VW Polo Wing Mirror Glass Adhesive

Paul. W

Paul. W

Paul. W

Associate
Joined
29 Dec 2009
Posts
522
Hi all,

My housemate has a VW Polo (2005) and the glass within the wing mirror is loose.

Looking online, it looks like the glass is just stuck to a backing plate with adhesive. What would be the best stuff to use to re-stick it back on? I doubt double sided tape will do the job.
 
Take the glass fully off as sometimes it's because some of the clips have popped off, or the clips have broken off, and just glueing the glass on the backing plate won't do.
 
I wasnt aware there were any clips? Looking at replacement glass pieces online, they all look to be just stuck on.

I could do with a blown apart diagram of a wing mirror but I cant find one on vagcat. The car isn't here either which makes things awkward :p
 
Exactly what happened on my 2008 Passat.

Good German engineering there, attach the glass by double sided tape...

Honestly the longer I own a VW, the more I realise the "quality" is only skin deep these days... At least my French cars didn't pretend!

Anyway, I took mine off completely, be careful not to remove the black backing on the glass. I then gave the (slightly) tacky residue in the housing a wipedown with nail varnish remover to remove as much s I could.

Finally, I bought a roll of double sided "vinyl flooring" tape (the type they use for lino etc.) from B&Q for a few pounds and carefully completely covered each piece of mirror, then removed the backing and stuck them back in!

The tape was the best solution I could find as its very thin and more flexible than the usual sellotape type stuff but extremely tacky.

Been stuck on for over 6 months now and no sign of moving, even though the mirrors are heated.
 
Cheers all, I've just ran over to the nearest garage and grabbed some number plate adhesive pads. If they can hold number plates on then I'm sure the glass will be fine.

Will put a G-clamp or two on it overnight as well to make sure the adhesive has a chance to bond in this arctic climate we currently have.
 
manic_man said:
Exactly what happened on my 2008 Passat.

Good German engineering there, attach the glass by double sided tape...

Honestly the longer I own a VW, the more I realise the "quality" is only skin deep these days... At least my French cars didn't pretend!

Anyway, I took mine off completely, be careful not to remove the black backing on the glass. I then gave the (slightly) tacky residue in the housing a wipedown with nail varnish remover to remove as much s I could.

Finally, I bought a roll of double sided "vinyl flooring" tape (the type they use for lino etc.) from B&Q for a few pounds and carefully completely covered each piece of mirror, then removed the backing and stuck them back in!

The tape was the best solution I could find as its very thin and more flexible than the usual sellotape type stuff but extremely tacky.

Been stuck on for over 6 months now and no sign of moving, even though the mirrors are heated.
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umm........no oem Vag mirror is held on by double sided tape as far as I'm aware?! They are all bonded to a backing plate. It's the bodge repairs by ill informed owners who put glass with double sided tape on there.
 
rodenal said:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-Polo-2...Cars+Year:2005|Model:Polo&hash=item415d6e5042


If that's the correct glass for a 2005 polo then it looks just like any other mirror glass i've seen i.e it just pops onto a central point via the clips on the back.

Would be surprised if it was stuck on to a backing plate. Some cheap replacement glass is just stuck over what's already there though
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That is the glass assembly, it has the glass then adhesive with heater elements built in which adheres the glass to the backplate with the clips. Those clips then attach to an actuator.

OP: How soon do you need it? I may have some spare adhesvie pads used on other cars but could prob be cut down to size. :p
 
lucky13 said:
That is the glass assembly, it has the glass then adhesive with heater elements built in which adheres the glass to the backplate with the clips. Those clips then attach to an actuator.

OP: How soon do you need it? I may have some spare adhesvie pads used on other cars but could prob be cut down to size. :p
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Well, yes but why the hell would you try and replace the glass on it's own when the glass/clips is hardly an expensive replacement? It'd be a bit like buying new rubbers for your wiper blades rather than a full replacement - pointless
 
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Well I think it sounds like it is only coming away from the backplate. It would however be eaisest to just swap the whole sub assembly over, I agree rather than trying to hodge podge another adhesive pad onto the old backplate/glass.
 
I think the power of modern adhesives is being underestimated here,
some sports cars are only glued together :p

I 'bodged' one of my old cars with double sided tape, I couldn't verify it would have lasted longer than eight years since I had to scrap the car, but the fact was it wasn't going to come off without breaking the glass.

Btw, space shuttle tiles are glued on, it's a bit of a bodge I know...
 
Brookert said:
umm........no oem Vag mirror is held on by double sided tape as far as I'm aware?! They are all bonded to a backing plate. It's the bodge repairs by ill informed owners who put glass with double sided tape on there.
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Indeed, and in 12 years of owning cars ( mostly French and Italian rubbish...) this is the first vehicle where the amazing bonded mirror has come off, on both sides, for no obvious reason and after less than 4 years of the car being new... and going by others in the thread, is a problem with vw design. Unfortunately the cost of replacing the bonded mirror was very high, and both of mine were hanging off, so I decided to rebond it myself ( in guidance of an experienced autoglass engineer who specifically recommended the aforementioned tape and said they would probably offer that option to a customer anyway as the glass is fine and the replacement is expensive).

I stand by my statement, modern VWs don't stand up to the quality test of their reputation, neither do their dealers.
 
Was quoted £49.99 per unit (VW only sell the glass, bonded to the heater element, bonded to the plastic backing).

So near £100 in parts alone. I also wasn't particularly sure of myself on how to remove the existing glass without damaging the motors pivot, VW would charge an hours labour.

So in total I was looking at just over £200 (inc. VAT).

Or, I could follow the guy from Autoglass's advice (unfortunately he wasn't around to fit them for me just on the phone and I really needed my car WITH mirror glass for an important trip), spend £2.50 on a roll of industrial double sided adhesive tape and about 10 minutes with a pair of scissors and perform a fix that is still rock solid 12 months later.

I mean i'm not completely sure I went the right way, but I stick (sic) with my decision (ha!)
 
manic_man said:
Indeed, and in 12 years of owning cars ( mostly French and Italian rubbish...) this is the first vehicle where the amazing bonded mirror has come off, on both sides, for no obvious reason and after less than 4 years of the car being new... and going by others in the thread, is a problem with vw design. Unfortunately the cost of replacing the bonded mirror was very high, and both of mine were hanging off, so I decided to rebond it myself ( in guidance of an experienced autoglass engineer who specifically recommended the aforementioned tape and said they would probably offer that option to a customer anyway as the glass is fine and the replacement is expensive).

I stand by my statement, modern VWs don't stand up to the quality test of their reputation, neither do their dealers.
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Each to their own I suppose. I just think it's daft to dismiss reliability based on the quality of double-sided taped/bonded mirrors, which ever it is. The mirror with the backing plate can be had off fleabay for what, around £13 pounds?

£200, Were they lined with gold?!

edit: How would you have kept your heated mirrors working?
 
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..OR you could have phoned up pretty much any motor factors, got both bits of glass for a grand total of about £30, pulled the old unit out (it wouldn't matter if you broke it in the process) and push the new one on?

I'm pretty sure even the guy behind the counter would have stuck them on for you if you asked nicely.

Don't get me wrong, if there was nothing wrong with the glass and I had decent enough tape lying around then sure i'd use it as a temp fix but it's not expensive to just sort the problem out completely...
 
Brookert said:
Each to their own I suppose. I just think it's daft to dismiss reliability based on the quality of double-sided taped/bonded mirrors, which ever it is. The mirror with the backing plate can be had off fleabay for what, around £13 pounds?
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It isn't just the mirrors, the interior creaks like a mid 90s Renault (when it's cold it sounds like everything is about to snap!) The drivers seat squeaks, It took a dealer 3 goes to get the engine back on its mounts so that the cabin didn't vibrate at idle after doing the cam-belt (at 40k I should add as it's due every 4 years/90k). In the cold it now chugs out plumes of black smoke and hunts for a few seconds, clearly the glow-plugs are on their last legs but according to VW thats exactly how a 5 year old Passat should start up in the cold and they wouldn't even give me advice as to whether this might be the case, I can't check them myself as VW have buried them under the rocker cover...

I will admit, it hasn't left me stranded anywhere yet, but then neither did any of my previous cars. Perhaps it is just my high expectations of the VW brand but I have been sorely disappointed in the car over the past 12 months of ownership.

I'm going to keep it out of necessity for the next 12 months or so but I can guarantee my next car wont be a VW, in fact it probably wont be a VAG car.

I did also consider the fact that perhaps the B6 was just a poor show for VW, but a family member has the equivalent of my car as a B7 and, at just 3 months old, most of the interior has at least 1 rattle and all of the dash plastics feel just as horrible as my B6.

If you make a reputation like VW has for itself (I bought my B6 as I used to love my dads rattle free and solid-as-a-tank B5) and churn out something like the B6 (and now B7) then things just don't stack up. That's how I see it anyway.

Anyway, sorry OP, very off topic.
 
rodenal said:
..OR you could have phoned up pretty much any motor factors, got both bits of glass for a grand total of about £30, pulled the old unit out (it wouldn't matter if you broke it in the process) and push the new one on?

I'm pretty sure even the guy behind the counter would have stuck them on for you if you asked nicely.

Don't get me wrong, if there was nothing wrong with the glass and I had decent enough tape lying around then sure i'd use it as a temp fix but it's not expensive to just sort the problem out completely...
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I had no idea they just pull out to be honest with you, I was scared I'd destroy the expensive motor underneath! I did ask VW but they told me it wasn't user serviceable and they couldn't give any advice.

Perhaps I should have gone to a motor factors, I only had a few hours to sort it, the tape worked and the heater still works through it.

If the tape starts to fail in the future, I'll do as others have suggested.
 
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