unclip the metal mount inside the mirror casing from the the mounting triangle(these will be tight so you might need to work from both sides or do top and bottom at same time. now you can remove the metal motor mount threading the wires through the hole in the mount. all done

Good write up fella..is it me or is that sprint blue only your sig says phantom?..

is it me or is that a lot less complicated than the previous posts regarding how to remove the baseplate (i.e the bit which tends to bubble and corrode)? which I assume this post is also covering or have I missed the point ?

Echoing what was said above . . . Great write up and just what I've been looking for the last few days. One of my mounting/base plates is badly corroded and I need to sort it.

If available does the mounting/base plate come ready painted? I'm thinking that depending on cost it may be easier to just buy and fit a new one than try to paint the old one and make a decent job of it.

mounting plate comes already painted and is about £50 from Audi (possibly a bit less) think the part numbers are on that part number list Tony Hayers had put together a while back...

just to clarify a little, if you want to remove the triangle base plate for paint or renew then you will either have to strip the doorpads off and disconnect the mirror loom from inside the door, or cut the wires and re-solder them because the plug for the motor at the mirror end wont fit through the base plate.

hole in base plate to small for the motor plug. wires cut so we didn't have to strip the door pads off, these will be fine soldered and shrink wrapped.

scaghead wrote:Good write up fella..is it me or is that sprint blue only your sig says phantom?..

yer mine is phantom, this is me mates new motor.
his mirrors had a scuff and a few chips on so they came off for paint, also the base plates were corroding so these were done too.

Sar, thanks for the reply. Another option may be that if you have the correct tool, you can unplug the wires from the plug. I wasn't aware that you could do this until told by my surfer neighbour who does a lot of VW van to camper conversions.

great write up. thanks

mine have got hairline cracks around the supports, dunno if they'd been knocked off at some point by passing motorists before i owned it.

anyone suffered from the same cracks?

thinking or removing, getting them plastic welded and repainted.

one of these. I have a Laser one.

Iain_S4 wrote:Sar, thanks for the reply. Another option may be that if you have the correct tool, you can unplug the wires from the plug. I wasn't aware that you could do this until told by my surfer neighbour who does a lot of VW van to camper conversions.

Sar your a legend, thank you for this guide. I can at last get them off and painted!!!

Sar, When reattaching the mirror what is the best way to get the base plate back under the rubber? I don't want to score the rubber trying to prise it over. Do you have to remove the trim from the door?

Cheers

'R'e'S'pect_4 wrote:great write up. thanks

mine have got hairline cracks around the supports, dunno if they'd been knocked off at some point by passing motorists before i owned it.

anyone suffered from the same cracks?

thinking or removing, getting them plastic welded and repainted.

Yeah mate mine has cracks on the drivers mirror feet that go into the baseplate. They are coming off with the base plates for filling/fixing and repaint.

Nice write up - that is really appreciated & will make it a lot easier to tackle when I finally get round to the job.

Regarding replacement - I would suggest a bit of either trim protector worked into the rubber (is a really good idea anyway) or washing up liquid + a plastic tool would make things easy enough to replace.

MB2 wrote:Nice write up - that is really appreciated & will make it a lot easier to tackle when I finally get round to the job.

Regarding replacement - I would suggest a bit of either trim protector worked into the rubber (is a really good idea anyway) or washing up liquid + a plastic tool would make things easy enough to replace.

Cheers man I will give that a whirl