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Did A Screen Change On A 300 Today...


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And I forgot just how much a ball-ache the older GS's are!

First, you've got the side trims. They're full length of the car, and clipped down. Trouble is, the clips along the roof don't like to hold as tight as they did before you take them off, making the trims a bit "spongey" after refitting, and secondly, the clips down the front a-posts are mounted on a rail - which is riveted to the a-posts! You have to drill them out before you can take the screen out, as both the clips, and the rail, overhang the sides of the screen, which makes removal VERY difficult with them in place, and fitting the new screen next to impossible.

Once you've done all that, you have the dreaded mirror. This has to be one of, if not THE stupidest mirror mounting systems ever devised.

First, you have a metal (aluminium I think) boss/bracket bonded to the glass. New screen comes with the same part pre fitted (as most modern cars do). The mirror itself is removed from the car by way of taking off a small plastic cover, exposing a T30 torx bolt. Simply undo that, and the mirror is free to remove from the glass. Great. Until you get to the "middle man"

2iaanmx.jpg

The middle man is the bit that mounts to the boss/bracket on the glass and allows the mirror to affix to. In the pic above (sorry I didn't take more pics at the time - would have been easier to explain it), the silver part is the boss/bracket, the black around the edge is a plastic cover, and the middle man is the dark metal bit inside the silver bracket, with the threaded section.

This fits into the boss/bracket in three places. First, there's a tab at the bottom (the pic is upside down view, so the bottom is what looks like the top - where the indent is on the black plastic cover). Then at the sides, there's two ball bearings, each inside a little plastic "top hat" (the white bits) which is held in place with a spring clip. These ball bearings fit into two dimples on the silver boss/bracket, through the dark metal part, and the spring clip holds them tight.

Trouble is, they never, ever, want to fit correctly! The spring clip is a PITA as it is, and the holes for the white plastic "top hats" are so tight, the "top hats" don't like fitting through them. The dimples in the silver boss aren't really deep enough, so the ball bearings are never fully locked in, and the whole thing is subject to "pinging" itself off at any minute, meaning you lose the ball bearings and it's game over!

Fortunately, with enough time, patience (only just!) and more swearing than a sailors convention, I got it all in nice and tight. It's not my first rodeo with these, so I knew what to expect; the last time I did one I was very careful with it, and thought I had it sorted when "PING!" - off it went, launching one of the ball bearings into 4ft of snow. Yeah, you try finding a 4/5mm chrome ball bearing in a 4ft snow drift. No chance! Fortunately those ball bearings, complete with the top hats, are available from Toyota/Lexus at a whopping cost of £2.48 a pair. I did drop one today - cue frantic search, only to find it was about a foot away from where I dropped it, but after a good 10-15 mins I had it locked in tight, and even took it all out again and out it back together just to be sure, as I wasn't 100% happy with it the first time.

This HAS to be done prior to fitting the screen. First time I ever did one I made the mistake of trying to fit it to the new screen AFTER I've fitted the glass in the car - BIG MISTAKE. Hell, if the mirror wasn't electric, I'd fit that to the screen out of the car too, and lift it all in in one go!

So, over 2hrs of sweating and swearing in the gorgeous sun, one happy GS300 owner - 75k from new (I forget which year it was, 2nd gen I think)

But seriously, you GS owners. Please don't break your screens! PITA car to work on!!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

My logical mind says it must be made that way for a reason, and not just "because". I can only assume it's made like that so that if you were to lean over and knock the mirror with your head, the mount would pull apart rather than the screen be broken because it's bonded on. And the only reason I can see the part with the threaded section in to be like that, is so if you strip the thread, you only need to buy that small part, rather than replace the whole screen if it was all bonded on.

But yeah, it's still dumb. I think on the next one, I might try drilling out the dimples the ball bearing locate in. Drill them through fully, so the balls lock into place, with a touch more spread from the spring clip...

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