Ls400 Mk 3 Replacement Mirror Glass

Colin M · September 13, 2014

As you can see from the photo, the reflective side of the passenger side mirror glass has deteriorated so that the heated elements are showing through and I would like to replace it. You can still just about see through the mirror but not very well!

I have done some reading up on this but would appreciate some advice on obtaining a replacement mirror glass and fitting it.

First, am I correct in thinking that the mirror glass I need for the passenger side is convex? I have looked on eBay and car-parts-market has a passenger left side convex heated wing door mirror glass for £9.99. Has anyone bought one of these and fitted it? Alternatively, has anyone bought glass from elsewhere and been pleased/not pleased with it?

Secondly, as regards fitting, I have found a useful tutorial on the US Lexus Owners Club website which has some good photos. It is at the following link:

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums...howtopic=65282

Is there any other help that anyone can give if they have experience of fitting a replacement?

Many thanks in anticipation of some help and assistance.

Colin

PS: I have just tried the link and it seems not to work. The post was headed "Replacing Side Viewmirror Glas- It's Easy" and was on 27 June 2010 by songzunhuang.

SHELLDRAKE · September 13, 2014

Do you lnow that these mirrors have two jobs 1 they heat up for defrosting. 2 change colour when headlights hit the center mirror from a car behind you,they are expensive because of that,one of mine was£105 from Lexus Dealer--mine is a 97 and is not convex.

plexus914 · September 14, 2014

How did this happen? Did you use some heavy cleaner (chemicals) for the mirror??? I've read that this will destroy any electrochromic mirror (auto dimm).

eBay? I went that route and was not happy with it...:o/....

You will not be lucky with a cheap mirror glass from eBay that comes without that electrochromic function. Just too much glare whilst driving at night.

If you are looking for a used mirror glass get one that comes from a MK4/2000 model. I have a MK3/97 model too and did that.

Colin M · September 14, 2014

Thanks both for your responses.

I was not aware of the changing colour/auto-dimming aspect so that is useful to know.

I have no idea how the mirror got into the state it is in. It was like that when I bought the car at the beginning of the year. I have only ever used water to clean mirrors.

In the light of what you say, I will see if I can source a used mirror from a Mk 3 or 4.

Cheers.

Malc · September 14, 2014

Both mine are slightly deteriorating with feint red marks appearing; doesn't affect vision or operational needs at all ( yet ). Think it's just old age and maybe the heated elements in them slightly deteriorating maybe. Not worried yet at all though.

Malc

The-Acre · September 14, 2014

It's very common on these cars for the mirror to fade in this way. I have another car with the dimming function, but when that cracked I just bought a self adhesive replacement from eBay that sticks over the top of the original The heat still gets through OK. It obviously doesn't dim but I can't say its ever been an issue with glare.

steve2006 · September 14, 2014

Do the UK specification models have what I call the "shaky shaky" feature which vibrates the mirror to shake water droplets off it while heating it?

The-Acre · September 14, 2014

Do the UK specification models have what I call the "shaky shaky" feature which vibrates the mirror to shake water droplets off it while heating it?

My Vauxhall Vectra does,and my wife's Corsa, followed by the glass falling out and breaking on the tarmac!

Does that mean your Celsior has yet something else that we don't have?

Colin M · September 16, 2014

Thanks, guys, for your responses.

I think I have managed to source a mirror locally and am going to have a look at it tomorrow (Wednesday).

n4chv · September 16, 2014

The mirror glass has a heating element and the mirrors also auto-dim which is why they are so expensive - you can get retro fit mirror glass far more cheaply but then you lose both of these functions

Lexus dealers likely to charge well over £100 for this sort of glass if you can still source it for a 97 LS400

Audi charge £200 for auto-dimming mirror glass on the A8 !

Other alternative is to try the breakers yards

I think over time, water and even solvents from hand car wash places sometimes can get in between the surface and the glass which gradually causes a deterioration in the glass. The mirror glass is a bit like an LCD screen

Colin M · September 18, 2014

Disappointingly the mirror I went to look at yesterday, although still on the car, had had its glass removed and nicked by someone, so it was a wasted journey.

I shall have to keep looking ...

n4chv · September 19, 2014

If I was you, I would get a quote from Lexus 1st for a replacement mirror glass (assuming they are able to source this) and then try a number of the breakers yards for a replacement part. Make sure you give them the Chassis No. as well as your registration for the vehicle

Try the following and I'm sure you will get quotes on this :

www.1stchoice.co.uk

www.partsgateway.co.uk

www.breakerlink.com

www.breakeryard.com

www.carpartsfinder.co.uk

www.findapartnorwich.co.uk

www.247spares.co.uk

I am sure that you will get some reasonable quotes and used parts should come with 90 days or even 180 days warranty too

Good luck

lordturns · September 19, 2014

Colin, I have the same mirror condition on the drivers side, Lincoln Lexus gave a price of £389 for the mirror glass! That'd be an ouch then.

n4chv · September 19, 2014

£389 ? That's an insane price - I thought £220 from Audi for an A8 was crazy

I am sure you will be able to find a used one from a breakersyard for much less than that

Colin M · September 19, 2014

£389 is certainly an eye watering figure!!

I will follow up Nach's suggestions (thanks for these) for locating one, as well as keeping an eye on eBay.

lordturns · September 19, 2014

I have checked the email from the Lexus service manager, I was a little bit out with the price....it was £380 inclusive of VAT. *Cough*

cruisermark · September 22, 2014

there is a pair of mirror glass for sale on the auction site

Colin M · November 26, 2014

I have been looking for the last couple of months to see if I could source a mirror locally but without success. I am bit reluctant to buy one unseen - after all, it might not have the original glass in it - so I have decided to buy a replacement heated mirror glass off eBay. It may or may not turn out to be a short-term fix. There will be no auto-dimming but I think I can live without that if I have a clear view through the mirror!

I would appreciate some help with the wiring which I was expecting to be relatively straightforward but it does not seem to be.

The original glass has two small pins on the back of the glass, near to the inside edge about two thirds of the way up (their position is visible, from the front of the glass, on the photo I posted up on the original post). A two pin plug pushes into these two pins. The plug has one black wire and one black with red tracer wire. I have looked at a post on the US Forum on replacing mirror glass which has a photo indicating that it is the heater power cable that plugs into the two pins.

The replacement glass has two separate single terminals each with a pin about an inch apart. I can easily make up separate connection wires from the plug to these terminals if that is all that is required. If it is, would I be correct in thinking that it will not matter which wire is connected to which terminal?

What is causing me some uncertainty is two other brown wires and one blue one which are attached to the mirror glass. As far as I can tell, the wires do look as though they are part of the original wiring coming into the back of the mirror. One brown wire is connected to the top of the mirror glass and the other to the bottom, and the blue wire is connected to the side edge of the glass. Each of the connections is covered by what looks like clear silicon on top of the joint. I have removed this from one of the brown wires and the connection underneath looks like a small pin on the mirror and small spade terminal at the end of the wire pushed onto it and then soldered. I have to say that it does not look like the type of connection that Lexus would have used originally!!

I do not know whether these wires are part of the original wiring or what their purpose is. Has anyone any ideas? Does anyone have a wiring diagram for the mirrors?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Colin

run132 · November 27, 2014

Sorry I can't help with your question. My passenger mirror glass is just starting to go around the bottom edge. It still works fine but will need replaced over the course of the next year. This happened to my driver's side one a few years ago and got that replaced without any problem.

I gave the dealer a call (while sitting down!) to get a new one ordered. He said the mirror glass is no longer available but the complete mirror unit is - at over £500.

I have tried to source one from abroad but any place that I have found that has one won't ship glass to the UK! If anyone knows of a new (part number 87961-50220) please give me a shout.

n4chv · November 27, 2014

Sorry I can't help with your question. My passenger mirror glass is just starting to go around the bottom edge. It still works fine but will need replaced over the course of the next year. This happened to my driver's side one a few years ago and got that replaced without any problem.

I gave the dealer a call (while sitting down!) to get a new one ordered. He said the mirror glass is no longer available but the complete mirror unit is - at over £500.

I have tried to source one from abroad but any place that I have found that has one won't ship glass to the UK! If anyone knows of a new (part number 87961-50220) please give me a shout.

Typical of a dealer to say that you need to replace the entire mirror unit - I could be sounding paranoid or cynical but I do get impression that Lexus dealers are now trying to get more money out of owners based on a couple of my own recent experiences. Disappointing to say the least.

I would try my luck with various online breakers as I've often found that there are plenty of used Lexus LS parts readily available. I have managed to source good used parts for my LS430 but I am sure there are LS400s being broken up with parts such as mirror glass being available.

Google will give you plenty of sites like www.247spares.co.uk or www.breakeryard.com amongst the many.

Good luck

run132 · November 27, 2014

Sorry I can't help with your question. My passenger mirror glass is just starting to go around the bottom edge. It still works fine but will need replaced over the course of the next year. This happened to my driver's side one a few years ago and got that replaced without any problem.

I gave the dealer a call (while sitting down!) to get a new one ordered. He said the mirror glass is no longer available but the complete mirror unit is - at over £500.

I have tried to source one from abroad but any place that I have found that has one won't ship glass to the UK! If anyone knows of a new (part number 87961-50220) please give me a shout.

Typical of a dealer to say that you need to replace the entire mirror unit - I could be sounding paranoid or cynical but I do get impression that Lexus dealers are now trying to get more money out of owners based on a couple of my own recent experiences. Disappointing to say the least.

I would try my luck with various online breakers as I've often found that there are plenty of used Lexus LS parts readily available. I have managed to source good used parts for my LS430 but I am sure there are LS400s being broken up with parts such as mirror glass being available.

Google will give you plenty of sites like www.247spares.co.uk or www.breakeryard.com amongst the many.

Good luck

Many thanks for that. It did wonder about that but, to be fair, the parts guy I normally use has been OK with me in the past. In any case, I tried a couple of others and it does seem to be the case that it is not available!

My preference is for a new genuine part (nothing but the best for the LS!). The one on my car is not too bad at all but I'll keep my eyes out for a like new second hand one if it comes to that.

oldhazey · December 7, 2014

I fitted a pair of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390635288167?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

They still heat up,just dont do the anti glare thing,which is no big deal really as just dip the mirror down if there is a prat still on main beam behind ;-)

Malc · December 8, 2014

Paul, looks a brilliant solution ................ I might get a pair ready for when mine red tint all over !!

Malc

Colin M · December 9, 2014

Paul, thanks for the link to the eBay mirrors.

I have in fact already purchased two of these, passenger and driver side, and have just finished fitting the passenger one.

I have set out below a description of how I went about doing this, with a few photos of what is involved, in case this is of interest to anyone else who might be thinking of fitting this non-original heated mirror.

The Mirror Glass Purchased

The mirror glass I bought was from Car Parts Market Ltd (eBay ID: car-parts-market) and the item was described as a Passenger Left Side Wide Angle Heated Wing Mirror Glass for Lexus LS400 95-00. The cost is £10.99 with free postage/packing. There was a Buy 1, Get 1 at 50% off, however, so I decided to buy a Drivers Right RHS mirror as well for the other side to be fitted if and when needed (at a total cost of £16.48 for the two).

Removal of Existing Mirror Glass

The existing mirror glass and its backing plate were removed by inserting the tip of a screwdriver between the bottom of the mirror (backing plate) and the mirror housing, in the middle about half way along, with a rag round the screwdriver tip to protect the mirror housing. Lever the screwdriver downwards to force the backing plate forward. This releases the two plastic clips on the backing plate from their location in the bottom of the (white) mirror electric adjustment plate. This is basically a push-fit method of retention but the clips do not release easily and a fair amount of pressure needs to be applied. Once released, the mirror can then be pivoted upwards from the bottom so that it is horizontal. This releases the two “J” clips holding the mirror backing plate to the top of the mirror electric adjustment plate and the mirror plate can then be pulled forward from the mirror housing. There is a small plug with two wires (black with red and black with green) around the top left hand corner of the backing plate and this is the heater plug. Pull it off the twin pins attached to the mirror glass (two pins close together). You will also see other wires - two brown and one blue – but leave these for the moment until you have separated the mirror glass from the backing plate.

Separating the Existing Mirror Glass from the Backing Plate

In order to separate them, the black plastic cover around the edge of the glass (the bit that looks white in Photo 5 – see below - showing the new mirror glass fitted...) needs to be removed. This is pushed on over the mirror glass from the front and there are several small rectangular slits in it (about 5 mm long and 1 mm wide) around the back edge of the cover. These fit into raised sections on the backing plate to hold the cover in place. The cover is removed by levering the edge of the cover up and forward at each of these sections using a small screwdriver. Once all are released the black plastic cover can be pulled off the front of the glass. The mirror glass will still be stuck onto the backing plate and will need to be gently levered off. The places where mine was stuck were centrally at the top and bottom edges of the mirror – a smaller strip at the top about 30mm x 7mm and a larger one at the bottom about 50mm x 20mm. The mirror could be easily separated from the white adhesive substance used to hold it in place. You can see the white adhesive on the old mirror glass in the Photo 1 at the extreme right hand edge of the picture.

Sorry, I am trying to post this up in sections with photos interspersed and it has not worked as intended.

I will try again with a fresh post!!

IF SOMEONE KNOWS HOW I OR ANYONE ELSE (E.G. STEVE) CAN DELETE THIS POST, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THANKS!!

Colin M · December 9, 2014

Paul, thanks for the link to the eBay mirrors.

I have in fact already purchased two of these, passenger and driver side, and have just finished fitting the passenger one.

I have set out below a description of how I went about doing this, with a few photos of what is involved, in case this is of interest to anyone else who might be thinking of fitting this non-original heated mirror.

The Mirror Glass Purchased

The mirror glass I bought was from Car Parts Market Ltd (eBay ID: car-parts-market) and the item was described as a Passenger Left Side Wide Angle Heated Wing Mirror Glass for Lexus LS400 95-00. The cost is £10.99 with free postage/packing. There was a Buy 1, Get 1 at 50% off, however, so I decided to buy a Drivers Right RHS mirror as well for the other side to be fitted if and when needed (at a total cost of £16.48 for the two).

Removal of Existing Mirror Glass

The existing mirror glass and its backing plate were removed by inserting the tip of a screwdriver between the bottom of the mirror (backing plate) and the mirror housing, in the middle about half way along, with a rag round the screwdriver tip to protect the mirror housing. Lever the screwdriver downwards to force the backing plate forward. This releases the two plastic clips on the backing plate from their location in the bottom of the (white) mirror electric adjustment plate. This is basically a push-fit method of retention but the clips do not release easily and a fair amount of pressure needs to be applied.

Once released, the mirror can then be pivoted upwards from the bottom so that it is horizontal. This releases the two “J” clips holding the mirror backing plate to the top of the mirror electric adjustment plate and the mirror plate can then be pulled forward from the mirror housing. There is a small plug with two wires (black with red and black with green) around the top left hand corner of the backing plate and this is the heater plug. Pull it off the twin pins attached to the mirror glass (two pins close together). You will also see other wires - two brown and one blue – but leave these for the moment until you have separated the mirror glass from the backing plate.

Separating the Existing Mirror Glass from the Backing Plate

In order to separate them, the black plastic cover around the edge of the glass (the bit that looks white in Photo 5 – see below - showing the new mirror glass fitted...) needs to be removed. This is pushed on over the mirror glass from the front and there are several small rectangular slits in it (about 5 mm long and 1 mm wide) around the back edge of the cover. These fit into raised sections on the backing plate to hold the cover in place.

The cover is removed by levering the edge of the cover up and forward at each of these sections using a small screwdriver. Once all are released the black plastic cover can be pulled off the front of the glass. The mirror glass will still be stuck onto the backing plate and will need to be gently levered off. The places where mine was stuck were centrally at the top and bottom edges of the mirror – a smaller strip at the top about 30mm x 7mm and a larger one at the bottom about 50mm x 20mm. The mirror could be easily separated from the white adhesive substance used to hold it in place. You can see the white adhesive on the old mirror glass in the Photo 1 at the extreme right hand edge of the picture.

You can also see in Photo 1 two brown wires and one blue one attached to the glass. My guess is that this wiring is for the mirror’s auto-dimming function. As my replacement mirror has no auto-dimming, these wires were not needed so they were cut off and taped up. I did remove the clear silicon covering the wire to mirror glass join on the brown wire on the top edge of the mirror to see if the wire could be pulled off at the connection but it could not. It looked like a small spade connector was used but with a dab of solder on it to prevent it coming apart. So the wires were cut instead. The wires have been pushed into a wiring sleeve and placed at the back of the mirror housing so they can still be used in future if someone wants to fit an OE mirror glass.

Removing the Twin Pin Connector from the Existing Mirror Glass

The mirror on the left hand side of Photo 1 is the new mirror glass (it’s actually the drivers’ side glass not the passenger side, as I had already fitted the passenger side glass when I took this photo). You can see that the new glass has two separate connection terminals for the heated element which are some distance apart, whereas the original has twin pins close together onto which the small two wire plug is fitted (as indicated above).

I decided to use the wire plug and twin pin connector attached to the original mirror glass if possible (it was) and make up connecting wires between the twin pin connector and the terminals on the new mirror glass. Below each of the twin pins is a metal connector. This has a thin layer of white silicon covering it and if you scrape this away you will see the metal connector underneath it. The other side of the connector is attached to the glass. You can see what the connector looks like by looking at the top right hand corner of the mirror glass in the photo I posted up when starting this thread in September. Each connector is a piece of metal with what look like two pin heads in it, one above the other.

The pin connectors can be levered apart from the glass, but they don’t part company easily and care needs to be taken so that they remain intact. I found using a small screwdriver to be the most effective means of forcing them apart. In the photo of the (new and) old mirror glass, the grey section in the top left hand corner of the old mirror glass shows from where the connectors were removed. They were at the bottom of the grey section. By chance, the section removed extended upwards to include a plastic ‘flap’ of material as well. Try to do this if you can, as it proved useful later. I put this on one side till I had done the next job of making the new mirror glass fit on the backing plate.

Positioning the New Mirror Glass on the Backing Plate

To correctly position the new mirror glass on the backing plate, cut outs in the plastic backing plate need to be made so that the two separate connection terminals protrude through and the glass fits flush with the backing plate. The terminals are quite close to existing cut outs (the top one is for the heating wire plug) and I found it easiest to extend these cut outs so that the terminals went through. I used a small coarse square file to extend the cut out in the direction needed e.g. extending the top cut out downwards.

Once this has been done, the twin pin connectors removed from the old mirror glass can be turned 90 degrees to the right from their normal position and can be trial fitted into the top cut out. Insert the ‘flap’ of material behind the backing plate on the right hand side of the cut out and the other end of the connectors can then be pressed inside the left hand side of the cut out. I found that this made a flush fit which held the connectors firmly in place. I removed the connector when satisfied with the fit.

With the glass correctly positioned and flush with the backing plate, I did a trial fit of the black plastic cover around the edge of the glass. Then I marked the position on the big (white) area of the back of the mirror that is visible through the backing plate – see Photo 2 - so I knew where it needed positioning to stick it in place. To stick mine, I removed most of the white sticky substance and replaced it with another similar strip that I had. In the position where these stick to the new mirror glass, I removed the covering paper from the new mirror to reveal the adhesive strip underneath (belt and braces approach ...).

I decided against removing all the covering paper, which extended over most of the mirror, as much of the adhesive would not be in contact with anything. I pushed the mirror glass onto the backing plate, making sure it was correctly positioned, and pressed firmly on the sections where the adhesive was. I then put the black plastic cover over the front of the mirror glass and pressed the rectangular slits into the raised sections of the backing plate to hold it in place (see above).

Wiring the Twin Pin Connector to the New Mirror Glass Terminals

The two separate terminals on the new mirror glass each needed to have a wire attached to them, with one wire going to one of the twin connectors and the other wire going to the other connector. I did not have any wiring that was the same colour as the wiring on the small plug (black with red and black with green) so I used the nearest I had which was red with blue and green with black. The wire was connected to the terminals on the new mirror glass using a (female) 2.8mm spade connector used for radio speakers etc. This was crimped onto the end of the wire and the connector opened up a little using a small screwdriver inserted into the connector end, as the (male) connector on the mirror glass was too thick for it to fit on without doing this.

I crimped a small ring connector onto the other end of the wire. The plan was to connect these wires to the twin connectors by drilling a small hole through the centre of the lower pin head on each of the two connectors (i.e. the pin head furthest away from where the wire plug pushes into the twin pins) and then using a micro nut and bolt to fasten the ring connector. I used a very small drill (starting with a 0.5mm one) to drill a hole and increased the size of the hole to 2mm.

I sourced some micro nuts and bolts locally at an engineers’ merchant, EC Pitchers in Walsall (they have a website: www.ecpitcher.co.uk). The only 1.5mm thick bolts they had were about twice as long (13mm) as I needed but I was able to cut them down with a small hacksaw after fitting them. They had an allen key head and the width of the bolt head was 3mm, which meant I needed to use a couple of small washers to prevent the bolt head going through the ring connector, and the nut fitted OK on the other side of the 2mm hole as it was 3.1mm wide.

Photo 3 (a bit blurred) shows the wires connected up. The red plastic sleeve on the green wire ring connector was removed and replaced with a thin black sleeve because of restricted access for the green wire. Photo 4 shows a second view of the connections with the materials used on the left of the photo – from top, a small ring connector; a micro bolt with nut screwed on the end and to the right the two small washers used to prevent the bolt head going through the ring connector; a micro bolt without a nut and to the right the two sections of bolt cut off after fitting (this looks like one thicker piece but is the two sections next to each other); the allen key for tightening the bolt; and a (female) spade connector.

You will see on both Photos 3 and 4 that the lower spade connector has been bent so that it projects inwards to the centre of the backing plate. The connector was removed from the mirror terminal to bend it and then refitted. The reason it was bent is that, when the backing plate is fitted onto its mountings in the mirror housing, there is a section of metal in the housing which is in the way. Without being bent, the connector may be damaged when re-attaching the backing plate in the housing and/or the section of metal may prevent the mirror being attached properly.

Refitting the New Mirror Glass and Backing Plate

I connected the small two pin heater plug to the twin pins, held the mirror horizontally to insert the “J” clips, lowered the bottom of the mirror down and then firmly pushed it into place. The mirror glass as fitted is shown in Photo 5.

The job took some time to do and was quite fiddly but, provided the heater element works, it will have been worth the effort. Even if it doesn’t, at least I now have a mirror through which I can see properly!!