ksreed

I was pulling my E350 out of the garage the other day and got a little too close to the side. The driver's side mirror clipped the door. The housing was cracked and the glass got dislodged but didn't fall out or break. The mirror unit remains fully attached to the door and the motor still works and responds to the adjust button.

I'm figuring its a bit of cosmetic work but the dealer tells me he has to replace the entire unit at a cost of about $1,200 dollars. When I ask why, he says that the plastic disk that connects the mirror to the motor is cracked, and he can't order that part separately so he has to replace the whole mirror unit. There's no way this plastic disk costs more than 5 bucks and I can see that it connects to the motor unit with a screw, so I'm worried I'm getting scammed.

If anyone has any insight, I'd be grateful for your thoughts.

Raymond Lee

That is how they work. Sorry to hear that.

ksreed

Do you mean that's how the mirrors work or that's how the service centers' work?

Raymond Lee

Service center. If you can get by, why not use it as is.

ksreed

I wish I could but the mirror was hanging, so I have to fix it.

Live Oak

This is no longer a world where a tech determines the smallest, least expensive part that can be replaced at a reasonable cost, and does so.

This is a world of assemblies and subassemblies, where the replacement of an assembly, or subassembly, is much cheaper, and thus more efficient, than replacing a single part of those assemblies.

In simple math, it may not seem to work out that way, but in the bigger scheme, it does

YYZ-E55

I might have the part you're after. Send me a PM if you're interested.

troymir350

And that, among other reasons, is why all of our involvement in this forum is so valuable! Hope it works out, for far less than $1.2k

BenzV12

A different car but a similar thing happened to me on my previous car .
They told me only way to fix it was to buy a whole unit . They also said me to negotiate insurance company but later we learnt that it would hurt my 30% discount at renewal fee then we mutually agreed on not using this way.
Long words in short , a staff in the service center secured the mirror cover by driving a stud in . However, the mirror was no longer folded inwards ,no problem I sold the car as it was

BM2BZ

sorry to hear that. although our cars aren't big as a s class, i still don't understand why the car doesn't come w/folding mirrors or at least offer as an option .

K-A

Yesterday in Frankfurt I saw w white E with mirrors folded in.... talk about timing! Sorry to hear that.

Mbenz260e

Sorry to hear that. I would shop around to different dealers. My wife hooked the ML mirror on the garage luckily the glass was fine but the plastic was broken so looks ok when we snapped it back together but was very loose so made us nervous driving. She took it to the dealer and was quoted $790 and they claimed it was the only way to fix it because they have to order the whole unit. Took it to another dealer near where I work expected the same. The SA said he was sorry to tell me the plastic piece alone costs $300. To his surprise I was very happy so they ordered it and installed it for free...

KA I agree with you I seen the folded one's in Germany and Africa as well, annoys me that we dont have them lol. Also annoys me that my staffs Chevy Avalanche does have the folding mirrors...

mnje350

Unfortunately that's what these cars cost to fix the inevitable easy to make mistake like this. A thing to consider is a 500 or even 250 deductible on your comprehensive insurance coverage. Depending on your carrier and your circumstances, it may pay for itself in one situation like this in the future. It won't help you now but might help in the future.

ImInPA

Unfortunately, this will be deemed a collision. Sad but oh so true. It does not matter that you "collided" with a stationary object, such as a parked car, or, in your case, a house. If you have "accident forgiveness" it may cover this. Lick your wounds and get on with life.

hyperion667

+1

mnje350

Ouch, you are probably right. Hadn't thought of that unless it happened in a parking lot while you were in the store or at the airport or something like that.

BM2BZ

i think most of the other countries have this feature for most of the cars as their parking stalls are narrower but that doesn't mean we don't have any tight spaces here. i think it has to be one of the safety features in the future.

CEB

Back to the question at hand - that part isn't sold separately.

You can try repairing the part if it is merely cracked or you can try to find one at a junkyard.

That particular dealer isn't out to screw you on this but also isn't particularly inventive as I'd bet it could be repaired.

ksreed

That's just astonishing to me but so be it. Thanks for the answer.

El Cid

This was many years ago, but I knocked the mirror off a Ford Taurus once. It was a powered and heated mirror so lots of wiring.
I contacted a junk yard and they ordered one for me. Wrong color, but I took it to a body shop and they matched the color to my old mirror. Looked exactly the same and car was about 3-4 years old at that point.
I took the old one off and mounted the new one myself. Of course, MB's are notoriously complicated when it comes to DIY repairs. For example, on the Ford, I raised hood, removed two bolts, took out old cabin filter, dropped in new, screwed bolts back in and closed hood. Done in about 3-4 minutes. On Toyotas and Hyundais, you drop the glove box door, pull out old filter, put new one in and then reattach glove box door. Less than two minutes. MB, have to start by removing dashboard!

YYZ-E55

Which MB are you referring to that requires removal of the dashboard to access the cabin filter?

WEBSRFR

+1. The Cabin Filter is pretty easy to replace and you can save about $100 off the cost of what the dealer charges.

CEB

Huh? You keep making these outlandish statements without backing them up. Please tell us how you think that the dash needs to be removed to change the cabin air filter.