ChrisA wrote: ↑Thu Jun 18, 2020 5:59 pm
My research has come up with a few possibilities.
1, Buy a new unit. They’re still available but cost around £350.
2, Buy a used unit. Will probably fail under the same sort of stress. (£70-£120)
3, Buy a used non dim mirror. (£15-£25)
4, Buy a replacement auto dim mirror glass.
Now to me number 4 makes sense, the obvious problem is finding the auto dim mirror glass. As luck would have it I’ve found someone who does this kind of work and oddly enough they’re members of the RS community, MirrorJohn (although he’s not been here for a long time).
I’ve contacted John through his eBay store, briefly explained the situation and invited him to visit this post and hopefully find a solution for us.
Here is a link to his eBay store.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224040938436
Fingers crossed we get a result.
Hi Chris and everyone else on here. Thanks for alerting me to this thread Chris. Sorry I haven't been on the forum for a while. I have been flat out busy lately and don't have a lot of spare time. I still have my Sprint Blue B7 RS4 Avant that I run as a daily, high speed dog transporter, delivery vehicle, tip run car and mountain bike carrier. It gets used & abused!
Keeps the miles off the M3 which has become a bit of a garage queen and is far less practical obviously:
Cant beat the noise of the RS4 though and it does everything so well. Anyway, I do digress...
As you may have noticed by my username / ebay name / website MirrorJohn.com, I specialise in auto-dim rearview mirrors. Specifically, a repair solution for failed auto-dim rearview mirrors of all makes of car. It is very common for the auto-dim mirrors to fail. Especially for cars built in the 2000's. There have been a lot of auto-dim rearview mirrors failing over the last few months as the heat accelerates them failing. When they fail it can be disastrous as mentioned by Chris. The auto-dim fluid inside that leaks is like a strong acid. It damages anything that it comes in contact with. It damages gear surrounds, centre consoles, switches, gear knobs, dashboards.......basically anything that it touches. If anyone suspects that their auto-dim rearview mirror has failed, I recommend removing it from their car straight away. Signs of failure can be any of the following:
- Mirror is no longer dimming (always worth testing / monitoring function regularly)
- Mirror has a yellow tinge to it
- There are patches or bubbles in the glass
- Tide line or variations in colour
- Dust behind the glass
- Halo effect or inner circle present
- Mirror has leaked. Damage to the mirror casing or interior trim.
They can leak suddenly and rapidly, so get it out the car as soon as you can and put it in a plastic tub or a thick plastic bag after wrapping some rags/old towels around it.
A customer's M3. You can see the spots where the fluid landed on the gear surround/buttons:
After getting his gear surround re-painted, the paint reacted badly and it needed to be thrown away and he purchased new. Costly experience for him!
Even scarier. I received this M3 mirror in the post and it had leaked out on the way to me. The plastics were fine before it was posted. Look at the mess that the fluid made of the mirror casing when it leaked out:
That went in to the bin!
Without boring everybody too much........ The auto-dim glass inside your rearview mirror contains a special auto-dim fluid. Using the electronics inside the mirror casing and the sensors, various degree of electrical charge is passed through this fluid which causes the glass to dim. More charge = darker glass, less charge = less tint. The issue with the auto-dim glass that was fitted to your Audi is this acidic auto-dim fluid inside the glass. It eats away at the seal of the glass then drips out. Most mirrors will fail sooner or later and they can cause hundreds of pounds worth of damage when they do fail. I had one customer doing a track day and heavy on the brakes when the mirror leaked out. The fluid landed on his dashboard and he obviously didn't wipe it off quick enough or thoroughly enough as it permanently damaged the dashboard plastic. He had to have a whole new dash put in! If you see any fluid, mop it up quickly. Don't touch your face and wash your hands very quickly after.
Please DONT taste it! It is horrible horrible stuff. I have ruined clothes from it. It takes the colour out of t-shirts!
As Chris has already suggested above, you have 4 options if your mirror fails:
1, Buy a new unit. Apparently they are still available and cost around £350. The downside of this is that even the new mirrors still contain the same flawed technology so could leak again
2, Buy a used unit. (£70-£120 ish). As above, same issue but is also older so could well fail very soon. I have had some people have their used mirror leak weeks later after purchase.
3, Buy a used non dim mirror. (£15-£25). Cheapest option and no risk of leaking. But who wants to go back to manually dipping and un-dipping their mirror? We don't drive Hondas (well I do, but in my defence I bought the S2000 to use as a track car and it's weight saving after all). My RS4 & M3 was fitted with an auto-dim mirror from the factory and I like to keep the originality. I also like the function as it's convenient and lazy!
4, Buy a replacement auto dim mirror glass. Only replace the part at fault (the glass). Keep using the parts of your mirror that are not at fault: casing, electronics, sensors etc. This is where I can help you with new auto-dim glass for you to fit inside your rearview mirror casing.
At the end of the day it is only the glass itself at fault. The auto-dim glass that I get manufactured for me is made in the States (not China) using the latest auto-dim technology. It uses a non-corrosive auto-dim gel rather than a corrosive auto-dim fluid. It therefore wont ever leak out and damage your interior. It will out-live the car! I guarantee the glass for three years, but have been doing this for over 10 years now and never had one unit fail that I have sold. I send them all around the world and hundreds of my units are out there in all makes and models of cars. As another benefit, the glass also dims faster and goes darker (when required). It's a lot cheaper to buy than a brand new mirror and only a little more / similar in price to a used auto-dim mirror. You have the peace of mind it will never leak again and have a mirror that functions better than the original. It's win-win!
The mirror in the C5 RS6 like Chris' car is the same mirror in my B7 RS4 and also many other Audi's, VW's and Lamborghini's. Some cars have a grey mirror casing rather than a black one but the mirror is the same and same glass unit inside. Soyou can see the shape, here is the mirror (in my car):
I sell the glass on Ebay for £109.95 delivered but I am more than happy to setup a group buy with discount for the benefit of the members on here. Any idea on how many people would be interested? I have a few glass in stock already but will be placing another stock order soon; so could always increase stock levels to cover demand on here. If I can get a rough idea of numbers; I will let you know pricing.
Let anyone know if they have any questions.
