As of late my rear view mirror has been shaking quite a bit while driving down the freeway, having the effect of blurring the images in the mirror. Very annoying. So I took of the little lens (held on with 3M tape) and took off the mirror assembly, as the screws there were not loose.

Turns out the metal "arm" of the mirror comes down to a plate....this plate then "clips" or "sanps" into the plastic base plate that screws into the body of the car. This is where the vibration comes in it seems, as there is differential movement between the base of the arm and the plastic baseplate. Just a little but amplified by the length of the arm.

Personally I think it's a rather sloppy design by Mazda. Unless the rear view mirror is designed to collapse upon impact (with my head) then why didn't they just screw the mirror all the way into the car? I may try to drill holes in there to firmly attach the two plates, but for now I stuck a bit of 3M tape in there....

Anyone else have the rattling mirror problem??

Right on.

 

theres supposed to be a rubber bushing that fixes that wobble. ive heard of people cutting fuel hose and using that to stop it from rattling.
anyone have pics of the bushing? hmmm maybe mazdatrix has it....
gamble
(still lookin around)

 

you could wedge a piece of styrofoam or use some sort of silicone culk on it. The only mirror on my car that doesn't vibrate is the passenger side.

 

The mirror in my 79 does that after it has been sitting in the hot *** texas sun. Actually it isnt that bad im used to hotter, but my car isnt. But once it cools down it stops shaking, and is no longer a problem.

 

I have that rubber piece, I used some 3.5mm(?) rubber hose from an old rats nest that I had laying around and made my own . I dont have a camera, otherwise Id show you. Funny enough, I did it on the side of the road too. It just go so annoying that I couldnt stand it anymore. I pulled over, grabbed the spare rats nest (convienantly in the back, lol), pulled out my knife and took a slice off after some "carefull" measurments, wedged it on there, and its still there today . My Dads GSL-SE has the stock one, it actually says "Mazda" on the side of his...lol

~T.J.

 

need pictures hehe
im a picture ***** hehe

 

Get some longer screws and some washers. Rock solid.

crappy picture, but you get the idea.

 

Mine's screwed in, looks stock. Maybe there was a recall?

EDIT: In the kind-of-related-okay-not-really category:

The light cover on both of my cars had the snap pegs bent or broken to the point of you goota be kidding. So every time I went over railroad tracks or a good sized bump, that light lens would fall out and land somewhere in the passenger footwell.

I bought a coil of foam tape (basically thick black foam rubber about 1/4" thick and 1/2" wide with a sticky backing), stuck it to the front and sides of the lens in a U shape, trimmed it to fit, and jammed the lens back in. The foam tape creates enough pressure to keep the lens in unless you want to pop it out to change the bulb, and because it's around the sides of the lens the foam is hidden in the crevasse between lens and black plastic overhead console.

 

im under the impression that the washer is behind the mirrow itself not under the light cover....

 

Huh...I guess this might work...the vibration comes from the mirror arm vibrating in reference to the plastic piece which it snaps into (which is screwed into the car). Looks like what FD racer did was extend the screws so that the force created by the screw is transfered through the larger washers and into the the mirror arm.

Where doses this piece of stock rubber go though? Please post pictures!

Right on.

 

If you look on the back of the mirror, you'll see a little stud. Get some fuel hose or thick vacuum hose that will fit tightly to that and then cut to length so that it just touches the windshield for a little pressure. You vibration problem will be solved. If that explanation doesn't help, I'll post a pic tonight. I tried it after reading peejay's post on the subject some time ago...

 

You might try the junk yards,,and look for that rubber
piece,they are on 2ed gens, alot more 2ed's have them
then 1st's. and they work great.. and your right, the design is pretty weak.

 

Are you talking about the little "hook shaped nub" on the back of the arm where it connects to the plastic plate? OK, so there is supposed to be a piece of rubber on there eh? Well mine is definitely lacking said rubber. I'll make like ya'll did and use some tubing of some sort on there and see what happens.

The 3M tape seems ok, though I haven't really driven much with it yet. It did prevent the mirror from positvely snapping into place because of the extra thickness though. So I like the hose idea better.

Right on.

 

That rubber peice used to come stock, but most people used to throw it away because they didn't know what it was for.

Fuel line works well.

 

You think thats bad....the whole reason I secured the mirror the way I did was becouse when I would go over railroad tracks or a good bump, the whole mirror would fall off!

By the way, those clear plastic dome light lenses are less than $10 for a shiney new one.

 

Yeah I know. 20 year old thread. But it’s the one that pops up when you search for shaky rear view mirror. Took me a while to work out what nub the hose was supposed to attach to… but finally worked it out. Pic below.

Also found that increasing the diameter of the rearmost silver barrel that the mirror arm clips in to really helps. It’s the shiny silver thing, approx 1” long 1/8” diameter. Has a serrated slot looking like a shark smile. Shove a dental pick into the smile and pry back and forth to widen the smile and so increase the rods diameter. Do it to the one on the rear as works best. Sorry, no photo, had everything back together before I remembered.

 

My '84 has had a random piece of vacuum line there since 2007