Wing Mirror: Guides by Make & Model

Heated, power-folding, sensor-equipped — specification varies a lot by trim. Find your specific model below.

More Hidden Electronics Than You'd Expect

What looks like a simple piece of glass and plastic often houses fold motors, heating elements and sometimes blind-spot sensors. Pick your make and model below for the specifics.

From Simple Lever to Rolling Electronics Module

A basic manual mirror — adjusted by a lever or cable reaching through the door, with no heating and no folding function — remains a genuinely simple, cheap part to replace, and is still common on older or entry-level cars. From there, complexity escalates quickly: electric mirrors add small motors controlled by a joystick switch inside the cabin; heated mirrors add a wired heating element on the back of the glass, tied to your rear windscreen demister button; power-folding mirrors add a motor that tucks the mirrors in automatically when you lock the car or press a button, protecting them in tight spaces. Higher-spec cars layer in an integrated turn signal repeater, a puddle light that illuminates the ground when you unlock the car, a blind-spot monitor indicator light embedded in the glass itself, and increasingly a small camera on the underside of the housing feeding a 360-degree surround-view or blind-spot video system. Two mirrors that look outwardly identical can hide a completely different wiring loom and feature set depending on trim and options — confirming exactly what your car has, rather than assuming from the outside, is the single most important step before ordering.

You Don't Always Need the Whole Assembly

If the damage is limited to the mirror glass itself, or just the painted outer cover cap, both are commonly sold as separate parts — a genuinely cheaper fix than replacing the whole housing if the folding motor, indicator, and any camera are all still working fine. This won't help if the damage extends to the housing, the wiring, or a camera lens, but it's always worth checking whether a full assembly is actually necessary before assuming it is.

Camera-Equipped Mirrors Need Calibration — Basic Functions Usually Don't

For a genuine like-for-like replacement, basic functions — adjustment, heating, folding — typically don't require any programming or calibration after fitting; they work as soon as the electrical connector is reconnected. The exception is any mirror housing a camera tied to a driver-assistance system — a blind-spot view monitor or surround-view/360-degree parking system. Replacing this camera, or the mirror housing it sits in, is a genuine trigger for manufacturer-recommended calibration to ensure the video feed or detection system remains accurate. This isn't a job for a driveway: if your car has one of these systems, fit the mirror yourself if you're comfortable doing so, then have the calibration carried out by a garage or dealer with the right equipment before relying on the system again. Driving with an uncalibrated blind-spot system that gives false confidence is arguably worse than having no system at all.

What to Confirm Before You Buy

Beyond the side (driver's or passenger's), confirm: whether your mirror is manual or electric; whether it heats; whether it power-folds; whether it carries a turn signal, puddle light, or blind-spot indicator; and whether it houses a camera, and if so, for which system (blind-spot monitor and full 360-degree surround view are genuinely different setups requiring different mirrors). Your vehicle's build sheet, original options list, or a VIN-based parts lookup will confirm this definitively where visual inspection alone can't — a mirror ordered on assumption alone is one of the more common wrong-part mistakes on this whole site's list of parts, given how many independent features can be present or absent on what looks like an identical housing.

Common Faults, DIY Difficulty & Aftermarket Advice

A mirror that won't fold or unfold (usually a failing fold motor rather than a wiring fault — check the fuse first), an indicator repeater not working (often a simple bulb or LED failure, though integrated units may need the whole mirror glass replaced), a heating element not clearing condensation, and a cracked or shattered housing from impact damage are all common and worth checking.

Replacing the mirror glass alone is usually an easy DIY job on most cars. Replacing the entire mirror housing is more involved, typically requiring removal of an interior door panel trim piece to access the wiring connector, and blind-spot sensor-equipped mirrors may need recalibration afterward (see above). Expect 15-30 minutes for a glass-only swap, or up to an hour for a full housing replacement.

For basic, non-electronic mirrors, reputable aftermarket parts are a perfectly reliable, cheaper alternative to OEM. For mirrors integrating blind-spot sensors or advanced electronics, OEM parts are strongly recommended given the calibration and compatibility risks involved with aftermarket sensor-equipped units.