I locked the car, turned around, and heard a cracking sound coming from the mirror. The folding mirror was loose and moving back and forth. How can I repair this mechanism?
1994 sedan si

 

Buy a new replacement mirror.

 

There's a large C clip that is under spring pressure, which attaches to an aluminum bracket, inside the mirror. It is on the pivot point of the mirror. If you fold the mirror in, it creates additional pressure on the C clip, from the spring, and that can cause the aluminum lip, on the bracket, to break. I've seen it happen so I never fold the mirrors on these cars.

As far as fixing it, you might be able to take the mirror apart and clip the C clip back on the aluminum bracket, on a section of the lip that is still intact. Problem is that the spring is pretty taut so it will probably be a pita.

Is the mirror electric or manual? Curious because I've only seen this issue happen on the manuals.

 

As mentioned above I'd start by trying to take it apart and see if you can find what broke and if it's repairable - or if you need to order a new/used unit.

 

Manual mirror. As you mentioned, I believe a piece may have broken off or the spring may have come out of place due to the force of the impact. What should I pay attention to when removing the mirror? Could the spring pop out?

 

The spring is already loose so you shouldn't have to worry about it popping out. There are screws inside the mirror that you have to remove to separate the two halves of the mirror housing. After that, I think you remove the screws at the bottom of the mirror to detach the rear cover. You may have to pop out the glass mirror to get to the screws inside. I would first try taking them out without mirror removal to avoid damaging it; you can probably get to them by just moving the mirror around. As far as the pivot mechanism inside, I'm working off of memory from when I had manual mirrors. I changed them to electric at one point and never had the problem again; I think because the pivot inside is made differently. If worse comes to worse you can drill some holes through the brackets and put screws in to make the mirror fixed in place or get a new mirror/aftermarket mirrors.

 

I apologize for the mistake. The mirrors are electric, but the folding feature is manual.