This week assuming part desks are open I want to get my mirror fixed. My grandma as kindly given me some extra Christmas money which he told me to get a new mirror with so I don't need to waste time faffing about trying to get a nearly new mirror at scrap yards.
The problem is I still can't work out how to get this damn nut oiff. I have tried pliers and waterpump pliers but there is not enough room to grip it. I had idea, does such a tool exist, which allow me to clamp a hose clamp onto this nut, then a lever so I can turn it?
i167.photobucket.com/albums/u141/amazingtrade/P1010810_zps55e93023.jpg
i167.photobucket.com/albums/u141/amazingtrade/P1010806_zps9550cffb.jpg
It is that black nut I need to remove, I assume its the entire thing and not the inner bit.
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Long needle-nose pliers? Failing that put a large flat screwdriver perpendicular to one of those slots and whack it with a mallet.
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I did think of the screw driver and mallet idea myself, but that will be a last resort. The official FIAT E-Learn CD-ROM (the programme the FIAT workshops use) tell me to remove it with a special tool. I assume those slots are just to aid that, rather than anything structural, e.g it won't matter if I damage them.
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>> Long needle-nose pliers?
Yeah, jamb the needle noses in opposing slots and twist. Needle nose pliers about 5 quid down Halfords.
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Jam two small screwdrivers into opposite holes adjacent to the middle bit, and carefully apply pressure.
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The tool undoubtedly exists, but only in the assembly plant and quite likely attached to a dog-in-the-mangerish robot that would tear your hand off if you tried to borrow it.
The advice given so far is good. Sometimes it may be an idea to give it a tap with a mallet with a screwdriver in one slot, but with plastic nuts you have to be pretty careful not to do bad damage. Use something blunt and not too much force, little sharp tap until it moves. And by the way: make sure you know whether the thread is left or right handed before using any force.
Grimy old rule-of-battered-thumb amateur mechanics out there, remember completely rounded off (by hamfisted efforts with wrong size or adjustable spanners or by someone else) immovable brake union nuts, rusted solid but leaking nevertheless? Heh heh cough cough groan...
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Is it threaded? It looks like a friction fitting.
Have you tried tapping the inner through the collar?
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>> Is it threaded? It looks like a friction fitting.
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Have a feeling Kevin's on the right track here, maybe a one time click it in by machine and thats it.
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>> maybe a one time click it in by machine
Yes.
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Damn, you're a jessie.
forums.puntomk2.co.uk/showthread.php?24333-Urgent-Problemo-Wing-Mirror-Removal&p=370583
Seems to me its just a matter of gently persuading it in the correct direction.
And you do actually manage to take computers apart on your own?
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With laptops I can usually find manuals which tell me exactly what order to take things apart. The only jobs I will don on a laptop without a manual is screen replacement, keyboard replacement, hard drive replacement and RAM upgrades. Anything else I need a proper guide for.
And I out source a lot of jobs like soldering DC jacks.
Most my work is support and software related anyway.
I have never been mechanically minded in that way though.
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A flat head screwdriver and a gentle tap with a hammer should be all you need to crack this loose. It's plastic - it cannot be THAT tight.
A decent sized pair of circlip pliers might also work.
Last edited by: DP on Tue 25 Dec 12 at 21:37
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Small mole wrench - I have one that would do that job.
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I've obviously missed something here. Why is "getting dealer to sort it" not an option?
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Pride as much as anything! If I can't even change a mirror I am useless, its not exactly changing a head gasket is it!
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 2 Jan 13 at 00:36
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So the car will remain off the road whilst you figure out how to do the job. Whilst the dealer would do it at a price including fitting...
The big screwdriver and hammer option seems to work! And then get a new mirror to fit.
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You're lucky Dave, RP and Smokie didn't stick this in technical straight away and maybe have fewer seeing it.
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On reflection you're right, but we were drunk.
Last edited by: R.P. on Tue 25 Dec 12 at 23:32
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Not really technical though is it, I am not asking for torque settings on for a cylinder head on a Rover K series, I was just asking a very general question about a tool.
Also it is Christmas week, my main dealer is 8 miles away and as already stated on the other thread, I can't drive it with the mirror hanging off, its dangerous for two reasons.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Tue 25 Dec 12 at 23:44
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>> I can't drive it with the mirror hanging off, its dangerous for two reasons.
'Dangerous' is pitching it a bit high Sheikha. 'Slightly inconvenient' is the phrase you need.
Secure or remove the mirror, drive the eight miles with due caution and get the dealer to do it. Or nip round to Ted's and let him help you cobble something. Or something. Anyway do something or not as the case may be.
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Get an old box spanner (or some people call them tube spanners) that's the correct diameter. Chop the hexagonal end off, then with a file shape four protuding lugs on the end. You'll probably have to cut a chunk out to allow for the cable.
Alternately, as others have said, screwdriver and BFH. Or use glandnut pliers (plumbers pliers)
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Or use glandnut pliers.
Eww, it's going to take a lot of thinking about flowers and bunny rabbits to flush out the mental image that term evokes.
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Heh heh, glad it wasn't just me !
Coincidentally I've just spent a fraught ten minutes fettling my dog's wedding tackle. He's very white and furry and kind of low slung and somehow yesterday he managed to get tar stuck all round his nethers. There's building work going on at the canal basin near us and I guess he failed to leap high enough to clear something sticky.
Well let me tell you that persuading a dog that it's in his best interests and indeed that he needs to hold very still while you snip away at his undercarriage hairs is a bit challenging and almost as worrying for me as it clearly was for him. I could probably have made good use of a pair of glandnut pliers !
He's looking at me now in a rather reproachful way. Think I'll give him a piece of leftover pork pie as compensation.
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>>I can't drive it with the mirror hanging off, its dangerous for two reasons.
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Google it ? search for replacing a Fiat Panda wing mirror
Clever things them computers:-)
www.fiatforum.com/panda/223661-how-do-you-replace-panda-wing-mirror.html
"i just changed my mirrors as mine came with the new sytle on . if you take off the inner small trim behind the mirror there is a single round nut you will need something like pipe pliers well that what i used they did the job but there is not alot of space grip and turn anti clockwise and the whole mirror will come off . i changed both mine in 10 mins no probs . mine are electric ones not sure if manuals are same ."
www.fiatforum.com/panda/255790-how-reattach-wing-mirror-housing.html
Buy a Haynes ?
Call the AA ?
Ask the dealer to come and fix it
Get it towed to the dealer.
Contact an Indie to fix it.
Choices choices.
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That was my thread, but I posted here as its much busier, it can sometimes take a while to get replies on the FIAT forum, and its mainly full of people with problems. There are only a few genuine car buffs in the Panda section, and ironically at least one of a big member on here.
I drive a FIAT Panda, not a Rolls Royce, I don't have money to burn on dealer labour charges, if I got a dealer round to fix it, the bill will come close to 500 quid no doubt!. I am doing a major kit out of my office in the new year, I don't want to be spending a fortune on my car at the same time and atm as its Christmas I am not working so a car is not essential.
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>> On reflection you're right,
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The mirror's broken, therefore he can't see a reflection.
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Just for the record, I like to call them "wing" mirrors and have decided I shall not be embarrassed to do so. There, I've said it !
:-)
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>> Pride as much as anything! If I can't even change a mirror I am
>> useless, its not exactly changing a head gasket is it!
>>
Sympathy from me here Rats. Ex-girlfriend had a Saxo, used to wreck mirrors by using them much as a cat uses its whiskers. Having changed several I would say that there are head gaskets less troublesome than the junkyard of sharp edges and lousy fasteners hidden inside many car doors.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 2 Jan 13 at 00:36
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Never heard of a wing mirror tool Rattle.Plenty advice on here.I would drive without the use of the mirror for the time being.
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Yes he does.
Sorry Sheikha. I don't really think you're any more of one than anyone else, but I just couldn't resist it.
:o}
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Well won't be doing anything now. I didn't drink a drop of beer yesterday as I was feeling a bit under the weather. Today I have broken out with every single sympton of flu, I don't know if I do have the flu, but I almost fainted just going to the toilet. My eyes are redder than George Best after 6 shots of Whiskey and cold and hot at the same time. My thermostat has failed.
On the plus side, at least I am ill while I am off work anyway.
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Drink fluids, take aspirin or paracetamol, stay in bed and sweat. Influenza is horrible and in fact life-threatening to people of my age. A contemporary died a couple of years ago of a heart attack following a long bout of flu, and there was said to be a connection. But I don't think you will be at risk of that.
Sorry you are ill Sheikha. I would have hesitated to tease you if I had known (but probably would have gone ahead anyway). I trust the Panda with its severed ear is parked safely.
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>>Today I have broken out with every single sympton of flu
The boss, who is a Stoic, got something similar overnight on 24th/25th during which she had hours of shivering and shaking. I know she felt terrible because she never moans and barely mentions it if she's just under the weather.
After 36 hours on alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen she's as right as a clock bar the residual cough. Clearly not proper flu, hope you have the same thing ;-)
EDIT - agree with AC on adequate fluids too. Non-alcoholic for preference, otherwise it's hard to know when you're better!
Last edited by: Manatee on Wed 26 Dec 12 at 16:38
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If it's plastic it won't be all that tight - they tend to grip more by flexibility and plain shoddiness than real torque. Plastic nuts are a lot easier to do up than undo, because unless you can apply all-round effort they tend distort and jam. You can easily chisel a nut to pieces by careless hammering when it probably wasn't a lot more than finger tight in the first place.
I'd try cutting a tool out of a bit of copper plumbing pipe, or a connector - it looks about 22mm in the photo - and then just try wrist power or a mole wrench to turn it.
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Thanks, looks like it will be a few days till I have the energy to look at this anyway now. I was thinking before if I do damage the nut, what is stopping me replacing it with a proper metal one? I assume the only purpose of this plastic nut is it can be assembled in the fact a few seconds quicker than attaching a proper bolt.
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I guess I won't know what I have got till after tomorrow, if I start to feel better tomorrow then its just a nasty bug. The worst time I ever had flu was when I had the swine flu back in 2010. I was bed ridden for two entire weeks with that.
I don't feel as bad as that, I was so ill then I wouldn't be able to type on a computer. I am hoping it is just a quick bug, not been feeling quite right for the past week, just put it down to SAD.
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Have you sorted that mouldy old wall ? That'll make it go in your chest breathing in them spores...
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Yeah sorted that ages ago, well bleached it all off, and moved my bed near to the window, I also open the window a few times a day to let some air in. Hoping to completely gut the room in the New Year and I will sort thing better out then. Hopefully if I put that special paper on the wall, it will stop the wall getting so cold, so when the hot air hits it it should not get mouldy.
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>> I almost fainted just going to the toilet.
Flush toilet immediately after going - it helps cut down on the smell that almost made you faint ;)
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I don't know if I do have the flu, but I
>> almost fainted just going to the toilet. My eyes are redder than George Best after
>> 6 shots of Whiskey and cold and hot at the same time. My thermostat has
>> failed.
That sounds more like constipation (or the opposite) than 'flu. ;-)
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>> Pride as much as anything! If I can't even change a mirror I am
>> useless, its not exactly changing a head gasket is it!
>>
Mate, seriously. Does not make you useless in the slightest, just means that you have better uses for your time than trying to sort out disproportionately fiddly bits of the motor. Either of ours would have been booked straight in for that, with no shame whatsoever on my part.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 2 Jan 13 at 00:36
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It has a form of ratchet to stop it coming loose. Having been down to the parts store for a new one (That is if there isn't one already on the new mirror) I would use a wood chisel and Manchester screwdriver to split the "nut".
Presume you know what a "Manchester screwdriver" is.
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Manchester screwdriver hit it with a hammer? <:)
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Does such a tool exist? - Fursty Ferret
