Signum/vectra bust electric mirror

[Bob Smith]

Found my electric mirror has been popped off the mechanism last night.
Looks like one of the local chavs decided he couldn't keep his hands to
himself, and wanted to check his poxy inbred face in my drivers side mirror.

The glass was tilted as far up as it will go, and is now manual aim only.
The motor is still whirring inside when the buttons are pressed, but only
moves in one direction occasionally if it catches it right. The working one
is fairly firm, wheras the broken one is looser and can be positioned, and
does not flop to a resting position.

Will I be able to pop it back onto the whirring mechanism if I open it up,
will glue/epoxy putty re-enforcement be required, or a new unit. It is an
03 Signum 2.0 DTI Elegance.

Thanks

Bob

 

[Ian Hatten]

I had an older Cavalier with the electric mirrors so not too sure how
relevant this might be. The mirror had a threaded rod attached via a ball
and socket coupling the ball and socket had a pin through it that would stop
it rotating but still allow it to swivel. When the motor was running it
basically turned an internally threaded drive that would either pull or push
the threaded rod through. Hopefully it is just a case that this threaded
rod has popped out the socket so maybe with a bit of careful viewing in
behind the mirror you will see this and, if it is the same, be able to align
the ball and pins with the socket correctly and apply a bit of firm pressure
to the mirror and get it to re-attach.

Ian

 

[Bob Smith]

Apparently the glass pops out, so I will have a nosey inside tomorrow (if
not raining)

 

[Bob Smith]

Apparently the glass pops out, so I will have a nosey inside tomorrow (if
not raining)

Well, there are 2 electric motors that drive 2 bendy rack and pinion type
things, that are the same plastic as cable ties. These have been snapped,
and are too small to glue or repair in any way. It looks like I will have
to buy a new unit, when all I need is the mechanism.

Bob

 

[Ian Hatten]

Or a call out to a scrap yard, should be the same unit as the Vectra and
there are plenty of them going about so maybe one or two have ended up in
there.

Ian

 

[Bob Smith]

Or a call out to a scrap yard, should be the same unit as the Vectra and
there are plenty of them going about so maybe one or two have ended up in
there.

Got one on ebay. Nobody is bidding on the motors (I got mine for the 99p
starting bid), but the mirror glass is getting bid up to £20 a time.

Bob

 

[Ian Hatten]

Glad you got it fixed cheaply. I had to buy a new glass from Vauxhall for
my last Corsa, manual and unheated, and it was quite a bit too. If you are
not too fussed about the heating part you can get self adhesive mirror
glass from Halfords for a variety of cars. The previous owner of the Corsa
had used one but had not taken the old broken one off so it looked unsightly
and had not been fitted very well so it would not adjust far enough for me,
the Vauxhall one came with the plastic moulded backing and just popped into
the existing housing.

Ian

 

[Bob Smith]

Glad you got it fixed cheaply. I had to buy a new glass from Vauxhall for
my last Corsa, manual and unheated, and it was quite a bit too. If you
are not too fussed about the heating part you can get self adhesive
mirror glass from Halfords for a variety of cars. The previous owner of
the Corsa had used one but had not taken the old broken one off so it
looked unsightly and had not been fitted very well so it would not adjust
far enough for me, the Vauxhall one came with the plastic moulded backing
and just popped into the existing housing.

I have something similar before - a plastic mirror sheet you cut with
scissors. It came with a 1" wide strip of sticky foam, enough to make 3
strips. 3 strips is not enough to stop the hall of mirrors effect, as it
makes a wave shaped mirror - I took it off again, and used a sheet of sticky
stuff (like a thick layer of cellotape glue between 2 backing sheets,
although a *sheet* of sticky foam would also have worked.) Sticky foam
would probably stop the heater element heating the plastic sheet though.

Bob