Mirror Clicking Noise

You press the fold button and hear a clicking or ticking sound from inside the mirror housing, but the mirror moves partway, jerkily, or not at all.

What's causing it

Clicking or ticking (as opposed to a smooth electric buzz) usually means the internal spur gear has already lost some of its teeth, rather than being fully stripped smooth. As the gear turns, the remaining teeth catch and skip against the worm gear on the motor shaft — that catch-and-skip is what you're hearing as a click. It's the same underlying failure as a mirror that won't fold at all, just caught partway through the process.

Why it's worth fixing now

A gear that's clicking is partially failed, not fully failed — but it only gets worse from here, not better. Continuing to operate the mirror can shear off more teeth and eventually strip the gear completely, or let the mirror glass develop play and vibrate at highway speed.

The fix

Replace the plastic gear with our redesigned, strengthened version — metal where the original GM part used plastic. Our mail-in gear + motor repair service is $279 for one mirror ($549/pair), or $45 ($85/pair) as a DIY part. See full pricing.