Vanity Mirror Bulb?

[Wayne 962]

Wayne:

First let me say your tech articles are great. I purchased this car this weekend and had a number of lights out.(my first Porsche( Your tech articles were of great help.

The drivers side vanity mirror lights when opened, but the passengers side does not. The owners manual doesn't list the replacement bulb size, nor is there any indication on how to access the bulb.

Can you help....I know this won't affect the car performance, but it keeps the noise down on the wives side of the car if I can get this working....

Thank you in advance for your quick reply to this inquiry....

Victor R.

Hi there. I'm pretty sure that you can use a small screwdriver to pry off the front lens from in front of the bulb to access it? Unfortunately, I don't have my car here with me this morning to double-check this.

-Wayne

[very~worn~944]

Victor, the mirror assembly (plastic) gently pops out of the visor material(vinyl) with a plastic wedge- leaving you with 2 wires tethering the two. From this point you can see from the backside all of the plastic tabs holding the two halves of the mirror/light assembly together. From my experience it's not usually the bulbs, but the housing itself that fails. In order to change the housing you must cut the tethering wires and solder the new one together.

[TechVic]

Wayne:

If you get a minute could you please verify how gain access to the bulbs in the Vanity Mirror. I was able to lift one side slightly with a small flat screw driver, but the rest wouldn't budge. I would hate to break the assembly...better no lights than a broken mirror on the car. Should I be trying to lift the white plastic lens or the whole assembly out???

Still in the dark....

[pelsteve1]

I had same issue and finally got around to taking a look at it, girlfriend is vane enough, doesn't need another excuse.. but anyway... the blank insert pops outs...there are some parts of the black frame that act as fingers.. do not try to force the thin edge near the cover hinge...it will break ....I found prying from the outside edge of the black frame towards the center, parallel to the place of the mirror. This means the rounded edges get pryed left to right (for the left side), right to left (for the right side) and back to front (for front edge) assuming the mirror is facing up towards the ski (and the cover open obviously).

If you move the black plastic and have a flashlight handle, you should be able to see the tabs. One is in the center of the front edge and the rounded sides have one also. and then face outwards. There are also 4 inward clips on the front and back edges which tuck behind the mirror. Use a thin flexible plastic spaced to push the plastic frame away from the mirror on long edge next to the hinge first and then work your way around in either direction.

It is only a brass plate with a hole in it which makes contact to the edge of the bulb. As previous posters said, probably not the bulb, probably just oxidation on the contact. rotate the bulb a bit and it may come right on... As soon as I pryed up the black insert..my lights came on. I slight the mirror slight parallel to the long edge and it seems to address the intermittent access. I did not remove the mirror. I used a flash light to try to see under the mirror and I think I saw some clips there also, but since the lights were now working..I did not try to remove..