Mirrors robbed.

[Ian_C]

Pete, you of course need the whole mirror assembly, motors and wires the lot, not just the caps. Saint, is changing the caps alone an easy DIY job? Torx screws?

[RS4pete]

oh yeah ... i get that ... but it would be a start!

[Ian_C]

Apologies for stating the obvious! As mentioned, I'd get down a breakers and remove another pair from another car. Doesn't matter what colour for the time being - black grey or silver would be better in the meantime at least. Hopefully there isn't too much wiring to do inside the door where the feckers have cut yours off.

[RS4pete]

Hhmmmm ... i never thought about that till now but the wires weren't cut ... they just ripped it off. Leads me to think its just some opportunist scrote rather than a 'professional' .. guess it dont make too much difference though.

Will get myself down the breakers

[S4INT]

Do you mean for the standard A4 Mirrors?

No, I have a pair of RS4 mirror casings. They aren't perfect, a few stone chips etc which is why I replaced them.

@Ian, the mirrors are held in place with 2 small pop-on clips, but as I said before, there is a plastic retaining strap which can only be released from inside the car by undoing a large torx bolt. It must take a fair bit of force to rip these off by hand!

[P_G]

Pete, you of course need the whole mirror assembly, motors and wires the lot, not just the caps. Saint, is changing the caps alone an easy DIY job? Torx screws?

It's not too bad, remove the glass, disconnect the heating element wire from the glass (and the dimming wire if you have that function) which is a blade connector, then the motor wire (plug and socket), then you can pull the mirror from the door housing. After that 4 torx screws hold the silver case to the metal cage that holds the motor and has the two metal retaning clips that secure the mirror unit to the door. IIRC there isn't a retaning strap, the cable there is the one for the electrics albeit it is sturdy.

New motor is about £50 each, new glass £65 each.

[pad125]

Makes me glad mine has the electric folding mirrors and maybe not that desirable. Hope the thieving toe rags get run over!

[j1sgo]

Jesus Pete, unbelievable.

Feel for you mate, thieving little b**tards, i will give you a call tomorrow

[S4INT]

IIRC there isn't a retaning strap

There definitely is a retaining strap. It's a black plastic U-shaped Item that is fixed through the side window triangle with two small torx screws. The triangle is fixed through the door frame with a single larger torx screw.

[P_G]

Where does it fix on to the mirror unit then? Having taken apart both my mirrors (one was smashed off) there were no straps on my car, just the electrical cable feeding from the black triangle on the door into the mirror case through where the metal retaining clips protrude to fix the mirror on to the car.

[Ian_C]

Cheers. Sorry to hear you had to learn how to change the mirror through necessity not choice!

[S4INT]

Where does it fix on to the mirror unit then? Having taken apart both my mirrors (one was smashed off) there were no straps on my car, just the electrical cable feeding from the black triangle on the door into the mirror case through where the metal retaining clips protrude to fix the mirror on to the car.

The "u" of the retaining strap sits inside the mirror casing with the legs passing through the mirror casing mounting points. The ends of the "u" are then screwed through from the back of the black triangle with two small torx screws. This allows the mirror to be knocked off its mounting pins, but not go bouncing down the road, or smashing against the side of your car and hanging on by the wires.

What year is your car? Mine is a March '07 and I'm wondering if they changed the mounting design during production? It would be useful if someone could post-up an EKTA diagram.

[MB2]

The manual says/shows something to this effect & shows how to pop the mirror back on if it is knocked off.

[P_G]

Mine is a 2006 06. They have never been taken off in the time I have owned it so it was always like that or they got knocked off prior to me owning it and haven't been refitted correctly.

[pekingprawn]

Not good. I'd suggest they were vandalised rather than nicked if they just ripped them off.

I'd also suggest recalling any angry drivers around you recently? I ask because that may be something an angry motorist would do if you 'failed to check your mirrors' and cut someone up by accident. You never know because I recall a similar story locally when someone didn't indicate and someone later damaged their indicators when parked up.

Hope you get it sorted nice and quickly