Is Door Mirror Repair Impossible? – Taking on the Challenge of Replacing Inner Parts of HE22S Suzuki Lapin’s Door Mirror –

“The electric folding door mirror motor suddenly wouldn’t stop. Even after stopping and restarting the engine, the folding motor kept running continuously.”

This was the message from a customer who was very troubled by the situation.

It seems that due to a malfunction in the gear mechanism inside the door mirror, it doesn’t stop at the end of the mirror opening/closing operation, causing the motor to keep running.

If this continues, it would put a significant load on the small motor, potentially causing damage due to overheating.

Though we’d like to disconnect the power somehow, removing the door mirror connector requires removing the door panel, which is difficult to ask the user to do themselves, so we arranged for them to visit our shop as soon as possible.

Suzuki Lapin, 2009 model, DBA-HE22S, K6A Turbo, 4WD, Mileage: 129,000km

Generally, when a door mirror malfunctions, individual parts other than the mirror surface and decorative cover are rarely supplied, and in cases like this where the folding motor unit has an internal failure, the entire door mirror needs to be replaced.

In the case of this Lapin, due to features like the mirror turn signal and heated mirrors, a single new unit costs over 40,000 yen, which is very expensive.

Even searching for used parts, they would be similarly aged, so there’s a high possibility that the same malfunction would appear early on, and even if we could obtain one at 1/2 to 1/3 of the new price, it somehow doesn’t feel like a satisfactory solution.

Searching the web for a smarter solution, it seems that this malfunction commonly occurs in Suzuki vehicles of the same era, and we found that replacement parts for just the damaged section (of course, aftermarket) are sold on certain flea market sites.

Until now, conventional wisdom was that side mirrors could not be disassembled (difficult to disassemble due to adhesive and other reasons), but fortunately, we discovered that the door mirrors of this era’s Suzuki vehicles have a structure that allows relatively easy separation of each part without damage.

And here is the motor unit that controls the folding operation.

It’s easily connected with a 2-pole connector, and the unit appears to be the same for both left and right sides.

The plastic case of the motor unit is not adhered together, and by gently and evenly releasing the 5 clips, the internal parts could be easily removed.

The white plastic spur gear fitted on the metal worm shaft. The cause of the malfunction is that its center spins freely. Due to deterioration, it easily broke when I took it out. The black spur gear on the left is the metal replacement part (aftermarket).

The worm shaft has two flat-machined sections to prevent rotation.

And the center hole of the spur gear that fits onto it also has two flat sections, designed to prevent them from spinning independently.

The mating part near the mirror open/close operation stop point is close to the center of rotation, so very strong force is applied. The aged plastic material probably couldn’t withstand it.

On certain video streaming sites, there are examples of general users attempting to fix this with adhesive, but even with strong adhesive, it seems difficult to withstand the strong driving force, giving the impression of being a temporary measure.

I’m concerned that replacing it with the metal spur gear solution may place stress on parts other than the worm shaft mating section, but let’s operate it for a while and see.

When replacing the entire door mirror, the total cost is high while the labor charge is minimal, which isn’t particularly pleasing for either the customer or myself. However, when an inexpensive part replacement like this can be achieved, the total cost is significantly reduced, and the labor charge ratio is higher, resulting in a more “repair-like” operation that feels right for both parties.

While monitoring the condition of this partial repair, I plan to handle any malfunction of the opposite door mirror in the same way.

MSMint Door Mirror Side Mirror Gear Metal Replacement Compatible Part Electric Folding Folding Malfunction (48 teeth: for Suzuki, Subaru, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda)