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Side View Mirror Just Cracked?!


saratoga35

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Can someone help me here? We went out this AM and the passenger side side view mirror has a vertical crack in it. It wasn't hit by anything (garage and no impact marks)....is it possible that water got in there and then froze? We had really warm weather and then it got cold quickly. Anyone got any insight?

Thanks

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Does it have heated mirrors?

And yes, anytime you have temperature differences there is a chance for water to appear.

I came from the temperate cloudy wet city of Vancouver, and it still shocks me now when I step outside in my new home in Rural Manitoba just what the cold is capable of.

I went out in my car this weekend(my toyota, not the lex), and found the INSIDE of the window to have LARGE drops of ice formed, simply from the interior being about +20C and the exterior being about -25C and then the car being shutoff outside....

If your side mirror was warm in some spots and cold in some spots, there is a very good chance that ice could form, or even just different expansion properties of the glass and whatever is behind it could cause a crack, or maybe make a tiny unseeable nick expand.

Got off track there... Do you have kids that like to play in the garage?

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  • 1 month later...

When I bought my 98 LS400 my drivers side heated mirror was cracked and all foggy. I bought a new glass piece from a Lexus dealer on line. Sewell maybe. It looked to be very difficult to remove the mirror from the car door so I broke out the glass piece by piece and slowly broke out the plastic pieces behind the glass until the whole glass assembly was removed. The glass assembly is held in by some fingers. The mirror just snaps into these fingers to the motor system. The problem is that the piece the glass snaps into is too weak to just push the mirror into without damaging the motor stuff. This is no problem if you take the mirror apart. To get around this I took a piece of maybe 1/8" by 3/4" steel and made a tool to curve around top the back side of the mirror. I put some silicone grease on the pins on the mirror and put the mirror in place. I reached the tool around the mirror to support the fingers the mirror snapped into and then pushed the mirror to get the mirror to snap into these fingers. With out the tool the motor assembly most likely would have broken from this pressure. Worked great.

Rodney Dickman

1998 LS400

First post. :)

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When I bought my 98 LS400 my drivers side heated mirror was cracked and all foggy. I bought a new glass piece from a Lexus dealer on line. Sewell maybe. It looked to be very difficult to remove the mirror from the car door so I broke out the glass piece by piece and slowly broke out the plastic pieces behind the glass until the whole glass assembly was removed. The glass assembly is held in by some fingers. The mirror just snaps into these fingers to the motor system. The problem is that the piece the glass snaps into is too weak to just push the mirror into without damaging the motor stuff. This is no problem if you take the mirror apart. To get around this I took a piece of maybe 1/8" by 3/4" steel and made a tool to curve around top the back side of the mirror. I put some silicone grease on the pins on the mirror and put the mirror in place. I reached the tool around the mirror to support the fingers the mirror snapped into and then pushed the mirror to get the mirror to snap into these fingers. With out the tool the motor assembly most likely would have broken from this pressure. Worked great.

Rodney Dickman

1998 LS400

First post. :)

Well, that explains why, when I had a mirror on my LS430 develop a oily/greasy smudge behind the surface that the dealer just replaced the entire mirror assembly under warranty. Probably way cheaper to replace it and send the part to Lexus (or just throw it away). Lexus paid for the repair, in any case.

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saratoga35, it would be helpful if you would indicate what year model your LS is.

I had this same situation on my 93 LS several years ago. The passenger mirror broke vertically at about midpoint of the mirror. Nothing had hit the mirror. I don't recall what the weather situation was.

The replacement mirror glass is available at Lexus dealers, but you will pay dearly for it. Your best bet would be to try to find one at a salvage yard. You should be aware that the mirror glass for the models with memory systems is different from that in non-memory cars.

As I recall, I did not have any difficulty replacing the glass. In my car, it is held in place by plastic clips at the top, bottom, and on the sides. I pried at the bottom, between the mirror assembly and the glass, until the glass was free from the bottom clip. It then pulled out very easily from the other clips.

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  • 2 years later...

Lexus recommends using a rag to pull up the mirror. I never quite understood why but with your photos it makes sense now. The bottom tabs release outwards, the top have a 90 degree angle. I you try prying the top you'll break the tabs.

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