I f**king hate cars sometimes...

I f**king hate cars sometimes...

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Discussion

LPH

Original Poster:

364 posts

176 months

Sunday 30th June
quotequote all
Had a Mr12Volt bluetooth audio box for my early V8V for a couple of years and finally got round to fitting it yesterday.

I was worried about removal of the ski slope, as I had read that the piano black ones are brittle. However that went fine, dead easy to be honest.

Fitting and routing of fibre optic cable was easy too. Used fuse 55 with a piggyback fuse holder and took an earth from a both in the chassis just above the fuse box. So all reversible and not a single cut wire or splice to be seen.

Tested and all worked as required, first go.

Feeling smug I decided to fit the microphone for the phone function. Removed the OE microphone from the interior light unit behind the rear view mirror. My car has the OE SIM based phone system fitted. To be able to fit it all neatly and get the wires routes removal of the light unit was needed. No problem, all you have to do is remove the rear view mirror to gain access to a small screw and then remove the light unit.

Rear view mirror is fixed with a single T30 torx screw. Had trouble getting the torx driver into it but eventually did, it seemed like it was a bit misshaped. Couldn't seem to undo it, was super tight. Kept going slowly and used something for a bit of extra leverage - and it started to move!

The movement wasn't the threads undoing, it was the screw shearing off.............mad







So I now need to try and drill this out somehow. Only have about 20mm between this and the roof - which I don't fancy drilling through to be honest.

Anyone know what the piece this screw is stuck in is made from? No idea why this seized.

Cheers




Edited by LPH on Sunday 30th June 16:53

LPH

Original Poster:

364 posts

176 months

Sunday 30th June
quotequote all
The 2 holes at either side (used to locate the mirror) allow you to push something through and see how far the roof is away.

I've bought these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CQXQH9XZ?psc=1&r...

Some new sharp drill bits and a set of ezi-out type thingies.

I quite like a challenge banghead

Will be a case of taking it very very slowly.......


LPH

Original Poster:

364 posts

176 months

Sunday 30th June
quotequote all
I have an automatic centre punch and agree that the ezi-out is unlikely to work.

And I am also surprised that is seized. No signs of corrosion and there shouldn't be.

The fact that the head looked damaged makes me think someone has had issues with it in the past.

LPH

Original Poster:

364 posts

176 months

mrpseudonym said:
I have had a lot of success in situations like this using a dremel tool to cut a single channel through the broken screw head and then using a flat blade screwdriver to unscrew. I can’t quite see from the pic if you could get dremmel access but it might work for you.

Edited by mrpseudonym on Monday 1st July 09:03


Edited by mrpseudonym on Monday 1st July 09:04
It's too deep in to get a dremel on it, it's sitting below the housing bit and I don't want to cut into that.

LPH

Original Poster:

364 posts

176 months

Nigel_O said:
Does the mirror locate directly into the body of the car? Wouldn’t surprise me to find that there is some kind of secondary mounting plate that is bolted to the roof, to which the mirror is then bolted.

Might be worth removing the trim panel to have a look….
Yes it is attached to some kind of bracket. I've had a look on the parts diagrams for the car but can't identify it. I have pulled it down a bit to try and see inside but didn't want to force it too far.

I think the trim is held on by the mirror and the screws for the sun visor mounts.

Will probably remove these to see if the trim comes away easily and the and then can see if the bit the mirror attached to is removable.

LPH

Original Poster:

364 posts

176 months

VanquishRider said:
Will it now pull out past the broken screw? As no screw holding it in now.
The broken screw attaches the mirror to a bracket of some sort, into a threaded hole.

The yellow bit here is the threaded bolt and most of it is now stuck in the threaded bit.



LPH

Original Poster:

364 posts

176 months

LPH said:
The broken screw attaches the mirror to a bracket of some sort, into a threaded hole.

The yellow bit here is the aforementioned screw and most of it is now stuck in the threaded bit.


LPH

Original Poster:

364 posts

176 months

Tuesday
quotequote all
Thanks for all the suggestions.

All done, drilled out, tap run through the threads and a new cap head torx screw used.

And no hole in the roof skin - which is nice.......