Exploding Passenger Side Mirror

[Shelburne]

When I was a kid and riding with a friend in his father's car, I saw a bird fly into the driver's side mirror and shatter it. My friend was driving and didn't see what happened. His father never did believe me when I told him the damage was caused by a bird. Could be what caused the damage to your mirror.

 

[Flybyglass]

Sentry would see something while driving. Check Sentry footage.

 

[android04]

Look, it's 100% certain that you crashed into something. 100%

The TMC thread you linked to refers to someone whose mirror glass was not fully snapped into the ball socket by the factory. It popped out and banged against the door as it dangled from the defroster wire. Nothing broke or "exploded".

The Cartalk thread you linked to includes people writing that they thought their mirror had somehow "exploded" but then they realized that they had crashed into a parked car or something.

Yes, tempered glass can crumble with seeming spontaneity, but it does not "explode". It can expand ever so slightly in the process of cracking and could conceivably produce a hairline fracture in some very tightly surrounding structure, but there is no such structure tightly constraining the glass here. And if there were, it would only have a microscopic fracture in the most extreme case imaginable.

Agree with this. Also, if you look at the mirror glass you can see that most of it is still in place because it is glued to a black plastic backing plate that snaps into position on the mechanism that moves it with motors. If it has exploded and caused all this damage, it would make sense that most of the fragments of the glass would be missing. Something could have hit the mirror as they were driving. Someone mentioned a golf ball. Or a baseball. Or a bullet.

 

[gaswalla]

Dashcam video is required to contradict the near certainty of car hitting an object.
I will share my story - autopilot got too close to a post on the highway under construction - I heard an huge pop only - looked over and my side mirror was folded in. When I got out of the car - unbelievable- not even a scratch on the side mirror and fortunately no damage. OP wasn’t fortunate to have no damage, but I can vouch for the mirror not having a scratch even w impact.

 

[one2many]

I really like the exploding mirror. I am also sure that an
M80 was not int the mirror. Having driven lots of old
cars, we have had a few fall off the car. I can see something
break to have the mirror fall off. A software issue could cause it
as well but unlikely, never know. The UFo thing is a long shot, very
few have seen on in action. Kids today do not play outside and Hunter Thomson
is gone so gun is up there with UFo. Golf balls, some of us need to get a life.
A rock would be easy to find, so never mind.