Took off the car cover this weekend, and it was swiveling around...I dont know how it broke, looks like 2 screws/metal rods/??? held it in place but
were broke. It almost looked like they were shaved or cut.

Anyways, anybody replace or fix or reattach the drivers side rearview mirror assembly? I need help. Dont want to take it to the dealer for that and get charged a mint. They already did that to me for my clutch.

 

Same thing happened to me. You really cant fix the spring, you can take the assembly apart and use a hose clamp to keep the mirror together. I did this fix when my mirror broke. I think the procedure is on the forum somewhere. The piece that broke is a small clip that holds down a large spring.

 

Spring? I didnt see no friggen spring!

I didnt pull up the assembly all the way, just enough to see what the heck might have happened. I guess I will have to check it out in more detail when I get back home....

I tried searching on "mirror" and other things but didnt get a good hit.

Anyone out there take the door panel off or know how to fix this?

Jamiez - howd you take the assembly apart?

 

Chief,

It may be trashed and need to be replaced. Even though they're made to swivel, I did spin mine and one day it was just hanging. :eek:

I took the car to a body shop and they "fixed" it :D ...something about it being held on with a compression-type fitting that slipped off. That lasted about a week, week & a half an found it hanging again. :eek: Had to have it replaced.

I noticed the "body guy" got at the mirror by taking off the door panel (of course), then removed the speaker...that created a decent-sized access hole to get a socket at the nuts that hold the base to the car.

Sucks not havin' a mirror...very hard to drive.

 

Chief,
From what I remember you do this:

Peel back mirror from assembly, you might need a knfe or something flat to do this. the mirror is attached w silicone. be careful not to crack the mirror. When you remove the mirror you will see 3 torex screws, remove them. Then remove the plate. When you remove the plate, you will see a spring around a post where the mirror will fold in. you should see a ring type clip that popped off. what I did was attach a small hose clamp around the post to at least keep the top of the mirror stationary until i got a new one. If anyone else can add to this please do. If I find the link w the repair instructions, Ill post it.

 

If you're still under warranty, get a new one, if not, follow the fix below and it should get you by. I just re-did the fix a couple of days ago since my first fix was getting a little loose.

If the spring loaded pivot action in your outside mirror has broken, here might be a fix so you won’t have to buy a new mirror. Rotate the mirror all the way in towards the car so you can get your fingers behind the outer edge and just pull until you have the mirror in your hand only attached by the two heater wires. With all the ripping, cracking and popping sounds, you’ll swear you ruined everything, but the mirror is a snap fit assembly and someone else snapped it together before you got it, and you can snap it back together just like you took it apart.



You can now see the retainer clip, that has popped off on my mirror, and spring. There is no chance of putting the spring and clip back in place unless you remove the whole assembly from the door and have some type of spring compressor similar to a valve spring compressor. That spring is similar in strength to a valve spring and in my case has pushed so hard on the retainer clip that the little tabs on the clip have sheared off the aluminum in front of them until the clip was pushed off the end of the shaft.



My solution was to hold the housing in place and drill through the mirror housing and through the base, providing a place to insert a stainless screw to hold it solid. You can see the 6" drill bit I used in this picture. Install a small hose clamp around the electrical cable to be clamped on top of the shaft. Some pieces of double sided tape in the pivot point between the base, that bolts to the door, and the mirror housing also helps prevent any movement. This procedure eliminates the pivoting action, but you don’t have to buy a new mirror either. Place the mirror housing back on the shaft and press it down against the tape, slide the clamp onto the end of the shaft that protrudes inside the mirror. Press the clamp down tight against the housing and tighten, then insert & tighten the screwin the hole you drilled. Leave the spring and clip on the wire, there is plenty of room for them.



Then reassemble the mirror. Just spread your hand out over the surface of the mirror and snap it back together in the same procedure you popped it apart.
Just look at the drivers mirror on this great looking C5 below, it's been apart twice for this repair and you can't even tell.




[Modified by alanh, 8:51 PM 8/30/2001]

 

Good luck compressing that spring to re-install the clip.It will pop back off any way.Time for a new mirror,paint to match :(

 

Ouch - If mine ever does this, I'm going to have some really bad things to say about GM (again). There was a post on this, I'd say about a month ago. I'm amazed at how common this is. Apparently lot's of people rotate them to blow the water out after washing the car. I did that once before I saw the posts - very thankful for the forum.

 

Thanks for the posts guys. I will give it a try when I get into town tomorrow.

Its funny that this happened a couple months after I had the mirror repainted
at the dealer to take care of some nasty scratches... I wonder if they popped it off first, and didnt reinstall correctly.

 

I just had the right side mirror replaced on my 97. I was cleaning the engine when it snapped and I thought I had broken the fender until I realixed the mirror was loose. The dealer covered the repair under the GMPP. GMPP paid $224 for a new mirror and the paint job.
Bill

 

The guy who helped me with this is Alan Haney. If you need his email address, let me know. Nice guy and he has pictures of the hose clamp system, which works quite well.

Bill

 

I broke my mirror backing into the garage. I had to get a new one, paint it and put it on. not a major deal except for the painting.

Keep in mind that there are at least 2 mirror types. The dealer parts guy assured me that he didn't need my VIN to order but when I went to put it on (after it had been painted, of course) there was only 1 plug.

If your car has the memory package make sure the dealer knows this. The mirror with the mem pkg has 2 plugs.

actually taking off the door panel is a piece of cake. getting the 3 nuts off the mirror studs is a little time consuming but pretty straight forward.

If you end up getting a new mirror it will cost about $123 for standard mirror. I would take it to someone that paints or a body shop and ask them to paint it. And then put it on youself.

I did get an estimate 1st but it was nearly $300, I did it for about half that.

 

Hey Alan,

Thanks for the direction! I was wondering if you could help some more...
I have a reassemble problem:

I cant pop the mirror and plastic mirror holder back in place.
I dont know the best approach.

What I am doing:
I am aligning the 2 "Male connections" (have the silver spring retainers at the tips)
from the plastic mirror holder and pushing them into their female sockets. (making
that crunching sound) but I cannot continue to push them far enough into the
assembly for the plastic disc to "snap" into the additional 2 plastic "snap
connectors".

When I tilt the plastic mirror holder in towards the door to snap the inside connector
in place, one or both of the male connections pop back out. When I try and do the
outside (away from door) connection, I cant push it hard enough to actually get the
snap connector to connect. BTW, it doesnt seem like the snap connectors will
actually snap tight, because when I get one to snap in place and then tilt the mirror
holder to the other side, it doesnt hold that connection.

This is really annoying. Another week I cant take the car up to Virginia where I
work.

Any thoughts? What approach did you take to reassemble?

 

More pressure, you need more pressure!!! If you do them one by one, you will have two crunch sounds, these are the ones with the silver wire retainers on the end. They are threaded and attached to the electric motor for adjusting the mirror. Along with the two crunch sounds, you should get the "big" snap when the center pivot goes back into place. You'll need to have one hand on the mirror and the other hand on the outside (front) of the housing and press together. You basically get the big snap and the two crunches all together in one terrible sound. That will leave the two small position stablizers, one on the bottom and one on the inside next to the door. Rotate the mirror towards the door until it starts to "snap" and won't go any farther, then push foward on the inside portion of the mirror (next the door) and you should get a small "pop" when that stablizer goes into place. Rotate it down and do the same thing for the bottom stablizer.
When you say you can't get the inside one to pop in place without the outside one coming apart, it makes me think you haven't snapped the large center pivot in place yet. The center pivot has to be together before the other four connections will all go together.
If you get the center pivot and the two crunch sound connections together, it will work just fine, but it may not be quite as solid as it will be with all five connections made.
If all else fails, stop by when if you're in the neighborhood and we can snap everything back into place.
Good Luck, Alan