siffert

This is a sad story with a happy ending. I got my 2007 coupe a few weeks ago and one of the first things I did was install a Great Lakes Trophy rear view mirror mount for my Valentine One along with a
Invisicord which attached from the Val 1 to the rear view mirror power cord. In any event, while I never dismounted the mirror, I did move it around on its ball joint a lot toying and playing with my install of mirror mount, Val 1 and Inviscord. Any why not? Did the same to my 2001 Monte Carlo with NO problem. But lo and behold, the Vette uses a stupidly engineered cam lock system to attach the rear view mirror to the windshield. Then my problems started. My mirror started wiggling and would not hold its position. Just like others on this forum with the same problem even though they had no detector attached to the mirror. So I took it to the dealer who told me a) there are no replacement parts for the disc held by 3 torx screws or the spring pins. You can only get a new mirror. They also told me this would not be covered under warranty because I installed that mount on the mirror. The "corvette" tech told me nothing could be done to fix it. So I ordered a new mirror for $300.00 (list price $368.00!).

Anyways, I took both mirrors today to a local place near me which installs customs parts on pickups/vans etc. Its not a garage per se and they do not do mechanical work per se. They took pity on me (not to mention they liked my 2007). They took a look at my wiggly mirror. He took a #8 Torx tool and easily unscrewed the 3 torx screws. He took the disk out along with the three pins. The pins were all bent and he took a wrench and straightened them. He put it back together. I took it out to my vette and twisted it in and voila!! its like new again with no wiggles . As a bonus, he cut a piece of black racing stripe tape and shaped it to the size of that stupid PASSENGER AIR BAG ON OFF light, put it over it and voila, that mesage is gone! Monday, the new $300.00 mirror goes back to the dealer for my money back and a good talking to the service manager!

The bottom line is the C6 mirror can take only so much swiviling on its ball joint and then that pressure gets to the cam lock which then starts to loosen up as the pins go out of whack and/or the little bumps on the disk get ground down. That really sucks. But it is fixable. So if you have the C6 rear view mirror "wiggles" just take it apart and fix it as told above, before you buy a new mirror.

Oh, I read somwhere that if you unplug your mirror and dismount it, NEVER start the car until you at least re-plug the mirror back in. If you dont, you will loose all memory of your various modules and they will all have to be reprogrammed.

bbster

WOW your dealer must really be bad. I had that same issue on my 05 and had the V1 mount attached and the dealer fixed the problem under warrenty.

06.Z51.MontRed.Vert

Thats awesome!!! I gotta give it a try, I think your the first that has been able to fix it, everyone else has said the mirror needs to be replaced. Ive been avoiding going back to the dealer on mine because ive got the mirror mount also and didnt want to deal with it. Definitely gonna give it a try!!

Thanks for the info!!

DiverDown

Good information I hadn't even considered that this mounting the radar detector ther would be an issue. Guess I'll go with the visor mount.

siffert

"Good information I hadn't even considered that this mounting the radar detector ther would be an issue. Guess I'll go with the visor mount"

You know, I really do not believe it that the mirror mount was the issue or problem at all or having the Val1 installed there. I bet (though I dont recommend it) if you swivel and tilt that mirror back and forth and up and down about a dozen times or so _without_ the mirror mount or any radar detector attached, the SAME cam wiggle problem would occur. In fact, I have read on these forums other folks with the "wiggles" didnt have anything attached to the mirror. The reason I didnt go with a visor mount is I wanted full use and movement of my visor. Funny though, on my 2001 Chevy Monte Carlo SS which uses a simple screw assembly I probably have swung that mirror to and fro a hundred times like a monkey on a swing and its movement is still as stiff as the day I bought it!! '

Oh, I forgot to mention (from what I have read on these forums) that cam system is soooooo weak that most times when you get a replacement windshield (and the installer twists that mirror off and dismounts it), most of the time you need to get a new rear view mirror as just the process of removing it screws up those spring pins! Almost as alien and weird as the flying delaminating roofs

siffert

Thats awesome!!! I gotta give it a try, I think your the first that has been able to fix it, everyone else has said the mirror needs to be replaced. Ive been avoiding going back to the dealer on mine because ive got the mirror mount also and didnt want to deal with it. Definitely gonna give it a try!!

You know, I probably could have avoided the "no warranty" on the mirror by simply removing the mount before going to the dealer. In fact, I talked to the owner of Great Lakes and he told me that when he took pictures of the mount for his web page that he naturally had to remove/dismount the mirror. When he tried to put it back on, he
got, you guessed it, the "wiggles"!. So he took off the mount and got the mirror replaced under warranty. You can buy that good adhesive tape from him by the foot.

C-INRED

That's a great post!

I guess when I put mine on I didn't swivel the mirror around as much. I've had the V1 hanging from my mirror for 13,000 miles without any problems at all.

It's nice to know how to attack the problem if it does eventually occur though.

Thanks again.

fastskyline

ok im slow...can someone post some pics of the screws? i dont see any.

Wayne O

Good info...thanks for sharing a fix. I plan on a mirror mount detector soon so I'll remember. Glad you got it fixed and all is well.

BTW....I like to see something wiggle in my rearview mirror Not the mirror wiggling.

siffert

You cannot see the screws unless you remove the mirror. Once removed, the 3 small torx screw head will be very obvious. However, I highly recommend NOT removing the mirror unless it is absolutely necessary. That mirror is really NOT designed (poor engineering) to be dismounted.

antoniopaolo

Thanks. Excellent post.

siffert

Enclosed pics of the rearview mirror with the cam lock on the the mirror and the male on the windshield. Note on the cam lock ring there a 3 tiny circle/bumps (not the torx screws) that fit around the cam's outer male cutouts on the windshield. While those tiny bumps dont actually hold the cam lock on per se, by taking the mirror off and back on and so on, it grinds those bumps down (they are only about 1/16" sticking above the disc when new). If they get worn down they can give the mirror cam a slight loooseness but nowhere as bad as faulty spring pin wiggles. Dont know what GM was smoking when they designed this system.

CubanMissile

Great post. We need more posts like this one.

Indy-hp

Awesome post! This needs to be added to the FAQ thread.

tampacarlover

I had a similar problem after the windshield was replaced, and was told that it was "normal" as the mechanic had checked another Vette and it was the same. End story is that I took it back to the glass installer, and he took the mirror off, took a skinny flat screwdriver to something inside the back, which he bent, and put the mirror back on and it's fine. He said BMW has the same mount, and he doesn't understand why GM went to such a crappy system when the old one worked just fine. Took about 2 minutes.

MikeyTX

And the moral of the story is .............................. ? J-B Weld It cures the common cold.

siffert

"J-B Weld It cures the common cold".

I thought of using that, but the problem with using it is if you need or want to take off the mirror again, you then got a real problem removing the rearview mirror.

"took a skinny flat screwdriver to something inside the back, which he bent, and put the mirror back on and it's fine"

What he did was push and bend the pins out (using the disk as a wedge) without removing the torx screws. You got VERY lucky as I tried that too and made it worse. The pins need to be _straight_ and what's really neeed is to remove the torx screws & disc and then straighten and reset the spring pins.

MikeyTX

Volvo uses a similar setup. I've had plenty of practice. My wife's next car is going to be a Civic

fastskyline

so to take the mirror off the windshield you just yank on it?? somebody clarify before i do some damage!

fastskyline

ok scratch that last post...got it off easily enough with a screwdriver. no how do you get it back on? any tricks? it really does not want to go.