Hi,

Here's the problem: some douchebag must have hit my driver side mirror in a parking lot, and it broke part of the plastic which attaches the mirror to the adjustment motor. From what I can see, it's not fixable.

I found a second hand unit on eBay which works fine but the out shell is pretty scratched and faded.

I'd like to pull the eBay unit apart, and put the motor or even just the plastic assembly that attaches the motor to the mirror into my existing unit.

I know how to get just the mirror part out of the housing, and how to take the whole unit off the car, but i need to take it apart further to swap the internal bits...anyone know how to do this?

After taking off the mirror I can remove two screws which I'm guessing help hold the two halves of the housing together, and I can pry open the seam around the outside of it a bit but haven't really pushed it for fear of breaking it.

If anyone has taken one of these apart I'd love to know how you did it...otherwise I'll have to make do with just swapping them and having a working but scratched up driver side mirror.

Cheers!
Sam

Once the glass is off, the swivel part just pulls off. Ball and socket swivel points, study them for when you put it back together. lol

At the centre of the fixed bit, there are 4 slots. Put as screw driver in each and wriggle, this pops the inner bit out. Don't pry at the outer edge itself.

The whole thing clips back together. The swivel bit need to have the ball joint things put in first (into the fixed inner shell), the swivelling platform pushes into that. The rubber sleeves are a pain to get right.

The mirror then clips into that swivel part. The electric motors will adjust the mirror to the correct position when wired up.

(Did this about 6 months ago in order to paint the shells.)

At the centre of the fixed bit, there are 4 slots. Put as screw driver in each and wriggle

I have an old one I'm trying to pull apart. This part has me beat, I've done a lot of immense wriggling, and I cant get the bugger apart...I'll try again in the morning after breakfast...will have more patience then.

Mirror can not be taken apart, the plate that max referrs to is assembled and is not designed to come apart, usually when removed and taken apart it will break the tabs inside the motor and you will not get it back together again

Find one your colour and go from there

OK, worked it out, its easy now that its apart how it hooks together...the trick is to slide the screw driver on the outerside most part of the slot, until it touches a hook, pull against the hook gently (its plastic) towards the opposite of the slot, and its undone. At the same time, place even hand pressure on the plate, and do the other slots, and it gently pulls apart....but after doing all of that, I wonder if it is worth it all. Like Mal said go and get one in your colour.

Do you have any in embassy grey Mal?

Edit: BTW if anyone is thinking of doing this just to get the motor out, forget it, the motor is well and truly fixed into the shell.

Mirror can not be taken apart, the plate that max referrs to is assembled and is not designed to come apart, usually when removed and taken apart it will break the tabs inside the motor and you will not get it back together again



OK, worked it out, its easy now that its apart how it hooks together...the trick is to slide the screw driver on the outerside most part of the slot, until it touches a hook, pull against the hook gently (its plastic) towards the opposite of the slot, and its undone. At the same time, place even hand pressure on the plate, and do the other slots, and it gently pulls apart....but after doing all of that, I wonder if it is worth it all. Like Mal said go and get one in your colour.

Do you have any in embassy grey Mal?

Edit: BTW if anyone is thinking of doing this just to get the motor out, forget it, the motor is well and truly fixed into the shell.


lol Yeah, they pull apart, and go back together ok. In hindsight I should have taken pictures. I didn't try to get the motors out though, just to get the outside shell by itself for a squirt of paint. lol

I really wouldn't bother pulling the ADM ones apart, it would have been easier to tape the black surrounds and paint that way.

I like the JDM mirrors I have, can easily be pulled apart, motors and all.

I really wouldn't bother pulling the ADM ones apart, it would have been easier to tape the black surrounds and paint that way.


What, and miss out on the chance to see how they are designed and put together in the factory? lol

So how do you get around all the hot glue holding the outside black surround to the shell, not sure how that will come out, perhaps the later mirrors were different as never tried but I know the TE/F ones, the glass comes off and that is about it. The black plate I have had off a few times and prob only once got back on, the shell, tried a few times to take apart to paint and ended up with bits of broken plastic everywhere.

Pics would be good if you could Bill as I may have been trying from the wrong side perhaps. The ones you did, were these mits centre ones or were they aus ones. The mits centre ones come apart fine, I hve a few of them here, but the aussies prod ones do not come apart afaik

From what Bill is describing sounds like a mitc centre mirror as the aussie ones do not have the ring inside

On the TJ external mirrors I pulled apart, the centre plate underneath the swivel plate that holds the glass is held on by 4 hooks (as described above) and the black surround is part of that, there is no hot glue to undo. Perhaps later/earlier mirrors are different? Maybe they had problems of some falling apart by themselves and they decided to do the hot glue trick? Donno. If either of mine fall apart hot glue will fix it - permanently. lol

BTW the mirrors themselves are available from Mitsu for $16 each, so if you break one there is no need to hunt around the wreckers for a whole unit in your colour.

The one I was playing around with was a damaged one from my wifes KF (original MMAL).
There is not glue on the plastic. There is a tiny dab of glue on the hooks themselves. Easier to see than explain.
I'll try and illustrate it with pictures when I get a chance.

At the end of the day, pulling it apart only serves the purpose of changing the black plastic that is visible from the outer shell, as in the case of the OP where it was damaged.

For painting purposes it would be easier to just mask off the areas you don't want painted.

Even though these mirrors can be pulled apart when you know how, they were never put together in the first place with this in mind. They were intended to be a throw away item. Unless your desperate like me...lol

BTW, when putting it back together, don't put too much pressure on the motor when fixing the backing plate on, otherwise the motor falls out behind the cavity, and you can't get to it...well I haven't figure that part yet. I'm glad its a broken unit, as it has been a learning exercise.

The best solution so far is to get the JDM version, sounds like they are fully serviceable.

I just grabbed a random one off the shelf here, same issue, went to take it apart, there is a heap of glue in it, dont know why, this is a black one like the one before it, perhaps the painted ones dont have this issue, dont konw and I am not willing to destroy a painted mirror

The glass is avial for $16 but the rest is not :)

They were intended to be a throw away item. Unless your desperate like me...lol

Or are just plain curious, or don't trust your own masking off skills. lol



The glass is avial for $16 but the rest is not :)


Too true!

For the curious;
Difference behind the mirror of the ADM vs JDM

ADM;
http://i316.photobucket.com/albums/mm329/grelise1/Folding%20Mirrors%20Install/DSCF2012.jpg
JDM;
http://i316.photobucket.com/albums/mm329/grelise1/Folding%20Mirrors%20Install/DSCF2001.jpg
To pull the JDM ones apart,
4x screws for surround and out they come.

Thanks Grelise for the photos....it just goes to show how simple the JDM ones are. Although they could probably do with a plastic sheet sleeve behind the mirror bracket to keep the weather away from the electrics.

Two different types of rear view mirrors? Interesting!

TJ ones are definitely like the first picture. Don't remember there being a screw in there though. (top left)

Is there a way of telling which is which from the outside? Which cars came with the lower (JDM) design? Just in case I need to get one from the wreckers that needs painting. lol

Thanks for the help, I ended up just swapping them over, even thought he replacement one isn't in as good condition externally as my original one.

They're both ADM mirrors. After looking at the one I took off, the central plastic bit with the ball joint on the end which the adjustment plate swivels around has snapped, and it seems like that ball joint is really damn hard to pull out...I don't want to risk breaking the replacement one as well so it'll have to do for now.

Cheers!

I tried to dismantle one of the coloured ones yesterday, was not too badwith a little glue on each tab, some patience and it came off

Tried another black one, in the end when all the broken bits were gone, there was far more glue and would have been impossible for one to dismantle so in summary (this is only a guess) there must have been some sort of post painting assy of the mirrors where as the black ones were pre assembled

As I said, only a guess, sadly I never got the oppertunity to work at Tonsley so can only make assumptions

Sounds right. The two I pulled apart were unpainted ones though. No glue in them. Perhaps the assembly process is different for the unpainted and painted ones? Or maybe the guy on the assembly line fell asleep or just ran out of glue on some of them? lol

I tried to dismantle one of the coloured ones yesterday, was not too badwith a little glue on each tab, some patience and it came off

Tried another black one, in the end when all the broken bits were gone, there was far more glue and would have been impossible for one to dismantle so in summary (this is only a guess) there must have been some sort of post painting assy of the mirrors where as the black ones were pre assembled

As I said, only a guess, sadly I never got the oppertunity to work at Tonsley so can only make assumptions


BINGO ! I confirmed with someone from the factory, the coloured ones were painted separately, and the shell only, then assembled and installed offline from the production line. Further to support this, you will find on the painted ones, a small sticker/label with the paint description (if it hasn't fallen out over time). Mine had it, and it is only visible after you pull it apart, as I did.

That answers that mystery.

Thanks Grelise for the photos....it just goes to show how simple the JDM ones are. Although they could probably do with a plastic sheet sleeve behind the mirror bracket to keep the weather away from the electrics.

The motor that controls the folding funtion has a plastic sleeve over the electrics while the adjustment motor is a sealed unit from what I can see.
There is also a drain hole on the bottom of the covers to drain water away, like this;
http://i316.photobucket.com/albums/mm329/grelise1/Autofold%20mirrors/SDC12560.jpg