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Hi guys.
Realised there are no good quick DIYs for this job on the interwebs. All I can find suggest it's a pita and a difficult job requiring full door trim disassembly. That is not the case. Here is my 5 min DIY per side!
1) remover cover from inside the door. It just pops out.
2) remove the mirror. Be careful not to damage it

3) remove connectors. I marked the inside one with red tape incase there is a difference how the attach. Assume not but like to be precise. They are corroded usually so use needle nose pliers.

4)
Remove motor mounts. 3 small screws.

5) unplug by spreading apart two tabs and piling away gently
6) unscrew the main bolt that holds the housing. And pull it away half way

7) unscrew 2 screws that hold the small bracket inside the housing.
if only removing the outer casing, attach the housing back to its original position.
Make sure rubber seal sits properly.

9) use a screwdriver and push on the inner bracket pushing it away from the mounting holes. It will move about 1-2cm.

10) unscrew 4 crews from inner housing.

11) now gently but firmly pull the hole assembly towards the rear of the car.. It sits pretty tight but will come off fairly easy! Apply firm but gently pressure, don't yank it.

12) pull the wires through the housings both inner and outer.

13)
And here you have it. 2 housings removed in around 10min. Ready for what ever you have planed:) or simply to replace..



Please move to sticky section if it useful to anyone.

Nice one mate, i am just about to start this job good timing lol

Lukes3 wrote:Nice one mate, i am just about to start this job good timing lol

Have you managed to put it all back together though? Wasn't that he difficult bit which is why they normally take the door apart and remove the wiring from the other side.
Ive never tried it, but I recall there were issies with doing it this way.

brilliant mike did you remove the black triangle i need to to get it painted

MikeFish wrote:Have you managed to put it all back together though? Wasn't that he difficult bit which is why they normally take the door apart and remove the wiring from the other side.
Ive never tried it, but I recall there were issies with doing it this way.

No I haven't. Not yet but see no issue here what so ever. It should be reversal order for assembly.
Don't really understand why you would need to remove the wiring from the inside

skywriter wrote:brilliant mike did you remove the black triangle i need to to get it painted

Yeah I see the issue here. To remove black triangle completely you might need to remove door card and unplug from inside. Unless you are happy to cut the wires on the main plug and solder them back on after. Or make the hole a bit bigger for the plug to go through.. Might be problematic. I would cut the wires and resolder

Ahh, yes I think the issue was with the triangle bit.

Either way, good work Ilya, its good to see more good guides.

Someone has removed the retaining strap from them which makes the task much easier but means if the mirror gets struck it will bash your car as only the wires are holding it on. You don't need to remove the screws to get the door mirror off, it just knocks off. The screws are for the triangle (Big Torx) and the missing retaining strap (little rusty screws).

The metal triangle is a right PITA to get back in place, but it you are removing them I would suggest you order the straps from Audi and reinstate them, personally if I wasn't touching the triangles I would leave it without them such was my fight with the triangle when I replaced due to corrosion.

It isn't worth painting them IMO, as the part is cheap enough from Audi - de-pin the plug is much simpler than disconnecting it door side.

MikeFish wrote:Have you managed to put it all back together though? Wasn't that he difficult bit which is why they normally take the door apart and remove the wiring from the other side.
Ive never tried it, but I recall there were issies with doing it this way.

The difficult bit is getting the triangle back on ! For the wires simply de-pin the plug (a paperclip works although I have a tool that does it) and re-clip the pins in afterwards - much easier than door card or cutting / jointing the wires.

Nice write up Ilya - but someone beat you to it!

viewtopic.php?t=105561

FaisalJ wrote:Nice write up Ilya - but someone beat you to it!

viewtopic.php?t=105561

How did I miss that DIY?? Oh well just trying to be helpful.

MB2 wrote:Someone has removed the retaining strap from them which makes the task much easier but means if the mirror gets struck it will bash your car as only the wires are holding it on. You don't need to remove the screws to get the door mirror off, it just knocks off. The screws are for the triangle (Big Torx) and the missing retaining strap (little rusty screws).

The metal triangle is a right PITA to get back in place, but it you are removing them I would suggest you order the straps from Audi and reinstate them, personally if I wasn't touching the triangles I would leave it without them such was my fight with the triangle when I replaced due to corrosion.

It isn't worth painting them IMO, as the part is cheap enough from Audi - de-pin the plug is much simpler than disconnecting it door side.

Is this the strap you talking about?

Pic 13 shows the 4 posts that the mechanism screws onto. I can't stress enough how gentle you have to be with those. My problem was that the screws had rusted, so expanding the thread on the post, causing them to split. There was no way in hell they were ever going back on without the mechanism being tight against them, ideally screwed on, so I had to bite the bullet and buy a new pair. Cheap? Were they hell!

Pule333 wrote:

FaisalJ wrote:Nice write up Ilya - but someone beat you to it!

viewtopic.php?t=105561

How did I miss that DIY?? Oh well just trying to be helpful.

Great effort and quality pictures on the write up Always worth checking the FAQ sticky at the top of the page to see if the DIY project has been covered before. If not, get it done and then PhilT can be add it to the FAQ post.

Pule333 wrote: Is this the strap you talking about?
//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016081 ... 68c0ff.jpg

Yes, that's the mirror retention strap that was being referred to.