Ok, here's the scoop. Saturday was nice so took the Corvette out for a spin for a couple of hours, then came home and parked it in the garage like always. Everything is fine. Sunday, a herd of grandkids came over and spent the afternoon. Everything seems normal. Today (Monday) was extremely nice, 80ish, light wind and clear skies. So after doing a day of IT work, I go home and eat dinner. Have to go back out to finish a job at about 7pm and decide to not waste such pretty weather and take the Corvette to my last job. When I start driving, I notice the drivers mirror is out of whack. I adjust and notice mirror is moving. I roll down the window to find the mirror is not tight. Just spins on the post. Doesn't "lock" into any position at all. I suspect grandkids broke it but that's another matter. What is involved to repair the mirror? The electric adjuster still works fine, its the swivel part that is messed up. Any ideas what might have happened, and what do I need to do to get it back to normal?

Ok, have done more research and have found this has been covered in the past. In fact, its a common C5 problem and now I feel bad for thinking my grandkids did it, when in fact, this can fail on its own at anytime. My apologies for taking up your time.

 

Did you also find the guys name that you can send it to and have it fixed for good for $90.00? If not, post again and i will look up his email. I had the same problem.

I blamed my wife.....have'nt had a home cooked meal since.

 

Yes I did. Thanks, I appreciate it. I believe he's charging $70 to fix from what I read. However, I'm pretty handy, so think I'll give it a go myself. Appreciate your reply. I should have done more research before I posted. Not too many new things on the C5's.... Virtually everything that can be a DIY fix is available.

 

I wanted to post one more time on the broken mirror issue. As I stated earlier, this problem is very common on the C5. The problem is the way the mirror was engineered by GM. The mirror is held tight by the tension of a spring which presses down on the external mirror. That spring is held in place by a clip which is very poorly engineered and that's why there have been so many reports of this problem. I'd like to put in my two cents on this issue and tell how I solved it for $7. I went to Home Depot and bought a package of 2 6" Steel Nipples (Part# 7061300) and a package of nuts (Part #7015200). These parts are found in the lighting section. Go to homedepot.com and put the part # in the search bar. You'll also need a 3/4" lock washer plus two lock washers that will fit the 6" steel nipple (5/8" I think). After some experimenting, I found you need to cut the 6" steel nipple to 2-3/8" length. You can do this several ways including a hack saw, but I used a dremel. After cutting, make sure to clean out the inside diameter of the cut opening with a rat-tail file. You'll need to do this to make it easier to reinstall the wires later. The steel nipple is inserted into the opening with a 5/8" lock washer and one nut at one end. The other end is exposed inside the mirror. (Note: you may need to use the rat-tail file on the base mirror mount due to the fact that the crimp GM put on the top of the mount where the clip was mounted can be a bit tight). Put the spring back in place, then put a 3/4" lock washer on top of the spring (.20 cents at HD), put the failed clip from GM on top of the large 3/4" lock washer and another 5/8" lock washer on the steel nipple. Put the other nut on the shaft and use an open end 11/16" wrench (thin is better) and tighten the nut until you achieve your desired tension. This method is far superior to the original GM and while a bit time consuming, it really makes you feel good when you're done, knowing that this will not fail. I should have taken pictures, but once you take the mirror apart, you'll easily see where everything goes.

 

happened to me, contact the "mirror man", I think he is in OH

 

Thanks. I considered it, but it was $70 and shipping and waiting, etc. I did it for $7 in one evening and I now know how to do it myself. I have enough parts to almost do the passenger one when it pops. And I can do it again in about an hour now. I'm sort of a DIY'er type of guy too.