Sun Visors

Just wondering if anyone else has had troubles with their sun visors breaking after they become 'stuck' up for some reason? Both sides of my '09 Impreza Wagon have broken at the point where the metal rod goes into them leaving the passenger side just hanging down all the time and my driver's side barely staying up until I hit a bump. Each have mirrors in them, which I only mention as the Subaru dealer in Bangor, ME wants $75.00/each to replace them after telling me this was a 'common problem.'

Got any for sale with a more 'earthly' price? ;)

Reply to
Wilson
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I've not seen signs of anything like that on my '08 Outback. I'll admit that I didn't inspect closely for signs of imminent failure but both sides seem solid and don't flop and never seemed 'stuck'. Have you considered a visit to your local salvage yard? It seems likely that the visors would have some commonality across the various models so they shouldn't be too scarce.

Reply to
John McGaw

Oh, BTW, is it like this one?

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If so you might troll ebay too since there are a lot of similar items there. Not cheap but not $75 each either.

Reply to
John McGaw

Are there any auto salvage yards in your area? Some let you into the yard (perhaps without any power tools, only hand tools) and let you take parts off their cars. That would save you a ton of money. You have to find out if they have cars in stock within a year range for your make and model so you don't waste a trip going there. There is one near me that focuses only on foreign cars and I can check online on their car stock inventory (but obviously not what parts are left on the cars - so I check how long since the car arrived). Some take the parts off themselves and inventory them. You pay more for their labor. They might have an site where you can do an online search for parts; else, you have to call with make, year, model, and part. There are recycle stores, too, like sspparts.com, where you can get used parts for less ($45 at sspparts but there would probably be shipping costs).

Since the part has a design defect (see below), what you would get from a salvage yard or recycler is another part with the same defect but perhaps the defect has not yet exhibited itself.

According to:

AutoPartsCheaper.com

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they claim this problem was intrinsic due to a bad design of the part and that the newer redesigned visors don't have this problem. This store wants $87. Shipping is free since it is over their $49 purchase threshold; however, they are in the USA so free shipping is probably only to the 48 states (Alaska and Hawaii could cost more). The Subaru dealer in your area is charging less ($75+tax), so I'd go with them.

Probably the cheapest fix is to velcro up the visor and attach one of those shaded plexiglass visors (aka extender visor), like:

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._SX522_.jpg Leave the old droopy visor velcroed up to the ceiling and just use the extender visor. Instead of mounting it to drop from the bottom lip of the visor, mount it so it pivots from the top lip of the visor. To afford the most visoring, get the biggest extender visor you can find (that lets you mount it at the top lip of the old visor).

I don't know the construction of that particular visor. If it is a pin type (no metal bracket on the pin but just uses friction of the visor body against a pin), you could try pulling the visor off the pin and wrap a single layer of electrical tape around the pin and slide the visor back on the pin. Increase the tape around the pin until you get sufficient friction against the visor body to keep the visor in place.

Reply to
VanguardLH

I'm not sure I totally understand the failure point. It sounds as though th e visor is rotating about the metal rod more freely than designed. If that is the case, I had luck years ago on a non-Subaru with just putting a small binder clip on the visor so it would clamp down on the rod inside. It's ki nd of a duct tape solution, but many people put those clips on the opposite side of the visor to hold papers there, so it didn't look too out of place .

You can get them at any office supply store.

Reply to
weelliott

Thanks, John. That's the drivers side for sure. I happened to be near the dealers and was so ticked by that price, I haven't searched the web yet.

Oh, and tried the junk yard, but then they started talking politics and I had to take my business elsewhere - don't think they had one anyway from the earlier discussion.

Reply to
Wilson

I tried some paper to tighten up the fit, but it slipped. I've got some of those clips, not pretty, but up against $50+ ...

Reply to
Wilson

Geesh, I appreciate the work you put into this ;) I guess I better do my due diligence too.

Reply to
Wilson

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