CUTiger80

Cary, I replaced the entire mirror except for the painted shell. What I found when I removed the mirror that was on the car was that it had previously been replaced with an after-market mirror, which happened to be the exact same brand that I had ordered from eBay. I was able to replace all of the "guts" of the old mirror with the guts of the new mirror. I was able to retain the painted shell from the old mirror, and thus not have to paint the new one. What I found in doing all of this is that the OEM mirror glass mounting configuration and motor assembly are completely different than the after-market mirror that I bought, so the parts are not interchangeable. If the only issue that you have is a broken mirror glass, then I would suggest contacting your Lexus dealer, checking your local junk yard, or looking for one on eBay. There are several videos on Youtube that show you how to get the glass out. You should probably do that first to determine if your mirrors are heated or not. Good luck.

Jim, Thanks again for your input. Sometimes I think that you and I are the only ones that reply on the forum. Your analysis is reasonable except that I noted the inconsistent tilt when I was the only one driving the car and knew that I had not adjusted the mirrors. It is possible that there is a problem with the memory portion of the mirror, which I am not going to attempt to fix. The car is now 150 miles away with my daughter, so an in depth analysis is not possible. I was hoping, like you, that there was an undocumented procedure for adjusting the amount of tilt.

Does anyone know if there is a way to adjust how much the outside mirrors tilt down when the car is shifted into reverse? I have looked in the Owners Manual and I can't find anything that addresses this. I feel like there must be some adjustment since sometimes the mirrors tilt a lot and sometimes they tilt just a little. I have tried shifting the car into reverse and letting the mirrors tilt and then adjusting the mirrors with the adjustment controls to the preferred tilt angle, but they didn't retain the memory and went back to the previous tilt settings.

I ordered a replacement mirror assembly from AM Autoparts on eBay. It turns out that it is a replacement for the original mirror, but is not assembled in the same manner and does not have the same internal parts. Ends up, the mirror that was on the car was also a replacement and was the exact same brand, so I was able to use the painted shell from the old mirror and install on the new mirror and replace the entire unit. The mirror now tilts as it is supposed to.

After a couple of weeks of heavy rains and a couple of washings, the interior is still dry. I am convinced now that this seam was the problem. I have re-assembled the interior of the car and returned it to my daughter. Thanks again for everyone's help in resolving this issue.

Well, after persistence in eliminating one thing after another, I found that there was a body seam behind the bumper cover that was separated and allowing water to leak into the rear cargo area. Once I determined that it was not the tail light seal or any of the other fastener holes and openings in that area and was able to remove the bumper cover, the source was very obvious (as you can see from the photo below). I took a funnel with a long spout and was able to direct a steady flow of water on this split and saw that most of the water ended up inside the car. I used some black RTV silicon sealer/adhesive and was able to stop the leak. Thanks to everyone for their help in resolving this issue that has been going on for almost 2 years now. I hope these photo links work.

Jim, I found the video on YouTube for the Sienna. It looks relatively easy now that I can see the possiblities. I may not need to remove the whole thing, just pull the left side far enough away from the car to look behind it. I'm going to give it a try this weekend and will let you know what I find. Thanks for your help, again. Once I get in there and find the seam or wherever it is leaking, any suggestions on what I should use to repair it? Something like Bondo or RTV silicon?

Jim, Dude you are everywhere. Thanks for the reply. Both mirrors have the tilt-down feature. I did some looking around (on YouTube and other places) and it seems that the painted part of the mirror comes apart in two pieces. once the glass is out, there are 3-4 screws that are accessible that hold the pieces together. I looked a little while ago and the seam is very small. I think I'm going to go ahead and buy the aftermarket replacement mirror off of eBay and try to repair it. The other option is to remove the one from the car and try to use something like JB Weld to re-attach the broken plastic pieces that hold the nuts. There are several videos on YouTube that show putting a towel behind the bottom portion of the mirror and pulling it loose from the mount. I may try to use your method first since tugging on a piece of glass looks like it may be risky. Worst case, I found a site called scratchwizard.net that sells paint kits that are supposed to be exact matches for factory. I could paint the replacement mirror. (Check out their YouTube video. They show replacing and painting an entire rear bumper cover using handheld spray paint. Looked good.) Thanks again for all of your help.

Crickets. I assume there is no one out there that knows how this mirror is assembled. Does anyone know where I can find an exploded parts diagram?

I ran some more test last night with the black trim piece removed. By progressively moving down the hatch channel with my water bottle, It seems that the water is flowing in from a seam that is behind the bumper cover. I basically got to the point where I was pouring water at the junction of the bumper cover and rear body panel and was still seeing the leak. At this point, I need to remove the bumper cover to investigate further. Does anyone know if this is a task I should tackle myself or should I take it to a body shop and have them remove the cover? I looked briefly, but couldn't tell for sure what holds it on. To be fair, it was getting dark and I was using a flashlight.

Jim, Yes, I can see the water trail below the tail light right where the vertical portion of the quarter panel meets the metal trunk flooring. Because it is in the corner, there is a double layer of sheet metal. The water is running down between the 2 layers (which are separated by about 3/4"). I've never posted any photos on this forum, so maybe I will take one at lunch and try to post it so that it is easier to visualize what I'm referring to. It doesn't seem to be coming from around the hatch gasket. The hatch door appears to be flush with the body panels that surround it. I have been doing these water tests with the hatch open, and so far I have been doing them with the piece of black trim in place that I referred to in the previous post. The trim is out now, so I will try the next time just pouring the water in the channel and trying to follow it all the way down (since it was running behind the black trim anyway).

I finally received the new tail light gasket and installed it last night. To be on the safe side, I applied some RTV silicon between the gasket and the body panel. I assembled everything, gave it a couple of hours for the silicon to "set" and tested it. It did not solve my problem (dang!!). The water is not coming in from around the tail light opening. When I test with water, I have been pouring it down the channel that is between the hatch gasket and the body or quarter panel, about 2/3 of the way down from the top of the car. Most of the water runs behind the black plastic trim piece that is mounted in this channel adjacent to the tail light. There are little plastic fingers on the tail light that actually fit into this piece of trim. Does anyone know if it is normal for water to run down behind this piece? Would I be wise to apply some more RTV silicon at the top of this piece to seal the gap between the top edge of the trim and the hatch channel? I will keep pressing on until I figure this thing out.

I have an '06 RX330. The driver's side outside mirror works fine (except that it doesn't tilt down for some reason when in "reverse"). The problem is the plastic pieces that hold the mounting nuts are broken (2 of them). The mirror is basically attached to the car with 1 bolt. It appears that the previous owner tried to over tighten the bolts and broke the plastic holding the nuts. My question is, can I buy just the black piece with the mounting nuts or do I have to buy the entire mirror assembly? If I buy the entire mirror (I have found many on eBay for around $90), can I disassemble the old mirror and retain the painted cover (so I don't have to get the new mirror painted to match the car)? Lastly, are all RX330 mirrors the same or are there some with more features than others? (In other words, are all the mirrors heated and tilt-able, as well as remotely controlled?) Thanks in advance for your help with this.

Jim, Thanks for the suggestions. Since the tail light assembly is a pain in the !Removed! to remove/replace, I will wait on the replacement gasket. I would hate to create a leak in the right side where one does not currently exist. Also, the design of the assembly and how it fits so tightly in the vehicle quarter panel pretty much excludes the test with the fishing line or dental floss. When I removed the tail light and gasket yesterday, I did a pretty thorough visual inspection of the area where the gasket contacts the body and either the painter did a real good job or the panel is original. It sure looks original, but I will inspect again even more closely. When I do replace the gasket, if that does not solve the problem, I may try doubling up the new and old gasket to see if that makes a difference. And, if all else fails, I will try some silicon or Form-A-Gasket between the gasket and the body panel.

Jim, I called the Lexus dealer parts department back and they confirmed that the same part fits both sides. The "81562" number is just a reference code and it is unique for LH. They indicated that the reference code for a part is sometimes a part of the actual part number, but if there is a part that fits both sides, the first number (or the one that starts with the reference code) is always the RH side. Good information to know in general going forward. Thanks again for your help. I will post some results in the next few days after I have had a chance to install the part and test it.