The interior rear view mirror was missing from the car. A curious item to be absent, the wire to the Auto-Dimming mirror looked to have been disconnected and the entire mirror assembly had simply been removed. I wasn’t aware of how to remove the mirror so I thought it interesting that a potential car thief would know how to remove the mirror, if that was what happened.
I found a DIY on adding a Compass equipped mirror to the S4, a feature absent from the factory, and that guide detailed the proper method for removing the rear view mirror. The process is pretty easy, simply use a wrench to turn the base of the mirror that attaches to the windshield counter clockwise 90 degrees to remove the mirror. Putting a towel between the wrench and the mirror is a good thing to keep from marring the base. Installing the mirror is simply the reverse. I removed the mirror from my Santorin car and installed it in the Silver car.
I also worked on replacing the driver’s side outside mirror which had begun to peel. I assume the early demise of the mirror was partly due to the auto-dimming feature, something which I did not have on my Santorin car. I replaced the mirror with the good mirror from the Santorin car and also replaced the plastic Silver colored housing with the Aluminum housing from the Santorin car. I’m undecided if I like the look better, but the housing is metal and much more solid which I do like.
I was a bit worried about how I was going to remove the lock cylinder with the section that holds the key punched out. The proper technique for removing the lock cylinder involves putting the key in and then turning the cylinder so that the correct tool (or large paper clip) can be inserted in the hole near the key to retract the metal bar that holds the lock cylinder in place.
Fortunately with a few tools like a flat blade screwdriver, needle nose pliers, and the large paper clip I was able to remove the damaged part.
Inserting the new part that I had found in the glove box was an easy process and I was glad to find that it was keyed properly, the key that was supplied with the vehicle (there were two) worked in the new lock cylinder and the car started with the key.
Since I had the camera inside the car I snapped a few other shots of the current condition of the car.
With the weather unseasonable warm today there was a great opportunity to back the Silver S4 into the driveway and wash it off. I had the trickle charger running all night long but it still hadn’t reached the 80% charged point so I was a little worried about getting the car back into the garage after cleaning it off. It started up pretty easily with the charger still attached and after backing it out of the garage there were no signs of oil dripping. I did make sure and back it up far enough that if I had to pull the Miata alongside of it to jump start I’d be able to.
The passenger side wheel I’d managed to get off after whacking the inside of the tire with a 2×6. I put one of my SSR comps on that corner. I tried the same thing with the driver’s side but to no avail, the wheel would not budge. The next step will be driving the car (slowly) with the lug bolts loosened and try to get the wheel to break loose.
Here’s the car after washing. Both tabs on the passenger side headlight were broken so I just took the headlight out. I also put my old air filter, which looked newer than the one in the Silver S4, into the car and also used the bottom half of my airbox which has the Darintake mod done to it. Since I had the airbox out I cleaned up the ICM’s and used some dielectric grease on the mounting plate. I also disassembled the MAF and used MAF cleaner on the sensor.
