Replacing the Side View Mirror Glass in a BMW?

Question

I have a 1995 BMW Series 5. Nice car, but it needed several things fixed. All i need to do now is replace the mirror glass and paint it now. I bought the glass a while back, and i can't figure out how to install the glass.

I bought a guide but the instructions are pointless. It says to insert a s***w driver into a hole in the base of the mirrors housing and turn the ring inside the mirror to disengage the lock on the mirror... there is no hole. It appears to be impossible to open. I even took the time to remove the whole mirror, housing and all, from the door frame but that was pointless. The Housing has no screws, no holes, and appears to be made of metal internally, and two or three pieces of plastic externally. These plastic pieces refuse to budge (I tried using a s***w driver, and it screwed up the paint job).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I had that problem with my old Camry. The side mirror costed an arm and a leg so I didn't want to buy one. The junkyard wanted $125 and they were sold out anyway. I got a plastic mirror from Tap Plastics, a plastic products specialty outfit and cut it out the right size and shape and glued it over the broken mirror place. It looked good and worked well.

After the old mirror glass was broken I saw how to take out the screws that held the housing together- they were behind the mirror glass, which you had to break to get at the screws. 2+2= sell you a new mirror. I hope the Beemer isn't like that. Perhaps you can use jewellers 5minute epoxy to glue your new glass in place. Gorrilla glue is pretty tough too, but it dries so slowly and is sloppy to work with. If the space inside the housing is uneven, the best thing might be epoxy putty. It hardens fairly quickly, is tough and fills all the gaps, adhering with a tight grip.    

Answer 2

hmmm, have you tried just popping it in? no screwdrivers, or any funky things, just pop it in. That is weird that the instructions weren't any help, maybe you've got the wrong type of mirror for your car,