Help -- like charity starts with oneself --- I figured out how to repair a broken 96 E320 inside review mirror ... figured some others may have a broken mirror -- from the looks of the inside .. every similar mirror is a failure waiting to happen -- never seen anything so flimsy or chintzy -- oh well - even MB has to cut costs somewhere .. the repair below;

When I took the mirror body body apart - snaps apart by depressing the back of the body and gently pulling the two parts apart from each other ... two metal
retaining clips and two itty bitty chunks of plastic fell into my lap ... after some
head scratching ... and angsnt about ever putting the thing back together again ... I
thought it through. The little pieces of plastic were the purchases where the
retainer clips grabbed the mirror body from the top .. the bottom had the purchases
intact. So .. I found two black automotive interior hole covers (about 3/16 dia) -- available from local Lowes, or Home Depot, or similar big hardware store where the fasteners are in small bins at an outrageous price ... drilled holes in the mirror body to accept them ... and then reassembled the mirror to the retainer plate by taking advantage of the 1/8" or so protruding into the mirror body as a purchase ... and voila ... the mirror was reattached to the case ... I reattached the power clip to the auto-dimming mirror ... snapped the back end of the case to the front end carrying the now firmly held mirror ... re-attached the little
lower body with the alarm lights and RF receiver for the alarm, keyless entry and I
had a good solid mirror again ... and when you look at the top of the mirror body all
you see is two little black, textured, near flush hole covers .. looks like it came
from the factory that way.

I found a few old tech messages on repairing the inside mirror for a 280. I have a similar problem on my 1996 E320 -- my wife went to adjust the review mirror and snap .. it now wobbles and flops at the end of its stalk. How do I remove the mirror, disconnect the electronics and open the mirror case? I figure if I can get inside it, I can jury rig the retainer like you suggest .. with a couple of sheet metal screws. I just can't seem to figure out how to remove the mirror .. there don't seem to be any external screws or pins, or retainers.

[This message has been edited by cpiad (edited 09-04-2000).]

This is very common to happen to the S class as well. These mirrors are about 1,000 dollars.

I do the same, but use epoxy to glue the inside to the outer case. I have done many and it works great. I do this so I don't have to drill into the mirror housing.

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Benzmac:
Donnie Drummonds
300E
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
SERVICE MANAGER FOR 14 BAY FACILITY
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 8 YRS
PARTNER IN MERCEDESSHOP.COM