Side mirror repair
Side mirror is wobbly, went in and saw the top flange nut (1 of 2, a top & bottom) had fallen out. I’m stumped by a few things. First, the threads on the nut seem to be almost completely stripped and rusted (maybe rust from sitting in the bottom of the door?). Second, when attempting to tighten the remaining nut, turning it clockwise, it just spun in place, but counterclockwise appeared to tighten it to a stop.
Also curious, the nut itself spins freely of the flange. By design I’m sure, but I’ve never seen that before.
I’ll try to find replacement nuts , but in the meantime, has anyone had experience with this?
Last edited by F3Woody; May 5, 2024 at 05:57 AM.
Side mirror is wobbly, went in and saw the top flange nut (1 of 2, a top & bottom) had fallen out. I’m stumped by a few things. First, the threads on the nut seem to be almost completely stripped and rusted (maybe rust from sitting in the bottom of the door?). Second, when attempting to tighten the remaining nut, turning it clockwise, it just spun in place, but counterclockwise appeared to tighten it to a stop.
Also curious, the nut itself spins freely of the flange. By design I’m sure, but I’ve never seen that before.
I’ll try to find replacement nuts , but in the meantime, has anyone had experience with this?
A couple of things to note in those procedures:
1) There is no mention in either the the 3 mounting nuts' removal or installation step instructions that the tightening and loosening rotation direction does not follow the regular/conventional direction.
2) There is "OUTER MIRROR INSTALL HOLE COVER" installed over where those mounting nuts are installed.
From a 11-29-22 posting of yours, I see you purchased your 2019 ES as a CPO. Given you have no way of knowing the full history of the vehicle, I suspect you're dealing with some sort of botched DIY outside rear view mirror work that occurred sometime between when the ES left the assembly line and your CPO purchase. Indications of botched work are:
1) There should be 3 mounting nuts - you found just 2.
2) Evidence of stripped threads on both nuts. (Just spinning in place while trying to tighten the nut with conventional clockwise direction is evidence of stripped threads.)
3) If by some chance a mounting nut had worked itself off its threaded mounting shaft, I would think the "OUTER MIRROR INSTALL HOLE COVER" would prevent it from falling all the way to the bottom of the door where you found it. (That's assuming that cover hasn't gone missing from your ES.)
Pics that I wasn't able to upload, below. Both the round and oval holes in the second pic had rubber seals in them when I opened the door. I only looked through the oval, where I found the two mentioned nuts, maybe the third is in the round hole. I'll try to replace all three, because why not.
Also, there is nothing preventing the nut from falling to the bottom of the door, but it was easily retrievable with a magnetic wand.
Thanks again, I'll let you know how it goes
If I can get the new nuts on securely I won't fuss about it. Otherwise I really don't want to take it back and ask for CPO fix but I will. But I have a feeling they might say something about the Kilmat I put in the doors, maybe try to weasel their way out of the warranty repair.
If I can get the new nuts on securely I won't fuss about it. Otherwise I really don't want to take it back and ask for CPO fix but I will. But I have a feeling they might say something about the Kilmat I put in the doors, maybe try to weasel their way out of the warranty repair.
This warranty covers repairs to covered components. This
warranty does not cover any breakdown, mechanical failure
or expenses, which are due to, result from, or are caused by
any of the following:
...
PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS
◻️ Any conditions that existed prior to date of purchase or lease,
damages caused by a previous improper repair, and failures
caused by any direct or indirect modifications of parts not
authorized or supplied by Lexus.
...
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But the most curious/frustrating thing is that I can’t even get the bottom nut off to remove the mirror entirely. It just spins and spins, both directions! 😡. I marked the stud and nut with a sharpie to see if the stud may have sheared off but it’s not - a quarter turn of the nut showed the nut had turned but the stud remained in place.
This is a head scratcher for sure.
Last edited by hotwings; May 7, 2024 at 02:31 PM.
The dealer confirmed what I thought, the stud(s) were "warped", or deformed in some way. They were replaced free of charge under CPO, although they made sure to tell me that it was technically not supposed to be covered and they were doing me a solid.
Two thumbs up for customer service.









