What happens when you back out of the garage too fast? Usually nothing good - the side view mirror is usually the first one to go, and only then you hit 2 pedestrians, run over a stray dog and ram into the neighbor's car, parked on the street. Well, last winter it happened to me... Although, i didn't hit any pedestrians, killed any dogs or damaged other miscellaneous vehicles, the side view mirror did hit the side of the garage door railing. As i don't have an armored vehicle, just a white 2004 Toyota 4Runner Sport, the garage door railing won that battle and caused the side view mirror to twist forward just far enough to snap. {...Who needs those mirrors anyway? I don't remember horse carriages having any mirrors...}
While examining the damage, it looked like the mirror housing was intact and all electronic components worked, even though the mirror was dangling helplessly on the side of the passenger door, like a bovine carcass in a butcher shop.
Looking at the broken plastic part inside the mirror assembly, the dinky piece that sits between the mirror housing and assembly mount and allows the mirror to twist, i thought that the solution was trivial.
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| Top view showing the center plastic separated into 2 pieces |
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| view after the unnecessary (but fun) disassembly |
I collected (almost) all of the broken plastic pieces, superglued them together, poured a thin layer of epoxy on top and mounted everything back. It ended up looking very promising. Out of the 3 supporting torx screws, 2 held the mirror housing in place very well, while the 3rd one was slightly iffy. On the outside, there was no sign of visible damage. My setup worked well for 2 weeks until i got a car wash. My dirty car went in intact on one side; on the other side of carwash, my car came out all clean, but with a mirror, once again, dangling on the side.
At that point, came a 2nd phase of repair - transparent packing tape. Amazingly enough, packing tape solution ended up being incredibly sturdy and lasted quite a few seasons. I only had to change it once as it was starting to look very filthy.
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| ... very filthy |
Finally, being sick of this temporary solution, i took a plunge - i wanted my original unblemished car back.
I priced the repair at the dealer first, then, after fainting and subsequently receiving CPR from the appraisal technician, i decided to go a local autobody shop. The owner of the shop, the guy with a very impressive beard and equally impressive bad breath, gave me a quote of $298 for the part (87910-35630-A1) [basically msrp] + $29 sales tax + $30 labor, bringing the total to $356. I eventually found the part at a substantial discount on Carson Toyota online part ordering system with a will call option (that ended up being $232). It took 2 days for part to arrive to the dealership. I showed my receipt, got the part, opened it up right there and then to make sure that it's what i ordered. It was a very smooth process, i would do that again if need arises.
I figured since i have the new side view mirror in my hands, i might as well attempt to replace it myself. if worse comes to worst, i can tie the door to my bumper and drag it to the bearded halitosis man. So, after searching the forums, i came up with the following procedure...
First, i lowered the passenger side window. Then i removed the triangular plastic cover on the inner upper left hand corner of the door (opposite of mirror mount)
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| Just use your fingers to pry it off |
Then, i removed the push pin, located few inches underneath the plastic cover.
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| Use something small to pry it off, or your fingernails if you eat enough calcium |
Then, i removed the plastic cover of the door handle
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| Use a flathead screwdriver to pry it off. it doesn't matter how much calcium you eat - this thing will definitively break your fingernails if you try using them. |
and removed the Phillips screw underneath.
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| Phillips screwdriver needed here |
Unsnapped the armrest from the door panel
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| Just use fingers here |
and removed that Phillips screw underneath
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| Phillips needed here too |
Then came the scary part. The door panel is held tightly to the door by plastic pins that are underneath the door panel. You don't see them, but you hear them snap out when you are pulling the door panel out. The pulling of the panel invokes the feeling that you are tearing something inside the door. But it's ok, that's how the discourage the unsuspecting folk from tinkering with the design. Just slide your fingers underneath the panel at the inside lower left hand corner and start pulling the panel out while working towards lower right hand corner.
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| Squeeze as many fingers inside as you can to distribute the pressure |
Then work upwards on both sides. Don't pull the panel out too much as there are wired connections underneath. Instead, pull it out slightly and then lift the entire panel up out of the window housing slightly. At this point feel free to separate all the wired connections, or if you are feeling lazy just hang the entire panel to the door by a rope or a bungee cord with everything remaining connected.
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| Door panel suspended by a bungee cord with guts exposed |
At this point you should have access to 3 bolts holding the mirror mount to the door as well as the electic wiring for the mirror motor. However, disconnect the mirror wire first, before handling the bolts
Then using the ratchet unscrew the 3 nuts holding the mirror mount bolts to the door. Catch the old mirror assemby before it falls on your toes ;)
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| Rachet with 10mm socket. |
Replace the new mirror assembly and put everything back in the reverse disassembly order, without any other tricks involved...
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| The new mirror is too clean in comparison to the rest of the car. |
The entire process took less than 1 hour, including putting on makeup and taking pictures and washing hands afterwards... Kidding about the makeup of course... it took a lot longer. I'd say this repair job gets a difficulty level of 3/10 and requires only a single Phillips screwdriver and a ratchet with one 10mm socket.
