Corolla Wing Mirror Motor And Glass

[dvdmeister]

My passenger side wing mirror glass was smashed today (don't ask!), and I've ordered one from Toyota for £40 (expensive, but it is a heated one), but now I'm concerned that the motorised box behind the glass may need to be replaced too. Basically, the glass was hanging out of the cover, and anyone who has seen inside one of their wing mirrors will know that there is a large black box screwed into the inside of the mirror cover, which then has a mounting bracket and two funny plastic stalks sticking out of the box into a black plastic plate that sits in front of it, and holds the glass. Except that the glass in mine had come off taking the mounting bracket with it, including the plastic lugs which are what transfer the drive from the motors to the bracket to move the mirror around. Does that make sense to anyone!? Anyway the problem is that I can't see any way of getting the two 'drive lugs' back into the motor box - they seem to have come out of holes which have rubber grommets over them, and I can't figure a way to get them back in.

So my question is: a) can you get the plastic lugs which transfer the motor drive to the glass back into the motor box once they've come out.

and b ) if not, can you buy the motor box with the bracket assembly as an item (not including the mirror cover etc), and how much does it cost (dare I ask!)

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help - I'll try and go into the 'local' dealer tomorrow in Twickenham and see what they say, but it would be nice to know in advance how much they are going to likely charge me/sell me so I don't pass out when they tel me :)

[dvdmeister]

Oh btw the car is a 2001 (old style but facelifted) :)

[poultonjoe]

exactly the same happened to mine...i have a facelifted SR(2001), there was a bottom clip that got broken in the motorised part but it still clipped on and still works, however it does wobble slightly at over 80mph + but i dont want to find out how much the motor was as the heated mirror itself was 45 quid!

edit - fdorgot to say, you could just stick an adhesive pad behind it, or velcro or something...i'm sure evn though its a bodge it would work!

[dvdmeister]

Yeh the problem is that the clips/lugs appear intact, but they are attached to the bracket which is now in a bag in the boot of the car (ie. the clips have come totally out of the motorised part and I can't get em back in!) - the lugs are little ball and socket joints on the glass bracket piece, but have a wierd sprung loaded peg type part which was inside the motorised part. Looks like I might be spending £100+ on this !Removed! mirror. Ah well, it won't pass the MOT without it I don't think so needs must and all that...

[poultonjoe]

Yeh the problem is that the clips/lugs appear intact, but they are attached to the bracket which is now in a bag in the boot of the car (ie. the clips have come totally out of the motorised part and I can't get em back in!) - the lugs are little ball and socket joints on the glass bracket piece, but have a wierd sprung loaded peg type part which was inside the motorised part. Looks like I might be spending £100+ on this !Removed! mirror. Ah well, it won't pass the MOT without it I don't think so needs must and all that...

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as long as it appears that the mirror is on and in tact working it will pass i believe, if the mot is soon get a piece of glass from Halfords for a £5er and bodge it any way you can so it will pass...

However, i thought you only legally need a mirror on the drivers side for overtaking etc...i think i have seen older cars with only one. Not sure on this tho, correct me if i'm wrong anyone!

[dvdmeister]

Nah you are probably right - I will have to have it fixed though or it will drive me mental :)

Anyway - on to my discoveries today at the dealer. The mirror glass is the only separate part they sell. Anything else and its the entire mirror at £107 unpainted (because Toyota can't be ubikd to sell painted mirrors anymore). So then its another £60 to have it painted (!!) and then about £80 to have it fitted. I'm not sure if that wing mirror price includes glass either! The guy also said that because the mirrors come unpainted and have to be painted by them, the finish is never as good as original :(

So what I plan to do is that if the current motor and bracket are shagged which I think they are, I'll buy the whole mirror but I'll take the motor out of the new mirror, solder the wires onto it, screw it into the existing mirror casing, and then put the glass onto it. That I figure will not only save me another £130 ish but it should look better too :) I'll have to get the old araldite out to sort out a couple of bits on the mounting piece that the motor assembly screws onto, which I noticed have sheared off their capping bits, but other than that I should be done and dusted. And I'll probably punt the mirror casing on eBay for a few quid too hopefully.

It does seem pretty stupid that the mirror box is actually easy to remove and swap over once the glass is off, but Toyota don't actually sell it separately! Theres even a specific hole in the moulding of the mirror glass bracket that sits in front of the motor assembly so you can access the third motor asssembly mounting screw

Mirrors in on Tuesday, so the dealer will call when its in, and then I can make the decision on what to do next. Ah the joy...

[dvdmeister]

Removed!

[poultonjoe]

why dont you go to a scrappers or search around for a wing mirror with the electric motor in it, take the motor out and then fit it to your wing mirror? maybe would require a bit of work but then you wouldnt have to paint it or buy a brand new one of toyota!

[dvdmeister]

Yeh I wouldn't mind doing that, but there are no local scrappers round here anymore cause its no profitable enough to pay carazy london area rents. I've submitted requests to a bunch of places so I'll see if they come up with anything before Tuesday.

[poultonjoe]

Yeh I wouldn't mind doing that, but there are no local scrappers round here anymore cause its no profitable enough to pay carazy london area rents. I've submitted requests to a bunch of places so I'll see if they come up with anything before Tuesday.

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Hope you get it all sorted soon!

[dvdmeister]

Yeh me too - at the moment, apart from the inconvenience of not having a mirror on that side, I just get myself ****** off every time I drive the car cause I get reminded about it!

I've had negative responses from all the breakers I've tried so far - anyone have any recommendations?? Are electric heated wing mirrors really rare or something on my model Corolla?! I thought all the GS and above spec cars had em

[dvdmeister]

Ahh the joy - cleaned up most of the mirror glass crap that was still all down the car, and low and behold it has scratched the window glass quite deeply in 3 places which I have no idea how to alleviate, as well as lightly scratching the paintwork (although I should be able to get most of those out with ScratchX). Not only that but I noticed that the mirror casing actually has about a 1 inch crack along its bottom edge so now I am all most certainly going to have to replace the mirror as a whole. No !Removed! way am I paying £140 to have Toyota paint and fit it though - I'm going independant for the painting, and the fitting if I can't do it myself. Does anyone have any idea how you do replace a wing mirror on these cars btw?

[dvdmeister]

Well I came close to buying a whole mirror today, but thanks to a very helpful guy in the servicing department at my local dealer, who went outside and reassembled the mechanism in the mirror for me, I only had to buy the mirror :D - I dunno whether he wants his name on this forum so I'm not going to post it here, but he recognised me from this forum, so hopefully he will read this - you are the man! And also - you should join this forum! :)

[dvdmeister]

Just when I thought the saga was over...

I swear this wing mirror is cursed! Yesterday evening I was driving home and I hear a strange sound from the passenger side of the car, like when you drive over something plasticy - so I have a look in the mirrors to see what I ran over, and the !Removed! mirror has cracked all the way from the bottom to the top!!

I have literally no idea what caused it - I was just driving on a smooth road at about 60 and it just went with a dull crack. The only thing was that I had the rear windscreen/mirror heater on for the first time since I put the new mirror on the car, so maybe that weakened it or something - who knows. :(

Does anyone think there is any chance that I will be able to get a replacement out of the dealer? I put it on myself, so I don't know if this makes any difference to any warranty on parts. I just can't believe its happened AGAIN argggggg :ffs: