It would make stretching the spring and reattaching the far end a bit easier. In hindsight the 2" eyebolt might have been a better choice. Home Depot had 1 1/2" long eyebolts and also 2" long eyebolts. Yes, reattaching the spring was the most difficult part. I took a few pictures of my home repair and circled the problem area and my simple fix. I'm not too worried about rust, the tension spring looks like lightly galvanized steel and it is rust free. I looked for stainless steel, but didn't find any at my Home Depot store. The screw I hardware, washers, and nut I used are all zinc. Yes, FOUR measly dollars and maybe an hour of my time. The threaded screw eye, nut, and 2 packs of different sized washers cost me about $4. The repaired mirror seems to flex back and forth with the same effort as the undamaged driver side rear view mirror. Once I knew the mirror operated ok, I reinstalled the outer cover. I installed my repaired mirror assembly and tested that it worked. Then I removed the broken assembly from my car (just 3 phillips machine screws and the circuit connecter). The most difficult part was pulling the other open end of the spring to it's original attachment arm. Seeing how this might really work, I removed the threaded eye, wrestled the spring end open enough to insert the threaded eye, then reattached the threaded eye to the mirror body. Now I had a threaded eye to connect the tension spring against. I used a washer or two to give the threaded nut something to tighten against. I decided to try a 1 1/2" threaded eye instead. (I had kept the broken part.) As strong as that spring is, I didn't think any reasonable glue would work. I got out my original mirror I'd saved and investigated whether I could glue the broken clip back on. Nope, prices still all over the map from $250 for used to $400 and up for new. I jumped on the internet to look for the part again, hoping the price had come down since this car is older now. The previous time, I ordered a replacement assembly from the dealer for around $400 and replaced the mirror myself. This is the 2nd time I've had this happen. The pot metal clip where the spring attaches was broken. To my dismay, the whole mirror was loose. I got out of the car thinking the mirror might have been folded toward the car and in need of being unfolded. I just reached for the adjustment knob as usual, but adjusting the mirror didn't work. I recently went to drive this car and noticed the right hand rear view mirror was out of alignment. I have multiple cars so this sedan sits a great deal of the time in my garage with a cover over it. I'm the original owner of a 1999 C230 Kompresser with just 45,000 miles after 17 years.
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