What’s going on guys, it’s Hai and today we are going to fix one of the most annoying things, to me, about my Supra and that is the stock mirror caps.
If you didn’t know, there are three different mirror cap options for the A90 Supras. The 3.0 and 3.0 Premium trims have black mirror caps. The Launch Edition has red mirror caps. Then there are optional $925 carbon fiber mirror caps that can be purchased from the manufacturer.
I’m wasn’t going to blow $925 for mirror caps so I went to see what third parties manufacturers had to offer. After some research, I decided to pick up the Rexpeed carbon fiber mirror caps. Well, let me just tell you that these didn’t work out. The Rexpeed mirror caps are actually stick-ons so they adhere to the OEM mirror caps and do not replace them. This is fine if the fitment was actually correct. My Rexpeed mirror caps arrived with a lot of overhangs and excess material. It was very obvious that there was something there and I can almost guarantee that with them, if I go to do a car wash or something similar, towels, sponges or whatever will snag and pull on them. Over time, this will likely cause the adhesive to lift and that’d be no good. So, the Rexpeed mirror caps were returned.
I went back to trying to find some carbon fiber mirror caps. I went on eBay, just in case, then all of a sudden, I found a listing for some brand new unused OEM mirror caps for $300. I made an offer and after some negotiating, I got the OEM carbon fiber mirror caps for $279. That’s cheaper than many aftermarket options. Needless to say, I lucked out. BIG TIME.
I was worried that these might be fake but you can tell if the mirror cap is OEM or not by looking at the inside. Most mirror caps will be made from one solid piece of backing. The OEM actually has a skeletonized interior structure and we can see through the various cutouts to the carbon itself. As far as I know, this is the only carbon fiber mirror cap that has this design.
These mirror caps look so good but there is one problem with them. The passenger cap arrived with a broken mounting tab. This is where things get crazy. I contacted the seller and he was nice enough to give a full refund and let me keep the OEM mirror caps. Crazy right? $925 OEM mirror caps FOR FREE. Sure one of the tabs was broken but a quick trip to the hardware store and $6 worth of epoxy fixed things real quick.
Let’s go ahead and install the mirror caps. To do this, we first have to remove the mirror. You’ll be needing a trim pry tool or something similar. I would highly advise you to lay down some tape at the bottom edge of the mirror assembly to protect the finish from any scratches made by the pry tool. From here, use the pry tool and pry the mirror outwards. Take your time, prying along the bottom edge of the mirror. Be gentle. You don’t want to crack the mirror. That’ll add a couple extra hundred dollars to the install. Once the mirror is out, we can just let it hang for now. You can wrap it in a towel to prevent it from slipping and damaging the paint or itself.
Now, we’re going to remove the stock mirror cap. It is held in place by three prongs and an array of tabs. To release the mirror cap, we have to lift the safety tab in between the prongs while squeezing and pushing the prongs out. It helps to get in between the mirror cap and mirror assembly towards the top and pry the two apart. If you are going to do this, lay down some more tape along the outer edges and between the gap. I found that the best way to get these prongs out is to lift the safety tab with a right angle picking, squeeze the prongs together with needle nose plyers, then pry the mirror cap from the outside as I push with the needle nose plyers. The needle nose plyers really made the mirror cap removal much easier as the prongs have indentations that seem to fit my pliers perfectly. Pushing with the pliers really gave the leverage that I needed to remove the mirror caps. Once the three prongs are disgaged, wiggle the mirror cap as you pull outwards to release the array of bottom tabs and to completely remove the mirror cap. At this point, it’s just a matter of lining up the new carbon fiber mirror cap with the mirror assembly and pushing it back in place. Make sure that the mirror cap is properly seated with the prongs engaged inside the housing and there are no inappropriate gaps. Lastly, we’re going to reinstall the mirror. That’s it for one side and all there’s left to do is repeat on the other.
And with something as simple as a mirror cap, the look of the Supra is completely changed. I actually had OEM carbon fiber mirror caps on the Renaissance Red 2.0 Supra that I owned and really missed them when I traded it for the Absolute White Supra which came with the black mirror caps. This mod is definitely one that I can recommend. I don’t know if I would recommend you paying retail for the OEM version but there are definitely some cheaper aftermarket options out there. And who knows, maybe you’ll be able to find a crazy deal as I did.
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