skipsantos

I am trying to repair the connection for the return spring in the side passenger mirror housing on a 99 E320. It appears that the part of the housing that the spring connected to has broken, so now the mirror appears loose.

If anyone knows of an inexpensive fix besides purchasing the complete assembly, please let me know. Thanks.

ohlord

benzworld.org w210 section or it might even be in the diy section.Common problem some people build up jb weld others find an anchor point further in and anchor it there.
ohlord
http://w210.pietrzyk.net/disassembly_88hoodfend.htm

skipsantos

Thanks for the info. I will probably try the latter of the two. The car is in the shop for a rear engine seal leak, so I will try to fix when I get it back.

Air Marshall Eldritch

The JB Weld worked for me. It did take about 3 layers to build up the connection point and proper curing took almost a week, but it was chilly out at the time.

georgedaman

I had my mirror broken backwards..the piece with the hole broke off..After long meditation and consultation, i ended up taking the mirror off and drilled another whole to hook the end of the spring into...
Good luck!!

skipsantos

I have received a couple of responses that pretty much confirm that there is an inexpensive fix to my problem. Thanks for the input. I will follow up with my repair after I am able to do it.

Mr.Billyd

The tab that the spring attaches to is a weak piece of bogus metal.
If you go to MB it will cost you 600us.
I shoped ebay and found a wrecking yard, got the entire mirror for 150us. Now I have spare parts for it.
Good luck
Bill

raymond g-

that's the way to do it, Mr B.

skipsantos

Well, got the car out of the MB dealer after $2,000 worth of oil leak repairs and miscellenous parts. They quoted $575 for the mirror, which is flat out ridiculous, so I told them not to fix it. I took off the housing and used a plastic zip tie to go around the interior frame. Hooked the spring to it and tightened until tension was right. Put the housing back on and good as new. No problems yet. When the tie gets old and breaks, I will just take another one out of the $0.99 bag of 100 and fix it again. I think I might buy some AAPL with the $574 I saved on mirror.

Thanks for the input guys.

Yacht Master

Best one yet, I'll use a tywrap next time, I was thinking of a bungee cord in place of the SPRING.
I put a 1/4 28 pan head machine screw with 2 nuts one plain and one locker. Then I drilled a hole in the location of the previous hook and attached the spring to it.
The frame is meant to break cheap zinc/pot metal, total crap.

skipsantos

I like your fix better, but the zip tie fit my schedule. I thought about using two with one as a back up, but I will see how this holds up.

Nothing like bubble gum and band-aids!

MG

3 years ago I turned off my curbcheck function on my mirror and just push it back after the trip to the car wash.

Brenton, fix my damned mirror!

foreyes

I ground the worn tab completely away with a Dremel, then drilled a new spring attachment hole in the mirror frame at the same location. It took 5 minutes, and the mirror is as new again, no vibrations, nice and tight. I put up with my wobbly passenger side mirror for over 6 months, would have done it sooner if I knew it was such a quick fix. It's like the window regulators, you put it off and dread it, and then it's a quick 10 minute job. I love our simple W210 cars!