Post by Sabertooth on Mar 26, 2020 16:49:40 GMT -5
I'd been meaning to do this for a few years now, finally I was bored enough to do it. Very commonly, the solder joints connecting the power and ground pins for the mirror to the board crack, and stop working. This causes an intermittent or total failure of the lights and auto dimming features of the mirror.
To fix it, you'll optimally have the following:
Soldering iron (100% needed)
Solder sucker (may be able to just re-flow the OEM solder)
Flat head screwdriver
Hot glue gun (or other way to secure the mirror halves back together of your choice)
Solder
Steady hand, and patience
First you'll want to pull your mirror. There's a metal tab inside the holder at the glass, you just push a screwdriver in there (flat head) while pulling up (probably gotta wiggle it) and the mirror should come off. Then, you unplug the mirror.
Once in your hands, you can pull the front trim and the back apart. It's lightly glued, and I found that walking a trim tool (blue blue plastic shown behind the mirror) around was a great way to split them. You'll be left with something like this
Once at this stage, take a heat gun, and warm up the circuit board. It's glued down to the foam, but the glue becomes tacky very quickly with heat. I was able to comfortably touch the board still while it was hot enough to be pulled back. Be careful of the wires on the left, as they are for your auto dimming feature.
Next, flip the board so you can see the back of it. Towards the middle, you'll see pins 1-7. They very commonly crack, and cause intermittent or total failure of the electrics to the mirror. Heat the pins carefully, and using a solder sucker, you can remove the old solder. Then, you can apply your own solder on the pins, again, being very careful not to get any solder anywhere but connecting the pin to the board.
It will look something like this once complete
Re-assembly can be done by flipping the board, heating it, and the glue on the foam will activate once again, and it will be secured. Then, connect the front and back of the mirror housing together. There are no clips, and I found hot glue to be a reasonable way to secure it together once again (non permanent, easy clean up, strong enough)
With the mirror back together, you can plug it in, secure it in place, and you will once again have fully restored mirror function
To fix it, you'll optimally have the following:
Soldering iron (100% needed)
Solder sucker (may be able to just re-flow the OEM solder)
Flat head screwdriver
Hot glue gun (or other way to secure the mirror halves back together of your choice)
Solder
Steady hand, and patience
First you'll want to pull your mirror. There's a metal tab inside the holder at the glass, you just push a screwdriver in there (flat head) while pulling up (probably gotta wiggle it) and the mirror should come off. Then, you unplug the mirror.
Once in your hands, you can pull the front trim and the back apart. It's lightly glued, and I found that walking a trim tool (blue blue plastic shown behind the mirror) around was a great way to split them. You'll be left with something like this
Once at this stage, take a heat gun, and warm up the circuit board. It's glued down to the foam, but the glue becomes tacky very quickly with heat. I was able to comfortably touch the board still while it was hot enough to be pulled back. Be careful of the wires on the left, as they are for your auto dimming feature.
Next, flip the board so you can see the back of it. Towards the middle, you'll see pins 1-7. They very commonly crack, and cause intermittent or total failure of the electrics to the mirror. Heat the pins carefully, and using a solder sucker, you can remove the old solder. Then, you can apply your own solder on the pins, again, being very careful not to get any solder anywhere but connecting the pin to the board.
It will look something like this once complete
Re-assembly can be done by flipping the board, heating it, and the glue on the foam will activate once again, and it will be secured. Then, connect the front and back of the mirror housing together. There are no clips, and I found hot glue to be a reasonable way to secure it together once again (non permanent, easy clean up, strong enough)
With the mirror back together, you can plug it in, secure it in place, and you will once again have fully restored mirror function
