I recently had 3M paint protection put on my car and when they were cutting the stuff off the back of the mirror they accidently gouged the mirror a bit. The scratch is very slight and not too deep or glaringly obvious (and is now covered by paint protection) but the place would replace it if I wanted to. So my questions are: How much does the driver side mirror and/or housing cost to replace on average? Is it worth the time/trouble to replace the mirror? Would the paint match? Is the mirror housing completely plastic (ie. it won't rust)? I'm leaning towards not replacing just because of the hassle involved and potential complications. I am getting the front bumper redone and the top of the back bumper done for free (I can also do the "wheel wells" which I didn't see a point in doing or anything else on the car). I was just hoping to get a few more opinions on the matter. Thanks
The whole side mirror assembly is quite expensive to replace and I think involves taking apart the door. The plastic housing, by itself, is cheap and easy. Assuming you order a 'left' in the correct year and colour, the paint will match perfectly, and won't rust. I'd say do it, even if it were at your cost.
I answered most of my own questions by calling the dealer and getting pricing, etc. Unfortunately I noticed more issues, now with the front bumper. If anyone else out there gets paint protection make sure you go to a place that you know is good. I went to the only authorized installer in my area and so far the process has been one big headache.
Just as an update in case anyone cares. Turns out my bumper had some blade marks as well. Not cool. The place is now paying for my bumper to get re-clear coated at a Toyota dealers collision shop and I'll get the replacement shell for the mirror as well. I *really* hope this paint protection is worth it in the end since this has been going on for almost 2 months now with me making many trips to the shop, them attempting fixes, etc.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Mar 17 2006, 03:34 PM) [snapback]226084[/snapback]</div> Can the plastic housing be replaced separately from the mirror, and can I do it if I'm low to moderate on the handy scale? Some inconsiderate person who didn't leave a note cracked the housing on my driver's side mirror last night, and now there are some positions the mirror won't go into anymore. The mirror itself seems to be fine.
It can, however, most plastic housing units come with the mirror, so you might as well replace it altogether (Unless you find a housing unit at a cheap price with tinted glass when you're other mirror is not tinted, then you would have to go through the process of cutting out the glass in the new mirror and replacing with your old one). Replacing the housing unit is not very complicated, although it does require that you take off the inside of your door panel. There should be many walkthroughs on the internet, however, i am not sure if there is one that specifically caters to the Toyota Prius, although all tutorials should be very similar. The panel is not hard to remove. You could try asking a friend to help, or do it yourself and enjoy the bragging rights if you succeed.
Blade mark on the bumper too, what did they do to apply the 3M stuff? Cut AFTER putting the protection sheet on...that's really not cool. For your mirror housing light-marking, maybe the simplest way is to ask the store to apply the same 3M protection stuff on both housing-sides for FREE. The 3M stuff will make the markings less noticable and the paint on it will be protected too from now on....
If you're going to spend a ton of dough, you can always get the aftermarket ones with the left/right turn blinker lights built in 'em .
