General been vandalised... help

Mockingbird · Oct 30, 2013

Last night some unhelpful person broke my drivers wing mirror. When I got in the car this morning I adjusted the mirror and it fell, like the proverbial dead parrot, off its perch. Looking at it for me my hubby said it hadnt been hit be a car or anything like that - the casing is intact and so is the mirror, but it looked like someone had deliberately leaned full weight on it. ... the wire/cord etc is undamaged too. So my pretty almost new Fiat has an unsightly bandaid in the form of parcel tape..

Rang the local dealer who quoted around £300 - extortionate I felt for the job. So I have looked around on the web and found units for the Fiat 500 for around £75-95. What I need is a recommendation for a nice little garage that would fit one for me if I got hold of a unit. (Please dont say my husband or I could do it for nothing - we are not skilled in this area!!)

I am based in Ealing, West London. and would be very very grateful for some suggestions here....

varesecrazy · Oct 30, 2013

hi,
sorry to hear it's broken,
are you 100% sure it's not destined to "pop" back together..??

maybe post a couple of photo's,

have a look in the "garages" / 500 section too,
somebody recommended a guy for indy London 500 servicing a couple of months back,
Charlie

jrkitching · Oct 30, 2013

Mockingbird said:
Last night some unhelpful person broke my drivers wing mirror. When I got in the car this morning I adjusted the mirror and it fell, like the proverbial dead parrot, off its perch. Looking at it for me my hubby said it hadnt been hit be a car or anything like that - the casing is intact and so is the mirror, but it looked like someone had deliberately leaned full weight on it. ... the wire/cord etc is undamaged too. So my pretty almost new Fiat has an unsightly bandaid in the form of parcel tape..

Rang the local dealer who quoted around £300 - extortionate I felt for the job. So I have looked around on the web and found units for the Fiat 500 for around £75-95. What I need is a recommendation for a nice little garage that would fit one for me if I got hold of a unit. (Please dont say my husband or I could do it for nothing - we are not skilled in this area!!)

I am based in Ealing, West London. and would be very very grateful for some suggestions here....

It may not have been vandalised at all. There is a design flaw in the 500 door mirror which means they may fall apart without warning when you fold or unfold them. It's not exactly common, but there have been others...

Read this thread for the full story.

To the OP: the procedure I described in my linked post will give you a 'better-than-new' permanent fix for just the cost of the labour, but finding someone prepared to take it on might be hard. If you were closer to Dorset, I'd offer to fix it for you free.

At least one owner has had the mirror replaced free under warranty after a similar failure.

If you buy a replacement mirror, it's only a few minutes work; an independent garage could do it for you for no more than £20 and still make a fair profit.

Mockingbird · Oct 30, 2013

thank you so much for replying

sadly there is no chance of the unit popping back together as something has definitely snapped inside and so a hefty dose of parcel tape was necessary to hold it in place today..

big thanks to jr for lots of reasons.

Devon is a lovely place, full of lovely people... but just a little too far, though the offer was much appreciated. And your guide as to what to expect to pay for labour was extremely helpful - as was your link to the earlier thread and your solution to it. I do so love people who know what to do!

I am now uncertain as to whether it was due to vandals or design, but can accept I didnt do anything wrong at least! I am not known for any aggression towards cars or living creatures - well with the perhaps noticable exception of wasps. But they are in a category of their own dont you think?!??

jrkitching · Oct 31, 2013

Mockingbird said:
thank you so much for replying

sadly there is no chance of the unit popping back together as something has definitely snapped inside and so a hefty dose of parcel tape was necessary to hold it in place today..

big thanks to jr for lots of reasons.

Devon is a lovely place, full of lovely people... but just a little too far, though the offer was much appreciated. And your guide as to what to expect to pay for labour was extremely helpful - as was your link to the earlier thread and your solution to it. I do so love people who know what to do!

I am now uncertain as to whether it was due to vandals or design, but can accept I didnt do anything wrong at least! I am not known for any aggression towards cars or living creatures - well with the perhaps noticable exception of wasps. But they are in a category of their own dont you think?!??

I would place wasps & dealerships in the same category - they are both out to sting you.

Punto Sutty · Oct 31, 2013

Take it to any reputable independant bodyshop and they will fix it for a small price or even for free if their nice enough! Should be a small job re attaching a wing mirror

varesecrazy · Oct 31, 2013

I THINK it's a door card off job, ( exchange assembly)
so unlikely to be FREE,

but here's hoping you get a long-lasting repair for little money,

Charlie

Punto Sutty · Oct 31, 2013

varesecrazy said:
I THINK it's a door card off job, ( exchange assembly)
so unlikely to be FREE,

but here's hoping you get a long-lasting repair for little money,

Charlie

You never know, it all depends on whats actually wrong with it. Even if the door card has to come off it's still a simple job. Sometimes where I work we do the odd job like this for free, guess it's a good will sort of gesture for future custom and reputation.

jrkitching · Nov 1, 2013

varesecrazy said:
I THINK it's a door card off job, ( exchange assembly)
so unlikely to be FREE,

but here's hoping you get a long-lasting repair for little money,

Charlie

No, on the 500 the door mirrors can be removed from the outside, you don't even need to open the car.

Just prise off the plastic trim, undo 2 allen bolts & disconnect the multi wiring connector.

It wouldn't surprise me to find a few of these mirrors "magically disappearing" if you park in the wrong side of town

. Anyone with an allen key & a prise tool could have one away in less than a minute. If I lived in that sort of area, I'd take off the trims & write my postcode on the inside with a UV pen.

Replacing the mirror is trivial, even for the hamfisted - repairing it as per my guide requires you to fabricate your own locking tabs and is not for the feint hearted - but it's a completely free fix if you are able to do it. It will also repair the mirror to 'better than new' condition - I've repeatedly folded mine since repairing it & have had no issues since.

Just a thought - would this thread be better placed (or at least linked to) in the 500 section? Perhaps a kind moderator would move it over?

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