Mirror broke (not the glass, the mechanism)
08-22-2013, 01:23 PM
#1
Mirror broke (not the glass, the mechanism) The drivers side manual mirror on my 98 Formula broke, leaving the mirror sprung to the outside. A buddy suggested buying a new mirror from Certifit and swapping guts, but they don't seem to carry the mirror I need.
Any other suggestions?
Any other suggestions?
08-24-2013, 07:34 PM
#2
Funny you mention this. I went through the same thing last week. My car is near mint condition, and all the other mirrors I found were rough shape, and the local auto parts store wanted $80 for a whole new assembly and it would have had to have been painted.
1. Take the complete mirror off the car. Start by removing the triangle piece at the top of the door panel. Its held on by a single screw if memory serves me correctly. The joystick should pop out relatively easy. Behind that little panel, you will see a piece of foam and three small nuts holding the mirror on. Remove the three nuts being very carful not to drop them down the panel gap. Its a pain the butt to get to the three little nuts, but thats the hardest part. (I lied, getting them back on is actually a bit harder)
2. Basically you have to take the "guts" apart and look at the back of the mirror. Move the mirror from the front by hand so you can see the bolts behind the glass. Remove those bolts and the assembly will come apart. Te glass is attached to a plastic frame and has three different cables to control the mirror. In my case I had one of the three cables detached from the plastic housing. Push the **** so the detached cable naturally wants to go to it's "home".
3. I purchased some generic epoxy and put a few drops on it and let it harden overnight. It seemed to do the trick, and I simply reassembled the mirror back into the housing. It was like 4.99 for the epoxy (3M I think), but I am sure any generic epoxy will do. Outside of the mirror housing it will feel as if the cable doesn't really control the mirror that well. That's normal.
4. Reinstall. Again, its a pain to get the three little nuts back on the bolts, but thats it!
Mine has been working fine after this simple fix. The alternative is to find another complete mirror as you suggested, and swap the guts. Let me know if you have any other questions, but it took me about 30 minutes total taking my time, other than waiting for the epoxy to set up overnight.
1. Take the complete mirror off the car. Start by removing the triangle piece at the top of the door panel. Its held on by a single screw if memory serves me correctly. The joystick should pop out relatively easy. Behind that little panel, you will see a piece of foam and three small nuts holding the mirror on. Remove the three nuts being very carful not to drop them down the panel gap. Its a pain the butt to get to the three little nuts, but thats the hardest part. (I lied, getting them back on is actually a bit harder)
2. Basically you have to take the "guts" apart and look at the back of the mirror. Move the mirror from the front by hand so you can see the bolts behind the glass. Remove those bolts and the assembly will come apart. Te glass is attached to a plastic frame and has three different cables to control the mirror. In my case I had one of the three cables detached from the plastic housing. Push the **** so the detached cable naturally wants to go to it's "home".
3. I purchased some generic epoxy and put a few drops on it and let it harden overnight. It seemed to do the trick, and I simply reassembled the mirror back into the housing. It was like 4.99 for the epoxy (3M I think), but I am sure any generic epoxy will do. Outside of the mirror housing it will feel as if the cable doesn't really control the mirror that well. That's normal.
4. Reinstall. Again, its a pain to get the three little nuts back on the bolts, but thats it!
Mine has been working fine after this simple fix. The alternative is to find another complete mirror as you suggested, and swap the guts. Let me know if you have any other questions, but it took me about 30 minutes total taking my time, other than waiting for the epoxy to set up overnight.
08-24-2013, 10:24 PM
#3
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other wise check car-part.com i use it for my body shop and can find parts on there that are the same color so just swap them, call the yard and get the paint code or the last 8 of the vin of the car its coming off of and you can get the paint code from the dealer then.
