Shared Knowledge
"BMW Z3 - How to Replace or Repair a Side Mirror"
3 March 2013
Summary: the actual mirror glass and backer plastic plate must be carefully removed by unlatching it from side mirror moving white disk. Once mirror is removed, 4 Torx screws hold the front and rear outer covers/shell of the side mirror in place.
Background:
BMW Z3, 1997, 2.8 liter, 50,000 miles.
Garage fire severely distorted the plastic of the right side mirror, both the rear or larger plastic half and the front plastic trim piece.
Base of side mirror was untouched.
Initially bought complete right side mirror assembly but then found that the front and rear plastic covering could be bought individually.
Removing the plastic of the side mirror:
In summary, behind the actual mirror glass are (4) T10 Torx screws, which go through the front trim and are anchored into the plastic of the back cover.
To get to these screws, the mirror glass must be removed.
The mirror glass and its plastic backer is clipped at 4 places onto a round white plastic ring inside the assembly. In my case, the ring is attached to plate that is moved by an electric motor, controlled inside the car.
The plate and round plastic circle that is the attachment point for the mirror has 4 small circles sticking out of it that become the location for the mirror glass clips.
What I mean by mirror clips is that there are 4 plastic clips built into the plastic back of the mirror glass that are pushed down over the circles on the plate inside the side mirror housing.
(1) Gently move the mirror glass away from the housing on the side of the side mirror away from the door.
(2) Using a small, think flat blade screw driver and perhaps a flashlight, insert the flat edge of the screwdriver between the black plastic ring on the mirror glass backer plate and the white ring shown above.
(3) Gently pry upwards until the backer plate pops off the first, white disk, circle attachment point. Note: although the backer plate on the actual mirror glass is fairly thick or stiff, do not pry too hard at any one time as the mirror glass can and will shatter if the backer plate is deformed too much via prying.
(4) With a finger, holding the loosened backer plate at one location, slowly slide the flat blade screw driver around the crack between the black backer plate circle and the white circle until you reach the other attachment point circle on the white base.
(5) Again, gently, with the screwdriver blade between the black backer plate plastic ring and the white ring of the moving disk, pry upward.
(6) With the bottom of the mirror glass and backer plate loose at bottom, gently use your finger to push mirror glass and backer plate away from side mirror vertical edge. This should unlatch the first latch point on the top of the mirror glass and backer plate from the white moving ring.
(7) Using your fingers/hand gently pry the mirror glass and backer plate off the white ring at the last white disk attachment point.
As defined above, do not deform the plastic backer plate too much or you will crack the side mirror glass. Go slow and if you are not making progress, back away and perhaps look at images above to better understand how plastic backer plate attached to white moving ring.
If all you have to do is replace mirror glass you have two options: (1) you can remove broken glass from backer plate and order replacement glass off eBay or other Internet website. In this case, the new glass must be glued to old backer plate. (2) buy new mirror glass with backer plate from dealer or where ever you can find it.
If you are replacing one or both of the plastic shells on the side mirror, remove the (4) Torx 10 screws holding the front half of the assembly to the back half. Note that the back plastic shell does have a few tabs on its front edge to guide the back into location on the front and you want to take care in separating the halves of side mirror assembly.
If you must replace the entire mirror assembly, unscrew the base via the 2 screws that hold the assembly to the door and gently pull up. I think the warning harness in the door will allow you to pull the side mirror connector up and out of the hole in door enough so you can remove the old and attach the new side mirror.