Subaru Forester Wing Mirror: Specs, Fitment & Common Faults

A genuinely important UK-specific limitation: UK-spec cars genuinely don't fold via the electric motor at all, despite the mirror unit being physically the same as the JDM part — plus a free reset trick for a floppy mirror.

Illustration for editorial purposes

OEM Part Numbers

Accuracy note: genuinely worth knowing: power-folding Forester mirrors have a small motor built into the mirror base that can fail independently of the glass or housing — if only the folding function has stopped working, the motor alone may be repairable or replaceable without buying a complete new mirror assembly.

More Electronics Hiding Inside Than Most People Realise

A wing mirror looks like a simple piece of glass and plastic from the outside, but on most modern cars it houses folding motors, heating elements, indicator lights, and sometimes blind-spot sensors — meaning a "faulty mirror" can mean several genuinely different things.

Before you buy: mirror specification varies significantly by trim — heated, power-folding, indicator-integrated and blind-spot-sensor versions are not interchangeable. Always confirm against your VIN before ordering.

Subaru Forester Wing Mirror reference plate

Driver's Side or Passenger Side? Sorting Out the Terminology

Wing mirrors are sold by side, and UK retailers, workshops and part catalogues don't always use the same terms for the same side — so it's worth being clear before you order. In right-hand-drive UK cars:

Driver's side = right-hand (RH) = offside (OS) — the side closest to the centre of the road.
Passenger side = left-hand (LH) = nearside (NS) — the side closest to the kerb.

Part listings may use any of these terms interchangeably — "RH mirror," "offside mirror," and "driver's side mirror" all refer to the same physical part on a UK-spec Forester. Double-check which convention your supplier is using before ordering, since a mix-up here is one of the most common reasons the wrong mirror turns up.

What It Does

Beyond the obvious job of rear visibility, modern wing mirrors on higher trims of the Forester often integrate turn signal repeaters, puddle lights, heating elements to clear condensation, and power-fold motors for tight parking spaces. Higher-spec versions may also house blind-spot monitoring sensors, making them considerably more expensive to replace than a basic mirror.

Generations, Derivatives, Colour & Mirror Adjustment

Accuracy note: mirror covers colour-match the body — see notes below. Manual vs. electric adjustment and heated glass are general patterns by trim and era, not a substitute for confirming your exact derivative via VIN, since even within one generation the base specification can differ from what's typical for that era. This applies equally to the driver's side and passenger side mirror, which always match in adjustment type and heating.

All generations, standard trims	Crystal White Pearl, Crystal Black Silica, Ice Silver Metallic, Magnetite Grey Metallic, Crimson Red Pearl; electric adjustment is standard on most trims from this generation, with heated glass increasingly common too — though the most basic specification may still be manual; confirm your exact trim
Sport trim	Sapphire Blue Pearl is a genuine Sport-exclusive shade not offered elsewhere in the range; electric adjustment and heated glass are standard on this trim
Wilderness trim	Geyser Blue is reserved specifically for Wilderness; electric adjustment and heated glass are standard on this trim

A Genuinely Important UK-Specific Limitation Worth Knowing

This is genuinely worth knowing before assuming your mirror should power-fold: Japanese Domestic Market spec cars have an electric motor that folds the entire mirror housing in, but UK-spec cars genuinely don't fold via this motor at all, despite having what is physically the same mirror unit with the same folding components inside. This means UK buyers sourcing a replacement mirror are effectively paying for internal parts they can't actually use, since the folding motor simply isn't wired up to function on UK-spec cars — worth confirming your specific car's spec before assuming a fault if your mirrors don't power-fold.

A genuinely useful, free reset trick worth trying before dismantling anything: if a mirror has gone "floppy," partially folding on its own while driving and becoming effectively useless, try setting the fold switch to folded, then to unfolded, then pressing the button again. This has been documented resetting the internal mechanism and resolving the floppiness in some cases without any disassembly at all — genuinely worth trying this simple, free step first.

It's also genuinely worth knowing that the auto-fold-on-lock feature doesn't work out of the box on UK-spec cars fitted with double-deadlocking central locking specifically — an additional relay is needed to acquire a re-open signal for this feature to function correctly, worth knowing this before assuming a fault if auto-fold-on-lock doesn't work despite the underlying hardware being present.

Common Faults, DIY Difficulty & Aftermarket Advice

These are the same regardless of make or model — see our full Wing Mirror Guide for common faults to check for, confirming the exact spec against your VIN, how difficult this job is to DIY, and aftermarket advice.

More Subaru Wing Mirror

The same part, covered across other Subaru models.