Wing Mirrors on a Chim

[Duncansnelling]

Hi guys,

can any one help? how do you take the mirrors off a m1 Chimaera I have pulled about and cant see any way it twists off.

Cheers Duncan

[dog man]

It's tricky.

The whole thing screws in.

You might find it easier removing the glass and motor and un pluging everything. The bible is fairly clear on the whole procedure. Mine was broken by a passing car so removing the stem from the door was relatively easy but removing a complete mirror might be hard as you need to unscrew the whole thing and the swivel joint will try to move before the thread in the actual door

Perhaps someone can explain better.

[SwanJack]

If you push up the black cover that lives between the car door and the bottom of the plastic body of the mirror's stem, you might be able to find a grub screw in a circular metal collar just inside the recess of the car door. IIRC the screw is at '12 o’clock ‘on the circumference of this collar but the car door might stop you getting access to it. Unscrew it and the whole mirror will come off.

Another way, the way I had to do it, was to remove glass and unplug (it is held in place with double sided tape), remove motor assembly by unscrewing three silver hex bolts, unplug motor. Unscrew three Phillips screws that hold the metal frame to the plastic cover. You should be able to get to the metal stem of the mirror by moving things about a bit. Apply WD40 to bottom of stem, place a screw driver through the stem and turn screwdriver anticlockwise to unscrew stem.

[spend]

Lump hammer / air saw / cutter + much satisfaction destroying the barstewards & replace with later VW ones (particularly now plasticman is making the adaptors)


ETA: then sit back & laugh over the cpoming years at all the frequent posts about fighting with the damn Citroen mirrors

Edited by spend on Monday 6th December 10:08

[Chimpafrolic]

Hi Duncan, Chimaera mirror problems are common.

Solving the problems will depend on what exactly is going on, its not clear from your original post what your mirror issue is, it would help if you could give a bit more detail.

The next thing to do is establish what mountings you have, there are two types of fixings for the Citroen CX mirrors.

1. Fitted with an extended boss like this:



"Nasty & tricky to work on"


2. Fitted deeper into the circular recess in the door skin like this:



"Very, very nasty & an absolute nightmare to work on"

Basically the CX mirrors are rubbish, that's why Spend is recommending replacing them with the later VW Corrado ones as fitted the last Griffith SE model and many other later designed TVR's.

But most things can be repaired, even the troublesome CX mirrors, so don't give up just yet.

Let me have a bit more detail on your exact problem and what type of fixing you have & I will try and help.

Dave.

Edited by Chimpafrolic on Monday 6th December 10:59

[spend]

Chimpafrolic said:

..The next thing to do is establish what mountings you have, there are two types of fixings for the Citroen CX mirrors.

2 types? we are on Chim (&Griff) topic here, AFIK the extension is only on S's?

[SwanJack]

"Very, very nasty & an absolute nightmare to work on"

Not in my experience, pretty straightforward repair job when my mirror stump broke.

"Basically the CX mirrors are rubbish"

In what way?? Over the 10 yrs I've owned my Chimaera, I've found that they are well up to the job.

[m4ckg]

Where can you buy the extended boss's from, I can't get in to tighten my mirror even with a cut down hallam key!

[Duncansnelling]

Thanks for all your help, driver side came off with gentle persuasion after blood sweat and a few tears! passengers side came of in my hand in two parts oops!!!!! so need new passenger mirror. If any one has a spare i am in the market as well as a new bonnet!! or is best to dig al the gel cracks out? as there is a hell of a lot of them,

[Chimpafrolic]

SwanJack said:

"Very, very nasty & an absolute nightmare to work on"

Not in my experience, pretty straightforward repair job when my mirror stump broke.

"Basically the CX mirrors are rubbish"

In what way?? Over the 10 yrs I've owned my Chimaera, I've found that they are well up to the job.

So what you are saying is:

Your mirrors broke and they are well up to the job?

Sorry isn't this a dichotomy?

I still say they are a poor design made cheaply, just do a search and you will find a host of posts about problems with these lovely mirrors.

The first problem is the mirror frame itself is made from monkey metal, great for cheap & detailed injection castings during mass production but this material fractures very easily.

The second problem is the alan headed grub screw, great for adjusting the mirror position prior to the assembly being screwed into the door at the factory, but it ends up being the only thing holding the mirror in the correct position.

What happens is the threads corrode on the mirror and the nut (that's bonded into the door) fusing the two firmly together.

The little grub screw then becomes the weakest link, any loosening of this grub screw and you end up with a mirror that flops like a eunuch's tackle, if you try and rotate it to tighten it up the whole assembly just spins.

When this happened to me I found it impossible to tighten the grub screw with the mirror still screwed into the door because it sits deep in the circular recess.

Removing the mirror assembly from the door is less than easy because the post just spins on the grub screw.

The way I did it was to soak the area around the seized threads in penetrating fluid and leave it to work for a few days.

Then rotating the plastic collar to get better access I used a blunt screwdriver on the threaded mirror post and carefully taped it with a hammer anticlockwise to unscrew it from the bonded nut in the door skin.

Once the mirror is off the door, its easy to tighten the grub screw and then screw the whole assembly back into the bonded nut.

I drilled a small indent in the mirror post so when the grub screw is tightened it locates in the indent, this makes a much stronger connection between the two parts and ensures the mirror can't spin on the post.

Applying a smear of copper slip to the threads should mean the the mirror will unscrew from the nut much easier in future too.

I used some large thin plastic washers between the nut and the threaded post to correctly adjust the final position of the mirror.

This method is invisible and proved much better than trying to get that little grub screw in the perfect position before screwing the mirror to the door.

The best advice I can give to anyone with these mirrors is don't be tempted to push them closed when you park in tight places.

Do this with any regularity & the grub screw's grip on the post will eventually loosen resulting in the floppy mirror syndrome.

Like most things, when you understand how it works and what's wrong with it, you can usually apply a bit of grey matter to fix it.

I do hope some of all this helps someone out there, just sharing my experiences and pain so hopefully others don't have the same hassle I suffered with these wonderful mirrors.

Edited by Chimpafrolic on Monday 6th December 18:34

[Duncansnelling]

Thanks for all your help, driver side came off with gentle persuasion after blood sweat and a few tears! passengers side came of in my hand in two parts oops!!!!! so need new passenger mirror. If any one has a spare i am in the market as well as a new bonnet!! or is best to dig al the gel cracks out? as there is a hell of a lot of them,

[Harrytsg]

Duncansnelling said:

Thanks for all your help, driver side came off with gentle persuasion after blood sweat and a few tears! passengers side came of in my hand in two parts oops!!!!! so need new passenger mirror. If any one has a spare i am in the market as well as a new bonnet!! or is best to dig al the gel cracks out? as there is a hell of a lot of them,

Have a look here

http://www.clever-trevor.net/search.html?search=Mi...

Then scroll down

Edited by Harrytsg on Monday 6th December 19:01

[Duncansnelling]

Cheers hope to send a bit less as car needs a fair bit of work.

[SwanJack]

Chimpafrolic said:

SwanJack said:

"Very, very nasty & an absolute nightmare to work on"

Not in my experience, pretty straightforward repair job when my mirror stump broke.

"Basically the CX mirrors are rubbish"

In what way?? Over the 10 yrs I've owned my Chimaera, I've found that they are well up to the job.

So what you are saying is:

Your mirrors broke and they are well up to the job?

Sorry isn't this a dichotomy?

Edited by Chimpafrolic on Monday 6th December 18:34

Mine broke because I hit it with excessive and unreasonable force trying to get past the car when it was too close to the wall in the garage. I cannot blame the design on that. Sure some other mirrors' design might have come through with less damage, but they would look like st if stuck onto the side of the car.
Neither mirror has ever been floppy and have never rotated on their own axis. When I took my mirror apart I had none of the problems you seem to have, no rusted/bonded/unbonded bits. I guess I'm just lucky . The design is fine, how TVR applied it, with particluar reference to the grub screw location and the fact that water collects in the door/mirror recess is another matter.

Edited by SwanJack on Monday 6th December 19:23