This is a great site filled with wonderful information.

My wife (for real) backed out of the garage and cracked the driver side view mirror housing. She hit it just so, where it would not fold either way, basically jamming it. It appears there is no damage to the light or electronics, just the two part housing.

I am curious if anyone knows if the housing can be replaced without detaching the mirror unit entirely from the body of the car? It appears the housing is not connected directly to the "hinge", but before I get into it, I thought I would ask.

I can order the housings in my color for around $120, and I'd rather not take the door panel off if it is not necessary.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

Pretty sure the panel needs to come off, but Titomang would know for sure if you can work around it.

Link: https://acurazine.com/forums/second-...irrors-911689/

 

Once you pop out the mirror cover on the bottom, you'll see 3 torx screws. The angle of the mirror base to the door is a tight fit. So if you can remove those 3 torx screws then you don't have to remove the mirror from the door. Only problem I see is that it might be tougher since the harness won't allow you much room to work with. Definitely doable but definitely going to be difficult w/ the lack of movement of the harness in place because there's one screw on the bottom of the mirror housing that needs to be removed. If you don't have access to that screw then you'll have to take out the mirror from the door.

If you do have room to work with then once you remove the mirror housing from the base, you then just pop out the mirror and remove the 3 remaining screws holding the mirror housing and remove the turn indicator. There's no need to remove the mirror actuator.

I would just remove the mirror from the door if I were you. Takes less than 15 minutes.

Hope that helps. Just study the PFM DIY that 007 provided to help you get an understanding of the removal process.

 

Thanks for the info. I did review the PFM, which has excellent detail on the process. I'll see what I can come up with, but 15 minutes is not too bad to make the entire processes easier.

 

Just an update that I finally got around to this project. It took less than 1 hour and I did not need to remove the door panel to change the driver mirror housing (2 pieces). Since mine was cracked, it was a bit easier to disassemble, but once you get started you'll see it's not very complicated. I had plenty of room to access all the screws and as long as you're careful you won't scratch the car.

Thanks for the tips and advice in the related threads.

~ Scott