Rear view mirror attachment

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Since I removed the rear view mirror on my e9 I have been unable to re-attach it, 2 questions;

1. Is there a trick (that works)?
2. Is it possible that something fell out from the holder/housing?

Due to my attempts currently the thumb and forefinger on my left hand are no longer functioning properly and this is really distressing.

As always,

Thanks

 

[jmackro]

You are probably doing it correctly - it just takes a LOT of force to compress the springs to get it to seat. The only trick that I know is to lubricate the two tangs so they will slide over the thing-a-mabob more easily.

 

[aearch]

add grease to the two prongs and press in w/ channel locks to make sure they are loose
then set one side and use small screwdriver to push in opposite side
it will pop in
ok

 

[OCCoupe]

Take a 12" length of 1"x3/4" or so wood. Wrap one of the ends with a piece of microfiber or terricloth towel. Insert one side of the mirror in to the mount. Use the wood along with mallet to hit the other side in to the hole. Alan is right, use some lube.

 

[Gary Knox]

Haven't done my e9, but my MB 560SEC has the same mirror mount, and I've done it a few times. For the 'lube', I've used a dab of SuperLube on each end of the mirror prongs, and a dab on each of the 'latches'. I also like Alan's procedure of using channel locks to be sure the prongs can be depressed into the frame readily.

Take care of that thumb and finger. You'll need them for future work!!!

Gary

 

[sidcc]

I am very happy to be finally contributing some information to this forum that has been such a helpful resource to me...

Regarding reattachment of the rear view mirror, I’ve found a super easy way of doing this.

You will need/

Channel locks
Lubricant
A small Alan key or similar

Here’s what I did

- Put a dab of lubricant on mirror attachment ends and attachment point on roof
- use channel locks to create some elasticity in the spring
- depress spring and use Alan key to keep spring depressed
- slide in mirror attachment, ensure it’s all the way in, then remove Alan key

Voila! Mirror attached and no pulled muscles!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mr bump]

I've had exactly the same problem this week! It came out easy enough but you need arms like Popeye to get it back in!

 

[Honolulu]

Whatever else you do, heed my tale of woe: the mirror on my '87 E32 735i came off. I though it attached the same way as the coupe (it doesn't). So i put it in place and gave it a good one with the heel of my hand. Shattered the windshield, beginning of the end. With that, the car was no longer economical to fix and it was towed after sitting a couple years. I had been telling the wife it was a storage system for the B35 before I got around to swapping it into the coupe, but with 157,000 miles it might not have been all that good an idea. Life is to gather experiences, but also to learn from the mistakes of others, since we don't have time to make them all ourselves.