anns Posted December 19, 2014 Posted December 19, 2014 I have a 2000 RX300 and the mirror on the passenger side broke. The housing is all fine, I just need to replace the mirror glass. My Lexus dealership said the price to replace the whole mirror part is about $480.00 because it is heated and has a dimmer. I can replace just the glass for about $20.00. My question is if I just replace the glass will the heat, dimming and power window control still work? -Ann
eugene.s Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 Ann, Re the $20 mirror glass - you'll definitely lose the heater/dimmer, but you should still rely on the power mirror functionality. If you buy just the mirror glass (as you said, for just $20) - this seems to me an incredibly good option. Just make sure that it fits your car first (I guess you have this confirmed already with someone who suggested it) -- this will give you the power-mirrors functionality. The exercise is about connecting the mirror glass to its physical connection base inside the mirror's housing - no wires involved, just claws and some sticky tape. To obtain the heater/dimmer functionality, you'd have to buy the mirror glass that is physically build to support this (having quickly googled, the cheapest replacement glass I found was $300+). It you opt for the cheapest glass (as you suggested) - make sure that your mechanic properly isolates (with the insulation tape) the wires within the mirror housing, which wires would otherwise connect to a "heating/dimming-compatible" mirror glass (as you don't have compatible mirror glass, you need to isolate the wires). Otherwise you may get a short circuit (especially in a rainy weather) which could bring your car to a stop.
VBdenny Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 The car is 15 years old. Go for the simple mirror. Heated? So what?
eugene.s Posted December 24, 2014 Posted December 24, 2014 Year, I'm with VBdenny - I should have mentioned that I never saw any great help of the outer mirror's heater/dimmer function. The dimmer only works great to me on the inside (center) mirror. The heater is really called "defogger" - which explains what it can do. It can help you get rid of some fog on the mirror, but if you hope it to melt the snow/ice on it - it cannot do that. Go for the simple mirror, the $20 quote is amazing and I would go for it myself.
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