toyota hilux side mirrors

Submitted: Saturday, Jun 28, 2014 at 18:20
ThreadID: 108528 Views:2886 Replies:1 FollowUps:1
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My Toyota had a bad rattle that took some time to work out where it was coming from. Eventually worked out it was the drivers side mirror. Taking the mirror off was a bit of a shock. There is no seal on the inside part that bolts to the door shell allowing the inside bottom to fill up with water covering the bottom two bolts with a couple of inches of water that then ran down the inside of the door and out the drain holes. The two bottom bolts were rusted out and sheared off and the mirror was held by only the top bolt. My guess is that every hilux since 2005 is exactly the same. To make matters worse even though I was able to get all the rust out the bolt holes in the frame of the mirror are plastic threads with some sort of Loctite or glue on them and removing them stuffs the threads. In any case you cant buy the bolts only the nuts and a new pair of mirrors is near enough to $1000 from Toyota. Toyota took photos etc and did a report on what is a very bad design fault but no help with a new mirror. Got a non genuine one for a hundred. The new one has its own silastic seal so it wont happen again but id bet my other mirror is the same.
cheers Graeme.
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Reply By: The Bantam - Sunday, Jun 29, 2014 at 09:48

Sunday, Jun 29, 2014 at 09:48
I don't have experience with the arrangement on the post 05 hiluxes, but on the earlier models the genuine outrigger type door mirrors are a Britax part, and have the Britax brand stamped on it if you look.

You can buy the whole assemby or just the head from any good diesel spares shop.

From memory the whole shebang can be had form my local for arround the $120 ish..the head can be had for about $30.

NOW these are a generic door mirror and can be fitted to pretty well any door.

If the "genuine toyota" fastening arrangemants are not up to scratch...feel free to make your own.....nuts bolts and large washers are certainly not unreasonable and may be a better choice than factory.

The other thing to consider is replacing the standard zinc plated fasteners with stanless.

If using stanless remember you will be transfering the corrosion risk away from the fasteners to the door panel.....even more reason to use some sort of anti corrosive sealer like Duralac under all the fasteners and on all the threads.
certainly DO NOT use silicon, because it will promote corrosion..a polyeurathane like sicaflex or bostix gold as a minimum.


Now here is a tip I'll give you for free.
I run a couple of hiluxes and drive them every day....the bodies I have on them mean I can see bugger all out of the interiour mirror or the back window, so I rely a lot on the exteriour mirrors.....I was finding the standard arrangement most unsatisfactory so.....think about this.

If you have one or two convex mirror heads on your arms.....replace them with plain flat mirrors from the diesel spares shop...this will improve your distance perception.
While you are there britax make a nice little 5 inch round ( I think) convex blindspot mirror kit.
it comes with a selection of brackets and fasteners.

buy two of these
fit one between the pasenger side mirror and the quarterglass...its tight bit it will fit...you will need the angle brancket and the standoff bar....you will need to redrill the angle bracket to get it in just the right place.
on the drivers side, slip the same arrangement under the top arm of the mirror bracket.

when you are setting this up...use a clamp to hold the mirror in place while you make sure its all in the right place, you can see what you need and it all fits.....

believe me it is well worth it.

cheers
AnswerID: 535176

Follow Up By: Member - graeme W (WA) - Sunday, Jun 29, 2014 at 11:27

Sunday, Jun 29, 2014 at 11:27
Hi Bantum. Thanks for the reply. I also have two mirrors on the drivers side the second one is to give a better view for the van etc. Was more concerned about the shocking design, there is no way the inside of the mirror fixings cant fill with water and the bolts on these cant be replaced as they are molded into the mirror part .That's the non genuine one. The Toyota one is worse and the inside threads are glued or loctited into plastic and removing them tears the threads out. The service manager sent a report and lots of photos to Toyota but I bet they don't change them.
cheers Graeme.
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FollowupID: 819037

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