Some passing managed to destroy my driver’s wing mirror - not just the glass but the casing too. I have a replacement on the way.

Replacing it looks fairly* straightforward, except for one question mark I have.

The powerfuluk video explains clearly how to get the door card off. However, where their car looks like it has a blank cover just under the locking pop up thing that you pop off first, my cover isn’t blank. It says “airbag”.

I’ve worked out that when going near airbags I need to open the bonnet and boot, wait, disconnect the -ve battery terminal, wait 20 mins, then disconnect the +ve before I start on the door card.

I’m still unclear though as to what is under my little “airbag” cover. Is it a 10mm bolt like in every other car or is it an airbag that I need to work around, and if so how?

Any pointers/assistance happily accepted.

TIA
*everything looks fairly straightforward until it looks like a self inflicted up, IME. Range Rover 4.2 SC
AM V12VS
Porsche 991.1 Turbo S
Mini JCW conv

It covers a torx head screw that has to come out along with the others get the card off the mirror connections are behind door card but the fixings are behind the tweeter speaker cover, no need to disconnect battery for that job.

Thanks.

Feeling slightly exasperated right now.

I managed to get the door card off fine, unscrewed the old broken* wing mirror, mounted the new one and got the door card back on. Now I have a functioning wing mirror. Almost.

The trouble is that the new one doesn’t fold electronically nor does it adjust electronically. And weirdly, the passenger mirror now folds in, but won’t fold out.

The new driver’s side one could be disconnected from any electricity given how it performs. The puddle light comes in but that’s on a different cable/connector to the fold & adjustment cable.

I wondered whether the adjustment mirror was duff, so swapped the working motor from the old mirror into the new one. Still nothing. Left the battery disconnected for 10 mins to see whether that would help the car see the new mirror. Nope.

I then disconnected the battery, took the door card off again and checked the connections, and connected the battery again. Still no joy, even though everything else in that door: windows, speaker, under door puddle light - work fine.

So I’m at a bit of a loss to work out what to do next. It acts like a connection issue but the connection is good. I wonder whether it’s a case of leaving the battery disconnected for longer. Everything I’ve read says there is no need for a new wing mirror to be coded to the car, so I’m not yet at the point of trundling off to the dealer.

Any ideas?


* when I took this to pieces I realised it had taken an almighty wallop. The plastic cover underneath the arm had been lost, but the aluminium arm itself had had a sizable piece snapped clean off the main body of the arm. Range Rover 4.2 SC
AM V12VS
Porsche 991.1 Turbo S
Mini JCW conv

Dont think just disconnecting battery will help but a battery reset might ( big might by the way ) other than that bit of work but how about plugging mirror into other side see if it works there if it does than back to bad connections somewhere I guess.

A happy ending. It works.

I tried the ECU reset, though I’m not sure it worked in that I didn’t have to enter the security code to get back into the ICE system. Anyway, whether it worked or not it made no difference.

Then I disconnected the battery again and stripped the door. Resting the card in the door frame I was able to connect everything plus connect the old, broken wing mirror (what was left of it: the bare metal arm plus motor and puddle light bulb) and re connect the battery. It still worked. Small step forward.

Then disconnected the battery again and connected the new wing mirror. Reconnected the battery and tested the wing mirror. IT WORKED!!!

I think, though I’m not 100%, that it was as simple as the connector not being properly seated. It’s a lot easier to make sure the connectors are in when the card is completely off and you’re looking at it than it is when the card is connected by the door release cable and you’re peering into a narrow gap.

It’s possible that it’s a procedure that requires the battery to be disconnected first, not due to airbag issues but because maybe the ECU doesn’t like having a mirror which is tied to seat memory functions removed whilst it is still “live”. Dunno, but there is no harm in disconnecting the battery before doing this job.

Put it all back together (minus a few broken clips - must get a supply of these consumables) and bingo all is well in the world. Range Rover 4.2 SC
AM V12VS
Porsche 991.1 Turbo S
Mini JCW conv

Know what you mean about that handle cable it could do with being a foot longer give you room to work but you got there in the end well done.