Interior Mirror Leaks - E46 M3 / E39 M5

[Leins]

Thought I'd put this thread up for anyone who has an E46 M3 or E39 M5 oval mirror in their car. In case you didn't know these can leak, sometimes giving a warning in advance where you'll see a bubble in the glass, other times they will just empty their contents all over the centre console

The problem is that the liquid that they contain is an acid, used to allow the mirror perform its self-dimming function, which will then eat into any surface it comes in contact with very quickly. Due to a manufacturing fault, the mirror glass in some of these wasn't sealed properly and so it can escape. Also, this mainly seems to happen if the car has been left in the sun for a period of time, but not always

I myself got a bit spooked by this in my E46, so even though the mirror wasn't showing any signs of leaking I sent it off to this crowd for a bit of preventative work: http://www.radar-mirror.com/Mirror_Repair.html

I can highly recommend them as, even though they are based over in the US, I got the mirror back in perfect condition with its new insides within 2 weeks. The cost was $135 incl P&P back to Europe

BTW, I don't believe the rectangular mirror is affected by the same problem, only the oval one


Here's what an affected mirror can look like:



And the sort of damage it does:

[Leins]

Quite a good article that provides a lot more info on this issue: http://www.totalmcars.com/thread/2072/auto-dimming-mirrors-faults-fixes?page=1&scrollTo=32714