Really annoyed with myself - Any Help / Suggestions?

[R99]

Hi all.

Having finally found some mirror caps (courtesy of Tonyrec) I came to fit them today and I have managed to snap two of the clips on the right mirror cap I got the matt black cap off with no problem at all, but when I went to replace it with the new one like I say I have ruined the mirror cap. So now I'm left with a single perfect condition left astro black mirror cap.

So I'm going to have to try and buy a single one for the right hand side of the car, which I suspect is going to be virtually impossible without going to the dealer and getting ripped off.

In the mean time I cannot for the life of me get the matt black one back on the car, and having allready ruined one of them, I'm biting the bullet and going to take it to the dealer tommorow and hopefully get them to put it back on my car for me, it looks a right mess at the moment with no cap on

Really annoyed with myself about this, I knew I should have taken them both to the dealer and asked them to do it!

Does anyone know if I'm likely to get charged to have it put back on? Might try a white lie and tell them its "fallen off" although quite how believable that is I have no idea!

Regards,

James.

[Paul]

Did two clips in a row break? How "broken" are they? I had a broken clip on one of mine ages ago, I put a little electrical tape on the broken "stub" to pad it out a bit and the mirror casing fitted as good as the completely non-broken side.

[Parc77]

Doh!..gutted, if I lived near you id have a look at them, there is a nack to getting them on and off, I used the back of a tea spoon (no joke) have changed mine 3 times, I reckon the best thing to do would be to try and do something along the lines of what Paul said, you cant make the new ones any worse I guess?

[hey_psycho]

did you try super glue?

[118]

oh no! gutted for ya mate have you snapped them off completely?

[Loui]

Some tape would sort it i reckon

[R99]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys Really appreciate the help.

Paul, I have damaged two of the three upper clips. One has snapped clean off and one of them has snapped, but is still attached, albeit very loosely, could possibly super glue it back?

Here are some rather crude camera phone pics of the damage.... (the other mirror cap is in perfect condition)



As you can kind of see in the pic below (excuse the crappy picture) The one on the right has snapped completely off and the one on the left remains hanging on 'by a thread'



Anyone have any ideas on dealer cost to get the matt one back on in the mean time?

118 - Yeh I'm gutted too, feel so stupid about the whole situation! Oh well, never mind.

Cheers,

James.

[Loui]

Think they would have to order one an get it painted R99

[R99]

Loui - I have a matt black "standard" mirror cap on the left of my car at the moment, and currently I have no cap on the right hand side mirror. I still have the orginal matt black one which I removed which has no damage, its just a case of getting it back on the car. Which is not something I fancy tackling as I have allready buggerd up one of my new astro black ones!!

So was just wandering how much MINI would charge me for something like that? Just to clip it back on?

[David King]

I put mine on myself just be gentle but firm, should just clip right in, wouldnt have thought its worth going to MINI for such a small job. Just make sure its lined up properly and you shouldnt have any problems

[R99]

Thanks for the advice Dave, but when I tried to get the original cap back on, I engaged the lower clips, but the top of the cap would not slide into place Don't know what I'm doing wrong, but its obviously something quite serious given I have obliterated one of the new mirror caps already!

On another issue, does anyone have any ideas at all where I would be able to locate a single right hand side ASTRO BLACK mirror cap anywhere except a dealer, as I think they would want in the region of £60 to supply a single cap.

I was thinking somewhere which breaks MINI's might have some?

Thanks,

James.

[mab01uk]

Did the same with a new chrome mirror cap clips while fitting but sorted it by using double-sided numberplate sticky pads from Halfords to secure the mirror cap in place. Its been fine since.
PS. Cut the sticky pads into 2 or 3 small approx 1/2" squares and stick at a few places around edge on main mirror body, peel off backing, then slide cap over them before pressing down onto adhesive pads. (Place pads in from edges so they are not visible, they won't fall off, numberplates don't but could be levered off if ever required in the future.)

[R99]

Hi all.

I'm in somewhat of a better mood to yesterday, because the new mirror caps are now on the car!

I took it to MINI this morning and they fitted the undamaged one no problem, and then used some adhesive (looked like a long piece of wire, the guy said they use it to reattach broken bits of trim etc) to stick the damaged one onto the car, result!!

It is a slightly less flush finish that the undamaged one, but they look great now! You wouldn't be able to tell unless you went really looking, that it only has three functional clips!

The best bit? MINI did it for free!

Andy Moore the service manager @ Bateman MINI is a great guy!

A few pics of them....

Just to show, the slight gap on the broken cap...



Them on the car...



James.

P.S Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions and advice, it was much appreciated!

[Paul]

Nice work from the dealer, nice gesture. Always like to see this sort of thing, keeps the customer happy, keeps them in the money in the long term, everyone's a winner!

[Dealmaker]

The other thing that can be done quite sucessfully, and non permenantly is to use silicone, just put some around the clips and a small bead around the edge and it will stick fast, however if you need to get it off, it will only need a hard pull, I daren't think of the number of minis around with mirror caps super glued on!!