Most Common Mirror Installation Mistakes

In this video, we're going over some common mistakes that you can do installing mirrors. We're gonna break this down into four different categories, wiring, seals, fasteners, and the glass. If you're replacing a mirror assembly and not just the glass and you have a wiring harness coming out of the mirror assembly, it doesn't connect right there, for the most part on all vehicles, you're gonna have to remove the door panel. Before you even take the mirror apart, it's a good idea to check your connectors and make sure they line up with your old ones. If they don't line up, don't even replace it. Don't try to cheat and not take the door panel off. If you have that wiring harness there, don't come over here and just try to cut these wires when you put the new mirror on and try to splice in the new wires. You're just gonna end up with a headache.

When you have the door panel off, take a look at the wiring harness. It goes behind the vapor barrier. Keep that in mind. And if there's any fasteners, you wanna make sure you re-secure the wiring harness exactly the way it was when you took it off. This one has some wire ties in some certain areas. If there was fasteners there and your new mirror doesn't have fasteners, you can always use wire ties. When you have your new mirror, you wanna make sure you send the wiring harness through the same way that it came out. And then also make sure all the wires are pulled out of the mirror itself. If there's a little too much slack in there, it might get wrapped around the wrong way or you could get it wrapped around a stud. When you go to tighten it down, you're gonna squish the wires. When you're putting this back together, it's important to have that wiring harness in that same location and you don't want it around any moving components. Let's say you wrap the wire around this way, and went down right there. Then if you went to put the window up and it was wired wrong, you're gonna pinch the wire. Eventually, break the wire or your window is not gonna go all the way up.

Even with those wires routed wrong and it's tightened down, you can't even tell that it's installed wrong. Don't forget to connect the wires or you're gonna be pulling your door panel apart afterwards. Make sure you plug them in to the right locations. Most mirrors have a gasket or a seal to keep out the elements. So, if the gasket stays with the vehicle, when you go to put the new mirror on, if it has a gasket, you don't wanna double-gasket it. Or if you don't have a gasket at all even on the new mirror, you're gonna end up with water getting into the vehicle. Don't forget, if you have extra installation that's supposed to go in here, make sure you put that back. If anything, you probably just get a little extra wind noise or a draft when it's cold.

Now, let's talk about fasteners, the nuts or bolts that actually hold the mirror on. Now, when you're taking the mirror apart, make sure you support the mirror when you're taking the last fastener out. This has a nut right here. Pull that last nut out, and I'm supporting the mirror. Otherwise, the mirror could just fall. When you get a new mirror, there may already be nuts on here. You wanna take those off, otherwise, the mirror is not gonna fit on properly. And some mirrors have a type of retainer that's gonna hold the mirror a little bit so that it doesn't fall. Don't forget to put the nuts on or the bolts. Some people forget to tighten the bolts down or nuts down and then the mirror is gonna be extremely loose. You're gonna notice right away when you're going over bumps. You definitely don't wanna overtighten it or you're gonna strip something out or break something.

Now, we're gonna talk about mirror glass. If you just wanted to replace the glass and not the whole assembly, sometimes it's gonna be a lot cheaper for you just to do that, but sometimes it's extremely tricky. A good tip for when you're taking the glass off, whether it's cracked or anything, take some masking tape and put it over the glass. You can coat this whole thing in masking tape. Then if you break the glass any more than it's already broken, it probably won't get...or probably will not harm you. Then also, it's a lot easier to clean it up. Nothing is gonna spill on the ground or anything. Make sure you wear safety glasses just in case.

Now, these all come off different. Sometimes they pry off just like that using a screwdriver or sometimes they actually slide up. With the connectors, you always wanna be careful. You don't wanna ruin the terminals. So, just lightly pry those up and keep in mind where the wires went. If the orange one was on top, make sure you put that one on the top. Don't switch them. If you're unsure of how you remove it, take a look at the back of the new one. This one has clips on it, so this is where you would wanna pry in between here. Either get a pick or a screwdriver and just try to pry around here. Whereas something like this one, this one actually has little tiers where our little fingers that go in here that the mirror would actually slide up. When you're going to install the new mirror, take a look at the back and there should be some tabs like this, depending on the type of mirror it is. And those tabs are gonna sit on the outside of this bar right here. Now, this happens to be a GM mirror. Some other vehicles maybe a little bit different, but pay attention to little things like that. Now, you could do the same with the tape on the new mirror if you choose, if you don't wanna break it. It's not necessary, but... And then just wherever the clips were, that's where you wanna push on the mirror. So, find the center of the mirror, just give it a good push. Make sure you push on the center of the glass like that until it locks down. Do not push like this.

Some important things to know is if you have power-folding mirrors, don't just fold them in manually. When you fold them back, they're probably gonna be loose and the best thing to do is just cycle them through. So, if you do it by accident once or twice, it's probably not a big deal, but you don't wanna be doing it that much. And then if you have mirrors that have motors where the mirrors move, you don't wanna do this too much. And don't do this. Don't glue your mirror on. Then in the future, no one's gonna be able to get it off or get it off very easily. I've also seen people using duct tape or sheet metal screws. Don't do any of that. There's our mirror install mistakes. If there's anything that you think I missed or you have a story of something that you messed up, leave me a comment below. If you enjoyed this video or it helped you out, make sure you subscribe to our channel, ring the bell, turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our videos.