absoluTT A3

<center><img src="http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb161/jkwan422/CIMG1694.jpg"></center><p>I bought a set of these mirror housings and found that they did not fit. The inner tabs obviously did not line up properly and my suspicion was confirmed when the OEM housings fit back into place in a matter of a minute.

I contacted the seller and he didn't believe me, requesting photographs to support my claims. I spent several hours taking photos and editing them with annotations to fully describe the fault. The seller said he'd take back the housings, BUT, he would not refund shipping costs at all if he found they fit his A3. Given possible USA vs. European differences, I couldn't trust this... besides, not being there he could claim anything. I managed to get him to give me a small rebate towards a loss on reselling them. The time involved that I wasted was worth more than the mirror housings to begin with--complete loss to me.

FINALLY, someone else got these same mirror housings and ran into the same problem. Kwanja_A3 over on AudiZine. See the link below for details, if you're considering these mirror housings.<ul><li><a href="http://audizine.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1920690&amp;postcount=5">AudiZine - Kwanja_A3 installation effort for matte silver mirror housings</a></li></ul>

jkwan

it's me (kwanja_a3), if you didn't post this here, I was going to, simply because AW and VWvortex forums get more traffic than AZ. I'm gunna shoot german_carstyle an email tomorrow.

If I ever see a pair of Hagus matte side mirrors on eBay, I'll be sure to email you!

Cheers!

scotchy

Crappy! Thanks for the info.

absoluTT A3

Thanks again for your post--you definitely confirmed that these can be made to fit. I just hope that the tab trimming doesn't result in a loose housing down the road... :-/

Btw, nice looking Ibis White A3 you've got. :-)

Hobag

Didn't realize it took you that much work to get those things on!

Shoulda got the oem S3 mirrors from Germany! ;-)

jkwan

Thanks Andrew. I was so damn determined to make it fit

jkwan

Basically told him I appreciate the customer service I received from him, but the product itself is not a perfect match to OEM, but at the same time, it "technically" can fit the A3(8P), just not flawlessly or easily.

Thanks for the compliment!

NumbGreenThumb

and I can agree with what absoluTT said. I did, however, find that the passenger side went on fairly easily and cleanly but the driver side is definitely not happening. There's a sizable gap between the bottom plastic piece and the housing which also prevented me from getting the outside screw to get in there. What's also weird is that there seems to be a larger gap between the mirror and the housing than before and the mirrors don't seem to be sitting right in the middle (larger gap on the top and outer portions of the housing) which is leading to the mirrors rubbing the housing. Granted this could be my fault in possibly not putting the mirrors back in place right, but I feel like they've made it pretty fool-proof with all those tabs and the outer guide. Hopefully that guide you linked to will solve the problems.

absoluTT A3

until I had the right tool to extract the mirror. I pulled a little too much on the outer edge of the passenger side and --&gt;crack&lt;--. These A3 2.0T mirrors are flimsy. A couple of "L" bracket plastic pieces would do the trick, for even pressure. But now I doubt I'm going to bother with the whole installation. If the '08 S3 mirrors have built-in turn signals, that's where I'm going. Otherwise, it's Dremel time.

drew138

but at least they will fit.

thanks for posting