Anyone DIY replace their mirror caps successfully?

Ezekiel2517 · October 24, 2019

I have a 2019 LTZ with the chrome caps and bought some body colored ones to replace them. I have seen a couple forums where folks talk about this, and even found one with the GM instructions. However I cannot find anyone that actually did it. The instructions say to put a "suitable tool" under the mirror and pry up to snap it off its brackets on the motor housing mounts. However I pry and pry and nothing happens. I am afraid I am going to break it. Im using a 1.5" chisel wrapped in tape to wedge in the gap between the mirror and the bezel. Any advice?

I thought I read a forum where someone said the dealer just snapped the old caps off from the outside. I wonder how hard it is to get the new ones on if I did that? I would rather do it the right way and not ruin the stock caps, but I also dont wanna break the mirror or motor mounts. The instructions say the old caps may break regardless so I dont know if it matters.

I wonder how much a dealer would charge to swap them?

cltsig · October 24, 2019

Check this out:

Ezekiel2517 · October 24, 2019

Awesome. Thanks! The way he did it appears different than the GM instructions. This is very helpful.

cltsig · October 24, 2019

No problem. Please post back your results. I'm thinking of doing the same one of these days.

Ezekiel2517 · October 24, 2019

It went great. You need to adjust your mirrors down and in as far as they will go. it allows you to see the release tabs. you can pry the first two loose then work your way to a lower one on the outside lower edge. Once you get those 3 loose then the mirror just comes off. The bezel is not as bad as he made it out to the video. I used two screwdrivers. One to pry between the bezel and the mirror and stuck another inside the tab slot to pry the tab free. The inside lower corner sticks and you gotta just pull it till you hear a snap. Then panic. Then realize its okay.

Getting the old caps off without breaking the tabs will definitley take some patience. Mine broke, but I think if I ever wanted to use them again, I could. It might take a dab of epoxy.

Overall the new ones look great. Took about an hour once I realized how to do it. The second one went much faster than the first.

HeySkippyDog · October 25, 2019

[emoji51] you went from Chrome to painted plastic?

I hope you don't get bug swarms where you live.

In Florida we have love bugs and nasty lake bugs and they etch the hell out of the plastic painted mirror covers. I ditched my body color ones for chromed ones and they hold up so much better.

Sent from my SM-J810F using Tapatalk

cltsig · October 25, 2019

Nice job! Your description and pics might push me to do it.

SatinSilvy · October 25, 2019

I popped my color matched caps on last night in the dark successfully some how. Oh and check out the freshly painted grille that I popped on last night as well.

Raybaby · October 25, 2019

Did you have to take your mirrors apart

SatinSilvy · October 25, 2019

54 minutes ago, Raybaby said:

Did you have to take your mirrors apart

No just popped the covers off and put the new ones on. Prob took 10 mins.

Raybaby · October 26, 2019

How did you get them to come apart did you have to stick something in the edge to get them to pop off

SatinSilvy · October 26, 2019

Yea I used a flathead screw driver. It broke 2 of the hooked pieces off in the middle (looks like the guy above broke the same pieces and he took his mirror apart) but nothing a little double sided tape couldn’t fix. These caps are one time use in my eyes. They are made very cheap, these cost me like 50 bucks with tax from GM.