Side mirrors

Just curious if anyone else has had their side mirror fall apart.  I, fortunately, was parked in my driveway when I noticed parts of my driver's side mirror lying on the ground.  This is about the bracket where it swivels, leaving the mirror itself just sitting on the arm.  Kermit is sending me a replacement, again fortunately, but what if this had happened while traveling down the road.  Any others had similar situations?

No problem here but now you have me worried.  What came loose?  Might be a good idea for us to check ours if you can tell us what to look for.

Phoenix has been installing shorter mirror arms in recent years so maybe it is less of a concern, but our arms are long as seen below.

I display our PC at car shows once in a great while.  At my very first showing I stopped a child about to hang on the passenger mirror.  Needless to say I have since been folding in our mirrors whenever we are in public places.

If you park your PC where kids have access, it could be that a child hung on your mirror arm, accidentally breaking it.

The mirror on our 2008 2350 broke at a most inopportune time.  I had retracted the driver's side mirror as we approached the U.S. custom's station in Detroit. When I was pulling away from the custom station and extending the mirror back to the normal driving position the bottom retainer on the mirror snapped.  It was so loud a custom agent 25 feet away looked up.  I drove the rest of the way home one handed with the window down and holding the mirror.  Changing lanes required the passenger to look out the rear and side windows to determine if it was safe to change lanes.

Closer examination of the mirror showed all I needed to do was cut the wires and remove the damaged mirror.  Fortunately the repair was very simple and it was the only mirror failure we have had in 9 years of PC ownership.

Barry

I examined my mirrors today but can't determine what was broken on the OP's mirror.  I don't know how to post pictures either so can't fault you for that but perhaps a more detailed explanation of the problem would be helpful.   I am sure there are many of us with that "need to know". 

Just curious if anyone else has had their side mirror fall apart.  I, fortunately, was parked in my driveway when I noticed parts of my driver's side mirror lying on the ground.  This is about the bracket where it swivels, leaving the mirror itself just sitting on the arm.  Kermit is sending me a replacement, again fortunately, but what if this had happened while traveling down the road.  Any others had similar situations?

Could you be a bit more descriptive of what parts felk off?  I have a 2015 2551 and i suppose the mirror glass itself could fall out or the turn signal lens could fall out.  But beyond that, I can't see anything that could just fall off or out while the vehicle is parked.

Our mirror failed at the pivot point where the mirror swing arm is connected to the cab door.  If I remember correctly there is a black (painted if your mirrors are painted) rubber cover on the underside of this bracket that protects this junction.  Under this rubber cover is a rod attached to the mirror swing arm, a heavy spring and retaining clip.  The retaining clip holds the mirror swing arm to the mounting bracket and the heavy spring provides tension to hold everything steady and still allow the mirror to fold in and out.

The retaining clip on our 2008 2350 broke into 3 pieces releasing all the tension on the spring and the mirror swing arm and mirror came off in my hand.  The only thing that held the mirror to the PC were a few wires.  
Barry

Thanks for the description, after reading the original post, this appears to be what happened to that mirror.  I was confused about  "parts of mirror on the ground".  Do you have any suggestions of measures or maintenance to prevent a reoccurance?

Thanks, Larry

As "Barry-Sue" reported, it was the retaining clip at the junction of the swing arm that broke.  I found the black cap and pieces of brass colored retaining clip on the ground in my driveway.  I called Kermit and he said he hears about similar occurance  about once a year.  Lucky me.  But I was lucky that it  did not happen on the turnpike at 60 MPH.  Kermit sent me a new one and a local mobile repair installed it.  I don't see how this can be avoided because there is no reason it happened except for poor quality retaining clip.