How to fix the side mirror?

Dynamix · 11-03-2014, 03:31 AM

Hello guys,

I have another tiny problem with my Alero. During the head gasket thing, I had to remove the passenger side mirror. After fixing the engine, I wanted to put the mirror back to his place, but now the mirror wont hold anymore. Is there any trick on that or did I destroy something that should hold the mirror? There seems to be no hook or similar to hold the mirror. The rubber string is still on the place where it should be!

falloutboy · 11-03-2014, 07:49 AM

talking about the mirror glass or about the mirror housing?

The glass is held on the motor by a plastic clamp(s) that is glued to the glasses back side.
It snaps in the fixtures on the motor.

The housing is held in by the screws through the A-pillar.

Dynamix · 11-03-2014, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by falloutboy

talking about the mirror glass or about the mirror housing?

The glass is held on the motor by a plastic clamp(s) that is glued to the glasses back side.
It snaps in the fixtures on the motor.

The housing is held in by the screws through the A-pillar.

Hi Julian,

I am talkin about the housing. If I am right, the housing is flexible until a certain point what is caused by the rubber string that connects the housing with the door. Unfortunately I can not see any screws in the mirror housing. I will try to make some pictures to make clearer what I exactly mean.

tw0123 · 11-03-2014, 09:40 AM

The screws are inside the door behind the tweeter pod... should be 3x 10mm if my memory is right this morning.... if you pulled it off without undoing these screws it's likely broken

Dynamix · 11-03-2014, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tw0123

The screws are inside the door behind the tweeter pod... should be 3x 10mm if my memory is right this morning.... if you pulled it off without undoing these screws it's likely broken

Damn, thats exactly what I did

I thought this mirrors can be turned towards the door like every normal car mirror.

That means I need to replace the screws, right? Or do I even need to replace the whole mirror housing?

S8track16 · 11-03-2014, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dynamix

Damn, thats exactly what I did

I thought this mirrors can be turned towards the door like every normal car mirror.

That means I need to replace the screws, right? Or do I even need to replace the whole mirror housing?

Did they bend in smoothly lol? There is probably more damage than just the bolts since the bolts most likely didn't break first. Post a pic.

Dynamix · 11-20-2014, 08:03 AM

Hello guys,

sorry for my late response, have been busy during the last weeks

I will see what I did. I was thinking about to use some glue to fix it. Will look better than the tape that holds the mirror at the moment.

Nas Escobar · 11-24-2014, 03:38 AM

You're gonna have to swap out the whole mirror. You have to take off the little sail panel (which is clipped on IIRC) and access the damage. Hopefully you didn't damage the holes in the door.

Post a pic if you can.

Dynamix · 01-12-2015, 11:48 AM

Hi everyone,

sorry for my late response. I took a closer look on the mirror and it seems i destroyed it. Furtunately I didnt damaged the part that attaches the mirror to the door, so it should be easy to fix. It seems all I have to do is to change the whole mirror and the socket. I have seen that the mirrors are dirt cheap on eBay, so I would making a fuzz with fixing the old one. I already tried to glue or tape it so it would be fixed for a short period, but it really didnt help. Thanks so far for your help, it showed me that fixing the mirror is no rocket science

Redog · 01-13-2015, 05:23 PM

Are the mirrors color matched to the body of your car? Mirrors come new in black and will have to be painted. If you luck out, you can find a se tthe same color as your car if that is what you need

Dynamix · 01-14-2015, 01:04 PM

My car is black

Redog · 01-14-2015, 06:52 PM

You're set

zzyzzx · 12-20-2016, 11:17 PM

I think I also have this problem, but based on your description, I think the screws are simply missing on mine. As in never installed from the factory and only held in by a spring and a wire. It's on the passenger side only. The driver's side is fine. The car has been like this since I have had it, and my mom bought the car new and it's never been wrecked.

zzyzzx · 01-03-2017, 07:14 PM

This is my passenger side mirror. It's very easy to tilt over like this, and from the looks of it, it looks like something is missing:

zzyzzx · 11-16-2017, 02:35 PM

I finally got around to fixing this. I dissected a few mirror in the junkyard and just replaced the mount since I didn't want to deal with repainting.

And yes the side mirror just pops off. The backside of it looks like this:

Without the mirror, it looks like this (except the upper spring is missing:

You take that apart (now you can see the second spring back there, it's not attached to anything):

You remove the mirror to leave just the mount:

Then you remove the tweeter:

Then you remove the foam piece between the tweeter and the mount:

Then you remove the mount (I pushed the side mirror wire to the outside to avoid having to remove the door panel). You undo those three bolts then push:

Then just bolt on the new mirror mount and reassemble. Pulling the springs back was the only challenge, but I still managed to do it myself.