Broken Side Mirror Assembly '04

Recently bought a used 2004 2500 Dodge Sprinter. The damaged mirror was part of 'The Deal'. I want to make the mirror either functional to hopefully totally fixed.

My number one issue is the main arm that the mirror rotates on has lost all friction and flips out of place (forward and back). The remote adjustment still work fine.

Also, the black plastic shell is damaged on the door-side and missing on the body-side.

I would like to restore the basic function of the mirror(looking back on the passenger side) or best case fix it to original good!

Any schematics or great priced parts would be very helpful.

Great timing, mine are so loose I now have string tied to the hood hinge and the mirror. Strings a little tight for the city but it stretches just long enough at freeway speeds ( no remote adjustment here). Have to be careful with hard braking- string only works 1 way.

One of us will need to get out the tool box tomorrow. Would be nice if I had an exploded view before disassemble

My 2005 has the double decker mirrors, there's a lot of surface area for the wind to push on. Will have to discuss this german engineering with my german boss.
His customers have dried up and we're unemployed

To Hoppingmad
I made the posting because yesterday my husband stopped me from filling the joints with 'Shoe Goo'.
Here's hopping for a schematic!

I tried silicone rubber-failed

the strings holding the mirror
the shavings in teeth
the broken collar around the teeth
the worn away arm
the new leather washer
currently its tight, but haven't hit the highway yet
from the looks of the shavings and broken collar, this is just the safety breakaway????? not an adjustment?
at least on mine, the mirrors pivot on the bracket, not if I can just get the morons in the parking lots to leave them alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mirrors were tight,somebody moved them in a parking lot.
Now the blow back in the breeze again. PHOEY
Will need input from someone who succesfully repaired this problem.

Sorry to hear about your parking lot loosening. We park on the street in a college town so I have empathy. I was encouraged by your leather grommet and took my mirror apart. I tried to pry out the worn toothed nut part, but had no luck removing it. Cleaned the teeth up and retightened the whole thing. I thought I might be good now but, I guess it will loosen .

I'm thinking tooth part was to engage mirror arms. And somewhere in the middle is a friction device thats supposed to do the work. (under split collar)
Looking into an additional bracket, and a soft alum arm (sacrificial) , but all engineering efforts coming up fruitless. Theres not a lot of room to put anything
We must be the only 2 with this problem. Other mirror, torx bit stripped in bolt head, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Have tightened bolt a little more (all the way). Have even shaved the plastic spacer thing 1/8 inch for more clamping?????

I have exactly this same problem with my '04.

The whole assembly flops in the breeze, although the electrical mirror movement still works.

Has anyone come up with a fix - and how does the thing come apart?

-Oly

Try removing the bolt and place a thick washer on it, then reinstall it. This has worked for some people, so it's possible that the bolt is bottoming out when it's tightened before it actually clamps everything together. You don't have anything to lose except the price of a washer.

Byron
07 Navion

Thanks for the reply - it sounds like good advice, so I hate to have to ask:

What bolt? Where? How does one "get at" it?

Sorry to have to ask: there seems no way to get inside this thing.

-Oly

Any sprinter mechanics: floppy side mirror assembly '06

After we had our van painted recently we found we had this problem with the driver's side mirror. That makes me think maybe something got broken - not just worn out? I mean it was fine and suddenly it's not - that sounds like broken to me.

Same as the rest of you - mirror adjustment buttons work but the whole unit is pushed toward the van in the wind so the upper mirror becomes useless. The thrill of living dangerously is long gone.

Schematics and fix would be much appreciated.

Had the problem of the Drivers side mirror loosening and flopping in the wind. Find the Star bit Bolt by looking under the axis for the mirror. Mine had apparently worked its way loose. I simply tightened this up with a socket wrench/star bit attachment. Now the mirror is engaging the spring mechanism. Hope this helps.

Is the star bit bolt you mention the thing with what look like gears on it in pic earlier in this thread?

Has anyone figured out how to repair this problem yet or is the only real solution a new side mirror assembly? We have found that getting a service appointment in a place that still has a Sprinter technician is surprisingly hard. Any other solutions people have tried might be worth a look?

bstory said:

Is the star bit bolt you mention the thing with what look like gears on it in pic earlier in this thread?

Click to expand...

You probably figured this out already, but as nobody responded to your question so long ago... Then again, you are still asking questions today.

Let me begin with the fact I have never had these parts disassembled. The only part I saw in the pictures was a friction device to hold the mirror arm from sliding. I didn't see any fasteners in the pictures.

Maybe this will help?



Were I in your situation I would try some sort of washer as glas1700 suggested. I have various plastic and rubber/fabric washers I might try, but I am a pack rat (OK... hoarder) so I have those things. Maybe cut a piece of leather from an old shoe to make a friction washer? Good luck. vic

I have similar issue - my left window is no longer holding it's position. I long term park on major street, so I always fold it to prevent someone from clipping it. Since it seems like nobody got around to looking at this yet, I will try to fix it tomorrow and report back.

D.

The same prob on my '04, driver's side.

I tried making friction washers from rubber, but it's hard to install and lasts only until you must close the mirror, then it gets destroyed by torque forces. Then a metal washer, but couldn't find one thin enough to fit and large enough to let the screw through.

My best solution so far is to screw it in as hard as possible, not close the mirrors at all and so far that's the best I could come up with. I also have the feeling it bottoms out before fully gripping on the thing, so maybe a washer helping tighten it could be a solution.

I have a big parking space at home, and always choose parking spaces carefully, so I don't really have a need to close the mirrors more often than few times a year, so tightening it each time is good enough for me.



About electric mirror part, does anyone have a good pic with the explanation of the swich which chooses the mirror to operate ? The plastic cover has broken off on mine and it seems to be in the middle/neutral position. I didn't yet take it apart, but I didn't yet figure out how it wirks without cover and what i need to push in to choose the side i want to...

maxi_sprinter said:

the swich which chooses the mirror to operate ?

Click to expand...

Mechanically or electrically?
Here's the schematic from the USA 2006 service manual (which also works for 2002 onward):



The labeling on the switch isn't too helpful.
What it *does* is connect, and occasionally reverse, the current to each of the two motors in the selected mirror.
Only one motor is connected at a time.

If you're familiar with electrical terminology, each motor effectively "sees" a double-pole double-pole (center off) switch (DPDT), with the "left/right" mirror-select switch totally disconnecting the unwanted side.

It is truly messy.
The fact that the motor units *share* one wire for both motors complicates things (you can't just use 4 switches, one for each motor, unless you could GUARANTEE that you would never press two at once for one mirror.).
If you were trying to replace the switch with "just switches", it would take at least three: one for which mirror, and then two (one for each motor).

good luck
--dick

OK, I'm back to report on the "fix" In my case it was extremely easy - I simply tightened the bolt in the bottom, and now my mirror magically stays put. I cannot believe I drove around with flopping mirror for nearly a year. Live and learn.