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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
Anyone else have loose outside mirrors on the hatchback sport? When they are "locked" in the out position, you can move them back and forth a half inch or so. I went through the dealer lot, and all of the Civics had tight mirrors, but at least half of the hatchbacks had loose mirrors. And of course the dealer is saying they are normal because so many others have the same problem.
 

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hey....you stole my name! just kidding

i'm a billw too. sorry, i don't have any useful information on the subject matter...i just saw myself posting something i don't know about.
 

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Discussion Starter · #5 ·
Yeah, mine are like that too. They don't shake around or anything, but they aren't terribly rigid.
No, they don't flop around while you're driving, but they do move. If someone walks by and bumps them, or if you slam the door, the next time you get in the car the mirrors are not where you left them. It's pretty annoying. I'll post again if they finally agree to replace them. I had told them not to bother until the factory came up with a fix, but now I'm pretty sure that the replacement mirrors will be okay. Unfortunately, the service manager is balking.
 

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What am I missing here billw?
 

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What am I missing here billw?
I think that the issue @billw is describing is that where the mirrors pivot "in" (was at one time referred to as a "breakaway mirror") they don't lock themselves into a strong detent position. When the mirror is where it's supposed to live there is about 3mm-5mm of rotational play along the pivotal axis, as though the hole that the detent lives in is much bigger than whatever is meant to hold it in place. As a result of this the mirror doesn't vibrate up-and-down when driving, but if lightly bumped or a door is closed a bit too hard the mirror housing itself will move to a spot just out of its original position and make it necessary to re-adjust the in/out (← →) of the glass.

I mentioned this when the car was in for a warranty repair last week and was told that this is not unusual (they refused to use the word "normal", and that felt pretty intentional) and that the whole assembly was completely functional and wouldn't be replaced as a warranty or defect item. In response to this I walked through their lot and checked about a dozen Civics of all body types (coupe, sedan, hatch) and found that all but two of them exhibited the same issue as mine with varying degrees of severity. It seems that their supplier for mirror housings has inconsistent quality control, but it also shows that the Honda acceptance criteria for these parts isn't terribly strict.

Couple the loose mirrors with the seemingly endless vibration noises I seem to be chasing all over the interior of this car and it feels like a repeat of the 2013 Civic and its low initial quality complaints.

I'm coping because - aside from the little issues - I really like the car a lot.
 

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Discussion Starter · #9 ·
I think that the issue @billw is describing is that where the mirrors pivot "in" (was at one time referred to as a "breakaway mirror") they don't lock themselves into a strong detent position. When the mirror is where it's supposed to live there is about 3mm-5mm of rotational play along the pivotal axis, as though the hole that the detent lives in is much bigger than whatever is meant to hold it in place. As a result of this the mirror doesn't vibrate up-and-down when driving, but if lightly bumped or a door is closed a bit too hard the mirror housing itself will move to a spot just out of its original position and make it necessary to re-adjust the in/out (← →) of the glass.

I mentioned this when the car was in for a warranty repair last week and was told that this is not unusual (they refused to use the word "normal", and that felt pretty intentional) and that the whole assembly was completely functional and wouldn't be replaced as a warranty or defect item. In response to this I walked through their lot and checked about a dozen Civics of all body types (coupe, sedan, hatch) and found that all but two of them exhibited the same issue as mine with varying degrees of severity. It seems that their supplier for mirror housings has inconsistent quality control, but it also shows that the Honda acceptance criteria for these parts isn't terribly strict.

Couple the loose mirrors with the seemingly endless vibration noises I seem to be chasing all over the interior of this car and it feels like a repeat of the 2013 Civic and its low initial quality complaints.

I'm coping because - aside from the little issues - I really like the car a lot.
Yes, that's what I was describing. I also checked a lot of other Civics in the lot, and all of them that weren't hatchbacks were tight, and only some of the hatchbacks were loose. My understanding is that the hatch is the only one made in England, and I wonder if they use a different supplier. I'm getting the same response as you from my service manager - he thinks that since some others are loose, it's normal.

Regarding QC in general, I also needed both front window regulators and run channels replaced the first week I had the car. They bind at the bottom of the glass travel, and the service writer told me it's very common.

I'm probably going to call Honda customer service about the mirrors. I don't care how many are loose, it's not "normal". At the same time, I really like this car, too. It's far more responsive than the 2013 Mustang I traded for it, and that's both the engine and trans. It's slower 0-60, but that's a tradeoff I can live with. And the Honda's handling & steering also feel much better.
 

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Just checked these 3, no, 4 models. EX sedan, LX hatch, LX-P coupe and the blue Type -R. Both hatch models had the loose mirrors, the sedan and coupe were fine.
 

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Here's a slightly new one:

I took my Hatch through a car wash yesterday and the spray from the wash head actually folded my RH mirror in, so not only is this mirror a little loose in the "locked" position, it also doesn't require much torque to rotate it off it's latch. There was no actual physical contact between the mirror and the washer, it was merely the water spray that caused this to happen.

Mike
 

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do these mirrors vibrate while driving down the freeways?

visually, all the mirrors were the same yesterday at the dealer...with the only difference being the EX sedan had the lanewatch camera. i brought it up the the sales manager yesterday when he allowed me to go look at the Type R that was ready for delivery. i even showed him that the $37,000 Type R had loose mirrors and I personally would not accept it if it was delivered with those - as i know they shouldn't be because the coupe and sedan DIDN'T have the loose mirrors.

he said he would look into it on his lot and talk with Honda regarding the subject. who knows if he will or not.
 

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do these mirrors vibrate while driving down the freeways?
Noop. Plenty steady as they're tight vertically; my EX Hatch has the Lanewatch camera and the view in the display is steady and clear. It's only really an issue when the mirror either makes contact with something that can move it axially along its pivot, or when there's an abrupt force like the door closing hard (or the high pressure spray from a car wash) can cause the mirror to move away from the detent position.

It's mostly just annoying, not functionally affected.

Mike
 
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