A few days ago i cranked up my car and the drivers side mirror mad a wierd grinding like sound for about 10 seconds. Well it does this every time i start it now. I knew it was the something with the gear that wont let it fold out anymore. So i took it all apart and found the problem. The little gear that goes attached to the axle of the electric motor was stripped. It was missing a big chunk. Turns out my only option is to replace the whole stupid mirror now(warranty just went out last month). Or can i replace just this little part? I'm guessing the way it broke someone must have shoved it real hard and stripped the gear.

There are small pieces so i left one pic HUGE!!

 

Holy crap it's messy in there.

Maybe it's a standard gear piece that you could find at a small electronics shop, or even a hobby shop that sells RC stuff, etc?

You could also try building it up yourself with some kind of plastic epoxy and then shaving it down the best you can to be uniform with the other threads... ?

 

sounds very time consuming...? lol...building it up sounds like a good idea...but i don't think it would hold as good...Wish they had a metal replacement. That would leave only one piece that could fail. Thats good enough. Leave something that would have some give. For now i'm just going to order a replacement unit i guess.

 

You can get a used mirror from ebay as low as $100.

 

How many miles on the car, and what is its date of first use?

 

my warranty went out last month. I was told from the dealership about a year ago that it was up last month. All i have is drive train now. And i am looking to get a OEM mirror from ebay already. THANX

 

is there enough grease inside our mirrors?

Sorry to hear. Hope you can find a replacement on eBay to keep your cost down.

 

sorry to hear the drama. Looks a bit messy to fix it. These cars are way to pricey to repair not to buy the extended warranty imo. It may seem like a waste to some but I dont want to take any chances and I am not a mechanic

 

If it were me I would find a way to make it stationary, no more folding.

 

So this is a good reason to not have auto fold with ignition IMO

 

Well if you had to park on a small street in Europe, its cheaper to repair this once every 2-4 years than to have someone break off your mirror weekly.

 

or replace it with a manual fold mirror.

 

I wonder if worm gears like that are a standard size. I bought a replacement for my odometer from these guys. Might be worth sending the broken one to them and see if it matches up with anything they have in inventory.

http://www.odometergears.com/ford.html

 

Plastic gear is just not a brilliant idea. Lexus, are you listening?!

 

man after seeing all of that lube/grease....now i know where i get that ridiculous oil/grease line that comes down my mirror after waxing my ride. knowing there's alot of plastic in the mirror assembly makes me think twice about always folding my mirrors when i park.