[s-cars] Successful Frankenmirror installation
Eric Rechlin
quattro at rechlin.us
Thu Nov 23 16:56:47 EST 2006
Because I had the day off work today, and the weather finally cooled down to a
nice 76 degrees, I have completed a Frankenmirror installation, including
European convex glass and chrome housings, on my 1995.5 S6 Avant.
Thanks to Igor's instructions (and for him being a guinea pig for the rest of
us), everything went fairly smoothly. I didn't quite take the same approach
as he did, but I did the same basic thing. The glass on both my mirrors was
badly corroded, and my passenger side mirror no longer went up and down, so I
needed to do something, even if I didn't upgrade to a Frankenmirror.
I started out by purchasing two complete full-size (175mm) mirror assemblies
for the 1998-1999 A6. The part numbers on them are 4B1 858 499 and 4B1 858
500, though that may be misleading, because the Family Album that seems to map
those parts to the ~2002 S6. I found them new on eBay for $265 shipped, but
you might be able to save $20 off that if you're patient.
These housings came with the European glass, which is convex on both sides,
with an even more convex section on the driver's side to eliminate the blind
spot. They came with primer on them only.
I did not want to have to paint the housings, so this gave me an excuse to get
the chrome mirror cases. I ended up spending about $129 (including shipping)
on eBay for the chrome mirror housings. These are not stick-on, but the
entire mirror case. They are made by In-Pro in Germany, part number 5146.
The driver's side was easy. All I did was remove the two screws under the
mirror to remove the lower black section, popped off the glass (pushing from
behind and pulling from in front), removed the three screws holding on the
body-color case, pulled off the case, put the new chrome case in, snapped in
the new European mirror glass, and replaced the bottom cover.
The passenger's side was much more difficult, because this needed to be
converted to a Frankenmirror, but was fairly well explained in Igor's notes
(http://www.elektro.com/~audi/mirror/).
A few notes in hindsight:
* To remove the door panel trim, look here:
http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=123
* To remove the mirror assembly, look here:
http://www.audifans.com/twiki/bin/view/Audi/MirrorDriversSide?skin=print.pattern
* The Torx bolt that holds the mirror in place is size T45.
* I only could fit one spring washer (11mm i.d., 27mm o.d., 3mm thick, 11
cents at the nearby hardware store) in place of the old spring, unlike the
several that Igor needed.
* I used the motor from the new A6 assembly rather than my old motor, because
my old motor no longer worked for vertical adjustment, and the new motor
worked perfectly, despite what the writeup said.
After driving around a bit with the European glass, I cannot believe that the
US doesn't require that all cars have a convex driver's mirror. I realize
that it will take a little while to get used to "objects in mirror are closer
than they appear" on both sides, but the complete elimination of the blind
spot is a huge safety improvement worthy of mandating.
I ended up spending just short of $400, but considering my old mirrors and
motor needed replacement anyway, it was well worth the investment. And in the
end, I also have a complete driver's side mirror assembly (sans glass) for a
1998-1999 A6 left over, plus a bunch of other spare parts.
Regards,
Eric Rechlin
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