Removing the exterior mirror from an X-Type is not difficult, but when I did it, I came across a few details worth mentioning - most of all the part, where you have to be careful not to smash the mirror-glass into bits and pieces...

The pictures below will also show the difference between an X-Type and S-Type exterior mirror: It is very easy to mistakenly think that the ext. mirror from a 2004 X-Type and 2004 S-Type are the same, as they look exactly the same, but the fixing-mechanism differs.

I removed my mirror so that it would be easier to spray-paint it (This X-Type, which I bought recently, is in dire need of a lot of spray-painting...).


To remove the ext. mirror, one needs to be able to access the points, where it is fixed. And those points are hidden under that "triangle" inside, which on other cars is just that, a "triangle", but on the X-Type it is one part with the complete inner plastic frame. I pulled out the inner door trim just a little bit after removing that screw (hidden under a plastic cap behind the grip, where you grab the door to close it. Then I pulled off the "frame" starting at the left lower corner.


At the front the door trim also needs to be pulled out at the top just a little bit. After removing the frame you see 1 nut and 2 odd things: Metal rings attached to plastic pins. I knew that it would be very easy to accidentally damage those plastic pins.


And the method I came up with to remove the two rings is shown here: Pushing a screwdriver as lever under the rings guided by the cutter knife. This will lift off the rings a little bit.


The rest of the magic is done with a small pair of pliers bending each of the four "lips" back on the inside and towards the front on the outside. Then they came off. Note about the NUT: LEAVE IT ON FOR NOW!


Pulling off the door trim just a little bit more you will be able to get to the electric connector. I pulled the connector out of the door, and then disconnected the connector by first pulling up the red latch and then pushing in a black latch, which was hidden under the red latch. Now here is the thing: I did remove the nut holding the mirror before, and as soon as I disconnected the connector the mirror smashed down onto the concrete - but I was lucky: Nothing damaged! This is why you remove the NUT only AFTER you removed the ELECTRIC CONNECTOR.


It is probably quite easy to then take apart the mirror into its components as you can see them here - I would not know, as the mirror dismantled itself, when it smashed onto the concrete - but as I wrote: I could not see any damage, and it should be quite easy to clip all those parts together again later. There are 2 little motors in the "circle" for mirror adjust and there are 2 electrical connections to the mirror glass, which I assume is an electric auto-tinting function in case you get blinded from behind during the night - this suggests that a replacement mirror glass would be extremely expensive...


So I assume that it was not really necessary to remove the mirror to remove the surface, which needed repainting, as this part seems to come off easily without removing the mirror, but removing the mirror was not in vain...:


I noticed that the lower part of the rubber seal was utterly porous, dry, ripped apart into pieces and in dire need of attention. And know, why this happened: The relentlessly hot Australian sun heated of the passenger door panel and that lower part of the rubber seal has full contact to the hot metal, while the two other parts do not have contact to the hot metal, and thus there is no damage on the other 2 sides of the rubber-triangle.
- But for now a little comparison: So this is the fixing mechanism of the X-Type ext. mirror (2004), and...


...and this is the fixing mechanism of the S-Type ext. mirror (2004). While the mirrors look the same from the outside, the fixing mechanisms differs, which make them non-interchangeable. Maybe, if you apply some drastic measures, it would be possible to interchange them, but I would not want to try that. I also cannot se a way to re-use the "base" with fixing points and attach it to the mirror of the other model. Sadly. (I took the picture above from the internet).


Back to the torn rubber seal: I removed 50% of that torn lip with scissors - the remainder was still pretty damaged.


And as you can see, I placed a bit of rubber seal over the torn section. Additionally I applied a little bit of black silicon on the opposite side (not visible here). It is the same rubber seal I used already to fix the weather-strips to the left and right of the windscreen.

Below is the link to the thread, where I show, how to fix the weather strips on the sides of the windscreen - and there you will also find more information about that rubber seal, which I used here to fix the mirror seal:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...s36550-272854/