I recently noticed that both of the side mirrors on my '04 MCS are very hazy/ grainy in appearance in high sunlight (yes, they're spotlessly clean) - my car is garaged day & night so I wouldn't expect any degradation like this so quickly. In normal light and at night, the glass appears fine, however during the AM & PM commute the glass is so cloudy it's becoming difficult to see out of them..

 

Has your car every been in a body shop for paint repair, or been exposed to that atmosphere during some other service. I had a similar situation with another car, that was in a body shop. The over spray, a very fine fine mist, not like actual paint, stuck to the mirrors. In normal light you couldn't see it at all; however, under direct light or at the right angle, you could see the "overspray". I used an alcohol/adhesive type cleaner to get rid of most of it.

Also, I believe our mirrors are heated when the defroster is on, and some mirrors on other brands have had problems with the heat doing funny things to the mirrors. I have not heard about this being a problem on MINIs. The fact that it is both mirrors at the same time, doesn't seem like that would be the problem though.

 

Our two MIKNIs park outside; and in the early morning the birds are busy pecking at their image, leaving the mirrors on both cars with hundreds of tiny scratch marks.....and they look like they've been scratched with a metal object.....cleaning them doesn't do the trick; but I haven't tried any glass polish as yet.

 

The mirror defrosters are always on when the car is running, at least that's what my '04 does. The haze might be a side effect of moisture getting "baked" on while the heater is running. The light film of moisture may pick up dust and when it dries could get hazy.

 

CC that must be hilarious to watch! Have you considered putting the MINI Red-Tailed Hawk mirror decal on? That should make those little "peckers" think twice, no? Hopefully they wouldn't want to end up on some raptor's lunch menu.

Gone bird-watching,
Tatt

 

jblow - -
You said, “they’re spotlessly clean.” There is a possibility that excessive polishing has caused the hazing.

The MINI, like most cars, now come with plastic instead of glass for the outside mirrors. With glass mirrors the silvering is on the backside of the glass and is protected, while with plastic mirrors the silvering is on the viewing surface and is easily scratched by abrasive rubbing. I clean my windows using old newspaper, but switch to a microfiber cloth on the sideview mirrors for that very reason.

 

My car came out of the dealer with swirls on the mirror glass itself.

I tried ScratchX and some wax, but still see the swirls in the sun.
Not bad enough that I can't see though.

 

As a recovering obsessed detailer I've discussed and tried a lot of variations on how to deal with hazed side mirrors, and as far as I know there is nothing that can be done to remove the haze. The silvering is so thin that even very light polishing will soon go all the way through it - leaving a dark area.

As the saying goes - an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Use only non-abrasive cleaners, a very soft cloth, and very light pressure. Protecting the surface with a polymer "wax" such as Klasse or Zaino may also help - - Be sure not to use a "cleaner" wax.

 

Nick- yah, I was worried about going too deep...so just left it after trying
a few times. Too bad the dealer messed up my mirror (not that anyone
can probably tell but me).

 

I only use P21S or Sonax car wash along with a P21 drying towel to clean the car. The car's had Blitz wax and 100% cotten towels to buff the wax since I purchased the car new - there are zero swirl or scratch marks in the finish of the car. The mirrors look perfect under normal lighting and are slipperly smooth with no detectable adherents. Only under direct sunlight does the haziness in the mirrors appear. In the past, I had a concourse classic Bimmer that did have an area on a side mirror where the finish did appear to have been worn down and blackened - the only cure in that instance was to replace the mirror housing assembly - the MINI mirrors do not resemble this in any way.