a bit of help needed re: rearview mirror

[harvey2]

Hi
I'm doing my own repair of my rearview mirror and am a bit puzzled about something. To clear it up, what I need from someone is a closeup picture of the passenger and driver map lights on a "good" mirror. The reason is that I recently suffered the mirror failure and the nasty liquid was leaking from around the passenger map light. When I looked up at the map light lens, there was some obvious cloudy stuff on the inside of the lens covering the part of the lens closest to the center of the mirror. I assumed that this was deposits due to the leaking liquid, but now that I have it all apart, I"m not so sure.

This deposit material is sort of like dried glue and is an off-white colour. I am wondering if this was indeed glue used in the factory to hold the lens together. It doesn't make sense, I agree, but I'd like to confirm. Hence the request for a picture of other's map light taken from below.

I have looked at the other pictures available on the various mirror posts in this forum and only one shows the lens in detail. On that photo, which is from a failed mirror, I also see the same deposit inside the map light lens, albiet not so much as on mine. Can anyone have a look at theirs to confirm if there is some glue-like material obscuring part of their passenger map light lens?

Ron

[boomster]

Hi Ron,I looked at mine, which is a factory replacement for a failed unit ten years ago. The lenses of the two map lights have a frosted translucent finish which shows no variation from one end of the oval-shaped lense to the other. Based on your description, I would have to suspect that your lenses suffered some damage from the leaking liquid, which is known to be corrosive. The good news is that no one will see it unless they are looking for it.Bill

[harvey2]

Thanks Bill
The reason I'm doing this myself is because my key buttons no longer operate the remote door lock/unlock functions and I have learned that this is likely because the mirror fluid has damaged the remote receiver electronics that are located in the mirror. I have communicated with both of the well-known mirror repair companies, Radar-Mirror and Sybesmas, and neither of them are capable of repairing the receiver. So, since I have some skills in this area, I thought I'd give it a try myself.

What I have discovered is that the leaking liquid is, in fact, very corrosive. So much so that it has eaten away the solder on several of the critical surface mount components on the receiver board. I was surprised to see the extent of the damage. I'm trying to repair this now.

I'm still on the fence about that white material in the map light lens. It simply does not look or feel anything like the rest of the liquid deposits that I've found inside the mirror. It looks like old adhesive, but it sure is in a funny spot. Anyone else have a look at their map light?
Ron

[harvey2]

I've done some work on my bad mirror and wanted to show some pictures. I've managed to repair the damage on the receiver board and verify that it is working.

[boomster]

Well done, Ron! I recently used Radar-Mirror to repair the mirror in my E39 M5, but those mirrors are slightly different as they do not incorporate the map lights. Mine had not leaked, so I didn't have a problem with the electronics and they did a great job. Perhaps you could use a very fine sandpaper to remove the chemical etching from the maplight lenses and give them a consistent translucent finish?Bill

[harvey2]

Thanks Bill
I've taken a couple of snaps of the map-light lens. The passenger side lens is made up of two pieces that sandwich together. The white stuff appears to be glue intended to hold the sandwich together. It is the appearance of this white stuff behind the lens that gives the impression that the map light has been contaminated when the mirror leaked, but I'm not sure that is the case. I'm wondering if this was just a sloppy application of assembly glue.

Ron

[macfly]

For sure that's contamination, they weren't sloppy like that with the cars!

[Z8911]

I have a passenger side map light. If you need it, pay for shipping and it’s yours

[harvey2]

I have a passenger side map light. If you need it, pay for shipping and it’s yours

I've pm'd you with acceptance and details.

[harvey2]

I've received the new mirror glass and have successfully removed the old glass from the circuit assembly. I found a video showing how its done for other BMWs here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSwDCzWi5Cs
I also discovered a good trick to removing the glass. When using a razor knife to slice through the double sided tape, it helps a lot to coat the knife blade with isopropyl alcohol frequently. This softens the adhesive in the double sided tape and makes the slicing a lot easier.

[harvey2]

To wrap things up, I've completed the repairs on the mirror and re-installed it. I had to re-code the keys but am happy to report that everything is working.

As for the white material that appeared to contaminate the passenger side map light lens, I am convinced that this material was used in the factory to hold the two halves of the lens together. Some of the material came off in the form of a very thin sheet (removed using a microscope). The rest I had to scrape off, with only a fair result.

[boomster]

Glad it all came together, Ron!