My mirror is loose and it's very annoying... (1 Viewer)

[alex909]

Hi,
This is my first post here and I'm hoping that someone can help me. I have a 1994 LC and recently, the glass part of the side view mirror has come a little loose and shakes. Is this something that is typical and can be fixed without buying a whole new mirror unit? If so, what's the fix and how hard is it? Thanks a lot for the help!

Alex

 

[cruiserman]

Tighten the screw at the bottom of the housing. When that doesn't work, pull the glass, put some RTV on the broken tabs and re-install. If you end up buying a new mirror (cha-ching!), put RTV on the tabs.

Suffice to say, Toyota screwed up on the 80 series mirror design.

 

[thorvald]

ditto on tightening the screws, if the tabs are broken off on the back of the mirror, you can epoxy a washer on it to hold in place.
new mirror is about $250 (was missing my mirror piece and had to buy one just to get it)

 

[alex909]

Wow, thank you so much for replying so quickly. Well here's an embarassing follow up question to ask you, how do I get the mirror housing off so that I can see the mirror mechanism. Thanks again!

Alex

 

[thorvald]

unscrew the bottom screw, then push up and in on the mirror- it sits on two plastic tabs, which is what tends to break off, and is held in on the bottom by the screw.
if you ned to take it out, youll have to undo the electricsl.

try tightening the screw first though

 

[RWD]

Here's a little write-up on the mirror thing:
LINK

 

[Beowulf]

Is it recommended to apply RTV to the tabs as a preventative?
-B-

 

[cruiserdan]

B-,

It certainly would not hurt anything. The mirror would be more difficult to take apart in future but as replacement guts are not sold I don't think that would be an issue. If you needed to do more than fix the loose head you would not be able to buy replacement pieces anyway.


D-

 

[cruiserman]

[quote author=Beowulf link=board=2;threadid=5253;start=msg41122#msg41122 date=1063558894]
Is it recommended to apply RTV to the tabs as a preventative?
-B-

[/quote]

yes

 

[IdahoDoug]

I did a low-tech fix after tightening a few times. One day on a road trip, I found a few inches of black foam with adhesive on one side. Happened to be looking at the mirror, so it was clearly intended to be. Tore the foam into 1 inch strips which I wedged in the gap between the mirror edge and the housing, trying to maintain the mirror's position. Voila! Zero mirror movement and the black foam things virtually disappear. The mirror can still move a bit, but my wife and I like it in the same spot (passenger side) so it doesn't need to. That was about 4 years ago and I've forgotten all about it except when I'm looking at the perfectly stable image.

IdahoDoug

 

[WolfpackTLC]

Beo-

I love your quote. Me 10!

J

 

[Beowulf]

J

Only 1 in 1010 will get it. The other 1001 think we must be crazy.



-B-

 

[GXO]

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