My wife drives a 1994 Pug 306 1.8 SR Sedan, on which the drivers wing mirror has today come loose at the hinge.
The internal (manual) adjuster still moves the glass okay, suggesting that the three internal bowden cables are still intact, but the whole mirror simply folds against the car under wind pressure.
It is also possible to slide the mirror vertically upwards on the hinge post, until it detaches to the point where only the aforementioned adjuster cables stop it coming away completely.
Looking carefully, I wonder if a circlip at the top of the hinge post has broken, because I can see a grove for one in the post.
Before I take the thing completely apart however, do any BR's have experience that can help, please, especially if this is a known design fault and I'm wasting my time fiddling.
Note: The wing mirrors are folded flat every evening to get the car in to the garage, and extended the next day on taking it out, in both cases forcing what feels to be a spring loaded 'detent' to be overcome before they move.
Many thanks.
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This is a design fault - I've had exactly the same problem with both door mirrors on my 1993 306.
The movable part of the mirror is fastened to the fixed part by a circular spring clip fitting into a groove at the bottom of the movable part. This clip pops off, as you have found. The clip should be still in the housing (loose). It should be intact and capable of being reused. Cost of repair = £0.
Completely remove the mirror assembly from the car and dismantle as much as possible to get sufficient access to allow you to press the spring clip back into place. You need a biggish clamp and a 15/16" (or thereabouts) socket to press the clip so you need to do a lot of dismantling to get enough working space.
It's fiddly, but quite possible. Mine were both repaired 5 years ago, and no problems since.
Ian
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Well, I took it apart, and wasn\'t far wrong with my guess: The hinge post is made from cheap and nasty monkey metal, at the top of which is the groove I wrote about in my original post.
In this grove sits not a nice circlip, but instead, the cheap to assemble alternative of a \'star washer\', under load of a coil spring the sharp edges of which have chamfered the groove to the degree that the washer has nothing to bite on any more.
If the mirror casing would come apart, I could easily remachine the grove, and fit a \'proper\' circlip. Of couse, it\'s not designed to...
Time to find a source of secondhand Pug parts tomorrow, methinks.
I know it\'s a cheap car, purchased not to lose any sleep over, but I still hate poor design that saved 0.0000001p, even if a manufacturer does make N zillion units!
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Thanks IanT.
We posted in parallel!
How did you get 'behind' the star washer (spring clip) to push it back on please? Try as I might (and I have, short of breaking the glass to see what's behind) I can't get the chassis it sits behind to come out of the plastic mirror moulding.
TVM.
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Sounds like your assembly is in worse condition than mine, and maybe simply pressing back the original clip might not work for you.
Trouble is I've forgotten most of the details after 5 years (apart from remembering the size of the socket I used to press the clip). I certainly removed the mirror glass, which is held on by a spring clip, released by pressing behind the glass with a small screwdriver in the bottom corner furthest from the door - this is documented in Haynes.
I also released most of the cables between the fixed part and the movable part of the assembly. I don't think I took the cables off completely, just unclipped them wherever possible (though I may have removed them completely). The idea being to get as much play as possible between the two parts.
I may or may not have also removed the plastic panel directly behind the mirror glass.
Hope this helps.
Ian
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Hi IanT:
To save your time posting again, sussed it. Apply enough force, and the mirror back pops off to reveal the Torx screws that hold the chassis in place.
Easy peasy downhill from here (he says), though I am going to try and machine the post to take a circlip if I can. Should last longer, as the current groove is very worn.
Thanks for your help along the way.
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Parallel posting again!
Thanks for your knowledge :-))
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As this is a design weakness likely to affect other BRs too, here's the conclusion to the thread:
1) Removed mirror per Haynes.
2) Prised cover off the back by popping out lower edge, then levering up.
3) This exposed the two wire 'tails' from the spring that secures the mirror 'glass' (actually coated plastic).
4) Using a screwdriver popped one of the tails out of it's lug, and removed mirror 'glass'. This was easier than doing it the 'Haynes way' trying to poke down the side of the glass.
5) Now removed the pivot module by undoing three screws.
6) Having removed pivot module, unclipped Bowden cables behind it, and pushed them further in to the back of the module to release the secured ends, then drew them back though the enlarged hole provided.
7) Removed cast chassis from mirror plastic.
8) Paid a couple of quid for a local engineering shop to remachine the grove in which the retaining clip sits, to receive a 25mm external circlip.
9) VERY CAREFULLY compressed the assembly in a vice to get the circlip back in place. The spring is STRONG and DANGEROUS. To do this entailed using small blocks on the vice face bearing down on the spring, so the circlip could be placed in between them, and then slid over the hinge post.
10) Reassembly, and refitting to the car, took about ten minutes, now knowing how it all fits together
11) Job done. Nice one! :-)
Or...
New genuine Peugeot mirror assembly is £43.49 plus VAT, but without the 'SjB retaining clip mod' that I hope is more durable than the orginal star washer approach.
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Good to see a (very) well documented description of the outcome and final fix for reference purposes.
How can we encourage other people to do the same? if all threads had this sort of outcome, this site would become a veritable bible!
;)
pmh (was peter)
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Thanks for this thread! Just managed to fix both of my mirrors using its excellent advice.
I re-cut the groove which the star washer sits in using a hacksaw blade, which works pretty well on this soft "monkey metal".
I was wondering why the remote adjustment now doesn't work though? The little joystick just waggles with little or no movement of the mirror. Is there a particular tension in these cables which has to be maintained, or some trick I don't know about? As far as I can tell, I replaced the cables exactly as they came out.
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Nice to hear that the thread was useful to someone, over two years on, so thanks for the feedback! SWMBO's mirror repair is still going strong - and both mirrors are folded every day to get the 306 in the garage - so I hope yours lasts as well.
I too initially had the remote adjuster problem you describe and the cause was the outer sheath of one of the cables being free to move. It is important that both ends of each outer sheath are fixed, with only the inner cables free to move.
Good luck!
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I should have added that the Gold Star Of The Day goes to you for using the forum search before posting! ;-)
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Gold Star accepted with thanks. With the number of these old Peugeots still around, and looking fairly healthy, I thought someone would have encountered this particular glitch!
I'm pretty sure I secured the cable sheaths at the mirror end properly, but is it possible that they have come undone at the joystick end? How do I get at them if they have - looks like a sealed unit?
You're absolutely right about the penny pinching design, though. Would have cost virtually nothing to make this properly in the first place...
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Though I did not have the problem, I doubt that they have come undone at the joystick end as a result of disconnecting the mirror ends.
Sorry I can't therefore be more helpful on this occasion, though if you find the reason and it's not simply secure clamping of the outers and correct tensioning of the inners I'd be most interested to read about it.
Good luck, and remember it's probably logical and simple!
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