Hello Everyone,
When I purchased my car I noticed that the rear vanity mirrors were taped shut. I opened one of the mirrors and a small plastic hinge was broken. The dealer looked up the part and we found out each vanity mirror was $126. He took the money off the purchase price and I went home with the paperwork needed to order the mirrors online.

About a week later I decided to take the mirror apart and see how it could be fixed. I figured I did not have anything to lose, since I would have to replace them anyways. I forgot to take pictures of the mirror when I first took it apart, but you can find some pictures attached that I took today.

The mirrors swivel down on two hinges, the left side hinge has the electrical wires and a robust clip that supports the mirror. The right side hinge has a small molded plastic connector that slides into place. The right side hinge is what was broke on both of my vanity mirrors, and I now know that in addition to allowing the mirrors to swivel open, this side also controls the on/off switch for the vanity light which is just a small button inside the assembly.

I decided that the right hinge is chronically fragile, and that even if I replace this product with a new vanity mirror this side is likely to break again. I concluded that a metal support would provide more stability.

The plastic piece inside the mirror assembly that extends into the right hinge is about 1/4" diameter and about 2" in length of molded plastic. It has a spring wrapped around it and two silicon rings, I apologize for not having a picture of this.

Anyways, the way I fixed the hinge was by drilling a hole down the center of this small diameter plastic piece the size of a finishing nail. Once the hole was drilled, I was able to re-assemble the vanity mirror and insert the nail from the outside of the vanity mirror through where the right hinge used to be. The nail can be seen in picture 4 that I attached. The vanity mirrors now swivel perfectly and feel very stable. Unfortunately the vanity mirror lights do not work anymore because the nail does not force the plastic piece to rotate and activate the light switch. Still, with a little bit of time and two finishing nails I was able to save around $250 for a part that may break again anyways.

I just hope someone here finds this post useful. If you have any questions or comments please let me know.
Respectfully,
Trent

 

I have the same exact mindset, if im going to pay someone to fix something, let me try it myself first....i cant break it even more!

good job on coming up with a solution. how easy was it to pull the mirror unit out? just pry with a flathead?

 

It was very easy to remove from the headliner. I would recommend using a plastic trim tool or even just your fingernails. They are not clipped in, only held on with tension from the metal clips. Those clips are located on the side closest to the rear passenger seat. So if you are sitting in the back, looking at the mirror, just pull down on the edge closest to you.

It was a bit tricky drilling the core out of the white plastic cylinder. You need a good clamp to stop the plastic from moving and you need to keep the drill bit centered, but overall a pretty easy fix.

Best of luck.

 

How do you get the connector unhooked? I've tried pulling and prying and it won't come apart. Why there has to be a secret process to getting a connector apart escapes me.

 

I was able to get the connector unhooked by using needle nose pliers and pulling straight out