Broken sideview mirror fix

@Tek_Freek,
A suggestion - Why don't you post a link on the facebook group to this thread...
Many do not have Facebook accounts (and don't want one) !

 

Impressive. I will try to duplicate this approach.

 

My fix. I'm going to work on it some more, but we moved to a new house and spare time is rare.

https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/my-turn-to-fix-a-mirror.14291/

 

BTW, I just did. I forgot to come back to this thread last year.

 

Did you order these? If so where did you find them. I looked on Honda Parts Now https://www.hondapartsnow.com/parts-list/2018-honda-clarity_plug_in_hybrid--4dr_trng_clarity_phev-ka_cvt/interior_bumper/mirror.html?pnc=11 (They use the same picture for both mirrors) and cannot figure out where that part is shown.

Thank you.

 

I have just finished repairing a broken passenger side mirror on my 2020 Clarity. It was broken at the pivot by a collision with an empty trash can being wheeled past the car! My total cost was $1.50. The repair was done by reinforcing the plastic pivot tube internally with a steel tube, similar to the repair discussed in this thread by Victor PP on Jan. 17, 2022. Victor PP used custom machined steel parts. I did my repair using off-the-shelf threaded rod and nut from a lamp parts store. ¼ ips threaded rod is ½” OD and fits loosely inside the pivot tube. It has enough ID to fish the wire bundle through easily. Epoxy can bond the metal tube inside the plastic. The type of epoxy is not important because the nut at the base of the tube will take the force exerted by the spring.

Although I used parts salvaged from an old inexpensive torchiere style floor lamp, I think the similar solution given here would work better. A 1” dia. 1/16” thick ¼ ipt brass nut secures the tube at the base of the pivot assembly (may need to cut some relief for the screws that mount the assembly to the plastic base that bolts to the car door). About 4” of threaded tubing should be enough, you can cut to length. Any ¼ ipt hex nut is used at the top of the threaded ¼ ipt tube to compress the spring, as in Victor PP’s design. The total cost for the lamp parts should be only a few dollars plus shipping.

Other posts have mentioned difficulty in replacing the mirror (removal needed to access the clips that hold the skull cover on). It is not a problem. Push the white actuator posts all the way in, then position the mirror so the central ball is over the central black pivot. Place the unit mirror side up on a firm base in a way that provides firm support for when you whack the center of the mirror, over that pivot, with your fist. Not with anything hard. It will pop into place. Then tilt the mirror so that one of the white actuators is contacting the corresponding ball stud on the back of the mirror and apply firm pressure or a fist whack directly over that actuator. You’ll hear it click into place. Tilt the mirror to bring the other actuator into contact with its ball stud and repeat the whack.

To make this repair, you’ll need to remove the entire assembly from the car door and then pick the wires from the white connector, or cut the wires inside the mirror housing. Picking the wires out of the connector is easy, once you figure out how. Hint: they remove to the rear of the housing by sliding something thin along the wire on the side of the opening in the connector with the most clearance between the shell and the wire to release an internal clip. I made a tool from shim stock, folded by trial and error to get the right thickness on the business end. Be sure you write down which wire goes where before you remove any! Duh.

The door panel removal is fairly easy, see other posts online for details. There are three metal clips around the door handle that are done last and that are a little troublesome, but they just pop out like the perimeter plastic clips do, they’re just harder to get to. You will undoubtedly drop one or more of the 10mm nuts holding the mirror assembly to the door down into the door. A thin magnet disk glued by its edge to the end of a popsickle stick makes a nice fishing tool (reach into the door cavity through a slit in the foam barrier). The bottom of the door cavity is narrow and a thicker magnet could not get my nut(s) out. Getting the nuts back on the mirror assembly studs was frustrating. Making sure the assembly was tight against the door (have someone hold it?) and using a good LED light helped. The adhesive around the edges of the plastic barrier on the inside of the door is a gooey mess. I cut some parchment paper strips and pressed them on to protect my hands and arms. There is plenty of adhesive to reseal the plastic to the door when you remove the paper.

This job took me about 24 hours over 4 days, which includes doing a lot of online searches and fabricating some tooling for false starts. Someone with experience in door panels and connectors and who buys the right lamp parts should be able to cut that at least in half. Oh, I didn’t need to reprogram anything, Lane Watch worked right away.

Was it worth it? A new mirror assembly goes for about $700 online now and it would have taken me at least 6 hours to figure out how to install it. A dealer would probably want at least twice much that to do the job. So this little project either saved me $700 at the cost of 18 hours extra work, or $1400 at the cost of 24 hours. For a retired guy who likes to tinker, the repair was worth it. Besides, no way I’m going to reward Honda for making a weak mirror nearly non-repairable.

Thanks to all of you who have posted so much useful information, especially Victor PP.

 

Thanks David. That seems like a solid fix.

What do you think of glueing the body to the base? Eliminating the swivel but saving time and money. Not sure what type of glue to use if this is possible.

 

Bruce,
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to glue plastic to plastic and get a strong bond, unless you can find a solvent that will soften the plastic, and even then getting a strong bond is difficult. The swivel parts that you would need to glue are some kind of hard plastic. I didn't try solvents on it. People on this forum claim to have done it as you propose, but I'm suspicious that the repair will fail soon.
Maybe the best compromise would be to order another mirror assembly and install it yourself if you don't feel up to the entire rebuild. But then you'd need to recalibrate the camera because you replaced it. Whatever you end up doing, you're going to be cursing Honda. I love my Clarity, but this mirror thing took a lot of glow off that honeymoon.
Dave L Miller

 

From posts on Facebook I learned that there are videos about re-calibration that tell you how to make a target needed to do so.

I just replaced my entire driver side mirror. Not as difficult as expected. I'm not sure the passenger side would be much different. If I had to do it again I'd guess 2 hours max.

 

Similar thing happened to me but the force was under the mirror and up; snapped the axis post. Looks like your key step is to remove the mirror cover. How did you do that? Seems tricky; I'd probably break it and the mirror. Advice?