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Replacing outside mirror

1K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  azzkicker 
#1 ·
My 98 ZJ Limited has the fancy auto-dimming driver's side mirror. You know, the one that goes crummy after a few years? The magic sauce between the two pieces of glass that does the dimming leaks out, and it's not a really good mirror anymore. Mine definitely sucks.

I was just going to replace the glass, and was part way along the process when my son gets on my case to take pictures and write it up. Okay.

This is a simple process. The steps involved are:
(1) Pull the old nasty mirror on its backing plate out of the housing
(2) Take the old nasty mirror off the backing plate
(3) Clean the old urethane adhesive off the backing plate
(4) Mount the new adhesive on the backing plate
(5) Mount the new mirror on the backing plate
(6) Put the new mirror plus backing plate back in the housing.

Read through and look at the pictures for more detail on actually doing this.

Replacing just the glass is a lot cheaper than replacing the whole external mirror. You don't have to take the door apart, you don't have to match colors, and you don't have to match mirror features with a replacement assembly. If you have the funky failed self-dimming "feature" then you also have a heated mirror with memory; it's part of the package.

I got my new heated mirror glass on eBay. While you can get replacement glass with the dimming feature, that's at least $90 on eBay and it will probably fail again in a few years. I went with replacement heated mirror glass, which ran me around $35 shipped quickly from the U.S. You can get a non-heated mirror for less. You can probably also pry one from a donor Jeep at your local friendly jy.

Removing the old mirror plus backing plate is pretty simple. Push one corner of the mirror, such as the upper corner closest to the door into the mirror housing as far as it will go. That leaves the outer lower corner of the mirror plus backing plate sticking out. Grab it and pry the sucker out by the backplate. Fingers, screwdriver blade, bottle opener, machete, pick your tool and go for it. There are wires attached to the mirror -- What you do with those depends on your replacement. Read on for that discussion. I separated the old mirror from the backing plate using one of my EDC knives, the longish blade on my Spyderco Endura.

Here's the old mirror, after removal from the driver's side housing, and from the backing plate:
Rectangle Automotive lighting Bumper Automotive exterior Tints and shades

The mirror looks much, much worse than what you see in this picture. The black band around the outside holds the electrodes that contact the inner surfaces of the glass pieces to make the liquid crystal material change phases to do the dimming trick. At least when there's liquid crystal material present, which there probably was for a couple of years.

Here's the back of the old mirror:
Grille Rectangle Metal Font Automotive radiator part

The two push-on terminals are for the heater. The two thin wires coming out of the black outer band are for dimming. You can also see blobs of adhesive (urethane I think) that holds the mirror to the backing plate.

Here's the front of a cleaned mirror backing plate:
Gadget Automotive wheel system Auto part Bumper Plastic

The large rectangular cutout is for the heater contacts. The smaller rectangular cutout above it is for the dimmer wires. I'd cleaned pretty much all the old adhesive off the backing plate by the time my son gave me grief for not taking pictures from the start, and to write the damn thing up. Oh well, next project I'll start taking pictures earlier. The adhesive peels off fairly easily. I used my Spyderco to get off the large chunks, and a #11 scalpel blade to dig out smaller bits. Made a pass with Goo Gone, then washed it with dish detergent, rinsed, and dried. My son probably would have used brake cleaner. The goal is to clean off the old crap and leave the surface really clean and free of contaminants so the new adhesive can do a good job for many, many years.

Here's the back of the mirror backing plate:
Rim Automotive wheel system Automotive tire Auto part Font

The center area has a blob of grease in it and is the pivot for the mirror plus backing plate. At 12 - 3 - 6 - 9 o'clock you can see where the backing plate clips to the mount.

And here's the mount inside the mirror housing:
Motor vehicle Automotive tire Gas Automotive wheel system Rim

You can see the pins that clip into the backing plate. They pop free fairly easily.

When it pops off:
Bumper Gas Auto part Automotive exterior Nut

The mirror is connected to the housing by a pair of wires with push-on connectors for the heater. Pull those off nicely if you want to use the heater part again. If you don't want to use the heater part again, please put tape on those push-ons so they can't short to each other or to anything else. There are also a pair of thin wires for the dimming feature. I cut those off, as I'm too cheap to get a replacement auto-dimming mirror, which go for $90 or more on eBay and I expect would fail in a few years. If you decide to go that way, you'll need to undo the connector.

My new mirror glass is a nice kit I found on eBay for around $35, shipped quickly from the U.S. The kit includes:
Peripheral Input device Grey Gadget Office equipment

The new mirror, heated, and six double-sided adhesive discs. Here's the back of the new mirror:
Grille Rectangle Automotive design Font Office equipment

Nice push-ons for the heater. I like it. It's not exactly the same size/shape as the old mirror, but it's close enough for me.

Here's the backing with the adhesive discs placed:
Rectangle Wood Tints and shades Circle Pattern

Note that I trimmed one disc for the heater connection. I could have placed the four corner discs further outside and trimmed them along the outside edge, but I placed them at the corners. Think that will work. Peel the top paper off the adhesive discs and carefully place the mirror, then push it in place. You've got one shot at this, so take your time! After I placed the mirror, I flipped it over (on a clean smooth surface) and pressed down on the rear of the backing plate to seat the mirror on the adhesive discs better. Your kit may have different adhesive, or you may have to roll your own. If you do, use something that has some flex and give to it, like the thick layer of adhesive in the OEM assembly, or the adhesive discs -- the killer here is thermal expansion, and the difference in thermal expansion between the backing plate and the mirror, let alone the mirror with the heater going.
Communication Device Gadget Rectangle Laptop part Portable communications device


Take it back to your Jeep, re-connect the heater wires, and press it back in place -- I put a shop towel over the mirror so I didn't get paw prints over it. Press and eventually it pops into the clips.

Now you can see what's behind you. I hope it doesn't have flashing lights on top!

bob k6rtm
 
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#2 ·
Where did you find replacement dimming mirror glass may I ask?
 
#6 ·
Excellent write up and pics k6! Being ZJ specific makes it even better. I found a new assembly still in the box awhile back on ebay that is still sitting on a shelf.
 
#8 ·
I'm going to rewrite part of the process -- after thinking about it, one of the toughest parts, especially for someone who is new to this stuff, is judging how hard you can - should - need to press on the new mirror and backplate assembly to get it back in place.

As I thought about it, I was thinking that the thing to do is to practice snapping the plate back in place once you've cleaned it.

But hey, why not put the backing plate back in place once it's cleaned up (dressing the heater wires out through the hole), and then mount the new mirror on the plate already installed in the mirror housing? Then you don't have to worry about pressing against the mirror to snap the backplate back into place. It's also easier to see when you have the thing lined up correctly.

A thought anyway, and it feels a bit easier, or at least not as traumatic, as mounting the mirror on the backplate and then having to press hard (no, harder!) on the new mirror to snap things back into place.

Let me know what you think -- I'm used to working with precision electronics, so the idea of pulling - pushing on something until it comes loose isn't something I do a lot. I expect that's more the norm, particularly when working on a 20 year old vehicle... That's what I've seen (and heard) my son doing on our (his) green 96 ZJ...

bob k6rtm
 
#9 ·
No, no, no -- that guy is nuts. You don't have to pop the backing plate out of the mirror housing at all. All you need to do is take the old glass off.

Look at the instructions in the replacement mirror kits -- they assume you've got a busted mirror. First step is to get the pieces off, then clear off the old adhesive, which for OEM glass is a thick urethane.

So push the inside corner of the mirror in as much as it will go, which makes the outside corner stick out. Stick a knife blade in between the glass and the backing plate and slice along it to give yourself a start. Knife blade, stiletto, straight razor, whatever is popular in your neighborhood -- open up a slice between the glass and the backing.

Then use your secret weapon, something you shouldn't go to the jy without -- dental floss. Get a foot long piece of dental floss (about 300mm for our Euro friends), and tie the ends around long screws, nails, drill bits, key rings -- but don't wrap the stuff around your fingers unless you wanna lose a finger. Slip the dental floss into the slice you made and saw it back and forth, pulling it between the mirror and the backing. It will cut through that urethane stuff easily. Unplug the old mirror, clean off the old adhesive, clean it really well, then use the adhesive that came with the mirror kit to mount the new one AFTER YOU'VE CONNECTED THE HEATER WIRES DUMMY!

Like I said, dental floss should be in your jy toolkit. It's also great for taking off logos, lettering, emblems and such -- get it started through the adhesive on a letter or logo, and saw it back and forth, holding it as close to the body panel as you can. Takes that stuff off without damaging the finish.

I know a character with a Nissan Versa who's always complaining about how it doesn't have any power, doesn't accelerate, yada yada whaddya expect you cheapskate. But thanks to my dental floss, next time I spot that heap in the parking lot, his Versa is gonna have a new badge on the back identifying it as a V8 -- should do wonders for performance, right? At least as good as those OBD-II performance boosters... Hey, if I'm lucky at the jy tomorrow, his Versa could even turn into a V10 Duramax...

Dental floss -- great stuff. Toss some in your jy toolkit.
 
#11 ·
Wow, that sounds like a great trick I never would have thought of, and could use elsewhere. I'm very glad you shared it, but please don't call somebody nuts that just busted their butt taking pictures and letting us know how they worked through a repair. I really appreciate everybody that takes the time to share their "how-to", and a lot of great learning is lost when people don't want to be second guessed.

There's always a better way, but if nobody shows us how they did it, we won't find out.

Thanks for sharing the dental floss trick, and thanks to the original poster for all the pics and info. I'm having a jerking movement in my mirror that makes me want to dig in and spray some white lithium on everything. Having some pictures of the guts, and some knowledge how it comes apart, might keep me from destroying an expensive mirror just to find out how I should have taken it apart.

This is a very helpful forum, so keep posting guys!
 
#10 ·
Was looking around and the dimmer glass still shows as a good number for a paltry 300 plus dollars,lol.
 
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