Buying a secondhand toyota camry for trouble free motoring turned out to have its problems. The neat motor that retracts the offside wing mirror just failed and guess what - its not covered by warrantydirect's standard policy.
If I could get the glass out of the wing mirror it should be possible to check whether it is something simple. Question is, how does the glass come out. By tilting the mirror right over I can see some tantalising lugs and things but reluctant to shove in a screw driver and start levering.
Does anyone know the best way to get the glass out - preferably without breaking it?
John
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You will probably find that it is held in by double sided sticky tape, which either sticks so well that a breakage is unavoidable or does not stick at all- especially in the temporatures we have today as varified by the various bits that have come unstuck from my vehicle. It seems that the use of this dreaded stuff is becoming more common in place of proper engineering.
rustbucket (the original)
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Going off previous experience jnw, you've described the way to do it. But use something non-metalic. And gently does it...
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First of all, can you get to the motor drive wires from inside the car (e.g. by removing the piece of trim on the inside). These are reliable little DC motors and by checking voltages with a multimeter you may find its a switch or relay at fault, rather than the motor itself.
Failing that, how about 'phoning the Toyota dealer and asking very nicely. If the parts man looks it up in his EPC then it might become clear how it fixes.
Failing that....in my experience they use 'spring clips' rather than tape (at least on the older ones). So you pry at the mirror and it 'pings' out. Try using a wide plastic scraper (like an ice scraper).
If you are nervous about breaking the glass then why not book it into the dealer - its not likely to be overly expensive on labour.
Apart from this - how's your Camry going? (what age/mileage?).
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Thanks for the advice. It starts to sound a bit hairy - maybe I will just take it round to Toyota.
Rather a shame because otherwise it is a very nice car - bought 6 months ago - 2.2 W reg 2001 with 78K on the clock ex lease £4500 from a dealer in Northampton. It feels great to drive particularly up and down the motorway, the auto box is slick but the seats could have a bit more support. It seems to use oil - about a litre over 9K miles. The garage said that it probably doesn't mean anything but the audis I had before never used a drop.
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At 78k miles, oil consumption of 1 litre per 9000 miles is not really anything to worry about. I reckon that's about a quarter-pint per 1000 miles (or thereabouts). You'd have to be using about four times that amount before real concern sets in.
You may also find that at those relatively low consumption levels the grade of oil used has an impact. Using a slightly thicker oil will probably bring the consumption down a bit.
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This may be of no help but I.....
I needed to replace on of the electic mirror motors on my Volvo. Couldn't work out how to do it at first but eventually noticed a small hole in the underneath of the mirror body. I thought it might just be a drain hole but fiddled about and worked out that if you put a small flat head screwdriver inside it locates in a plastic retaining ring which when slid to one side allows the entire glass to fall out. You can then disconnect the glass, motor etc. and replace as necessary. Replacing is just the reverse procedure.
It's a long shot but it might be worth a look.
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